Hyatt Regency San Francisco Downtown SOMA — Hotel in San Francisco

Hyatt hotels continue to be a crap shoot - Comfortable Rooms, Disappointing ServiceMy stay at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Downtown presented a stark contrast between the quality of the accommodations and the overall guest experience. While the hotel offers nicely decorated, clean, and functional rooms, along with a well-equipped gym, several service-related issues detracted from my stay.The check-in process was the first indication of trouble. Despite two agents being present, only one was actively assisting guests, while the other remained on a lengthy phone call. This resulted in a considerable wait, with little acknowledgment or concern shown for all of us in line.

As a Globalist member, I was entitled to a room upgrade, but this was not offered, even though it appeared that higher-category rooms were available online. Not that big a deal for me as I was alone, but the soundproofing in my assigned room was pretty bad, allowing me to clearly hear conversations from the neighboring room.

During my stay, the elevators had issues. Two of them malfunctioned intermittently, causing selected floor numbers to disappear and requiring passengers to repeatedly re-select their destinations. I reported this issue to the front desk, but it was not resolved during my visit.

The Club Lounge was disappointing. While coffee was available, the lounge offered no breakfast service, and the evening offerings were limited to a meager selection of a pork sandwich and cheese pizza. Another guest I spoke with at breakfast had a similar impression, describing the lounge as "pointless."

The most frustrating issue involved the breakfast vouchers. The front desk agent had incorrectly identified the vouchers as being for the "Market" when they were actually for breakfast. This is an unusual arrangement for a Hyatt Globalist member, where the breakfast is generally handled by the staff and not via a voucher. When paying my bill I was informed by the waitstaff that I needed this voucher. I mentioned that I was told this was for the Market and this was unusual, but not a huge problem. However I was told they they could not help me with this and I would have to go to the front desk. This meant joining a long queue of 16 (photo) people at the front desk, which was staffed by only one agent. My request for assistance from the restaurant manager was denied, but he eventually found some type of hotel manager. But when I spoke with this manager he seemed dismissive of the issue, attributing the long lines to a convention and wasn't really concerned that I had to leave the restaurant and hope in this line. I said at the very least you could add another desk agent. I said that I could go back to my room for these magical vouchers, but with a deep sigh, the manager said he would handle it. Oh thank you so much, I know this must really put you out.

In light of these numerous issues, including the slow check-in, lack of room upgrade, soundproofing problems, malfunctioning elevators, inadequate Club Lounge, and the breakfast voucher debacle (in addition the app for room service didn't work) I ultimately decided to check out of the hotel early. While the rooms themselves are comfortable, the significant failings in service and amenities make it difficult to recommend this hotel, particularly for guests with any expectations of benefits from their loyalty program status. It takes 60 nights per year at Hyatt to become a Globalist, but if these are the benefits, what’s the...

Great location, super team…remembered us from earlier visits…, best Hyatt breakfast in SF, and more!

This hotel has continued to get even better and is quickly becoming one of our favorite places to stay in the city!

Piotr gave us Four Seasons level treatment from the start to the end of our recent stay!!!

One big sign that things went well…we extended our stay!

The property and staff will be included in the reasons I will continue to work hard to earn points and retain Globalist status as long as I’m able! As should you!

This property is a former Westin. It is lovely and getting better with each visit. That said, it is NOT to be confused with the OG Hyatt Regency that has been in town, along the Embarcadero, since the 70's.

While we love the Embarcadero Regency, as well as the Grand Hyatt, they are all quite different. Each has it's own special attributes.

The Embarcadero property can be a bit too vast to connect with the staff, while this property is more intimate.

This is a very nice property and the location has lots of nearby delights.

The remodel left it with very clean, stlylish & comfortable rooms.

The lounge is now open and lovely. Roomy (see photos), comfortable, well stocked with snacks and drinks, with that clean, shiny and new vibe in tact. Despite being in the heart of a noisy city, the lounge is quiet as it's along the back of the property. Espresso machine, sodas, fruit, yogurt, candy and more, 24X7.

The restaurant’s breakfast buffet is included with lounge access. You could likely escape into the lounge with your breakfast, but we ate in the restaurant every day, with wait staff bringing refills as needed.

The breakfast has a great variety of quality, healthy and delicious dishes, with some variety from one day to the next, making a multiple-day stay’s breakfasts more fun and enticing.

Unlike many Hyatt club lounges, here you get a great breakfast. That's likely in part because they need to make it tempting even to those paying for meals, which up’s the quality over the typical tray of scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoes, etc.(boring and often tasteless), offered in far too many lounges. Best bacon!

The evening lounge offerings still have room for improvement in terms of variety and heartiness, but everything was delicious. The same flambé (pizza), lunch meat and cheese are on offer at breakfast are pretty much all that shows up in the evening. The flambé flavors may change between breakfast and the evening, but it’s still a bit redundant and the toppings are light and not filling.

There didn't seem to be many people in the lounge in the evening, so perhaps demand has led to the limited offerings. Of course if it were heartier, people would stay. Again, tasty, but very limited and redundant. Luckily there are tons of great restaurants within a short walk.

The hotel’s restaurant closed since our last visit.

The staff are very nice, professional, helpful and knowledgeable.

VERY convenient--near, but not ON Market. Central to the city--you can walk in any direction and find something interesting to see, do or eat.

The lounge diverts from the typical Hyatt lounge alcohol offerings of room temperature Canvas wines. {Mr. Mondavi, your grandma knows why people don’t have a second glass!}

There's a fridge full of options.

There’s a small market, but the prices have gone up since our last visit…like so...

Enjoyed my stay the first time, so we came back again, asa couple's getaway. I really like the aesthetic of the hotel- very clean and plush. Most of the staff is very professional and freindly. The views on the higher floors are incredible and worth the extra money spent. The first time, I had a view looking down on the church. It looked like somewhere Batman would hang out, and flocks of pigeons flowing around in groups during the day are incredibly dramatic. The second stay, we had a view looking up several miles of third street- with a simply breathtaking skyline- it was majestic. Drinks in the bar with an experienced and freindly bartender were made perfectly and were memorable.

The damper on our getaway vacation was, they sold our reserved room. We had booked well in advance, a room with a king bed, and when we arrived they said there was only one room available- with two queen beds. This actually caused a problem, because we sleep with some room between us, because of body-heat issues, and both woke up sweating to death in the middle of the night. We had the temperature low and chilly, in the room. Also, not enough room to toss and turn without disturbing the other. One night we actually had to sleep in seperate beds- this was very irritating- if you reserve something, you expect it to be reserved. We were comped a breakfast at the restaurant- which is very nice (approximately $50 per seat). Although it is expensive, it is worth it if you are very hungry and expect to eat a lot of the eggs and sausage and other delicious spread. We were offered to (possibly) switch rooms the next day, but did not because the view from the room we had was spectactular. We just dealt with it. Sadly, the window with the beautiful view was very dirty, and this was very apparent during the day, especially taking pictures through it- but luckily at night it was hardly noticeable.

And then, we discovered there was some business conference going on- the other guests, for this function were generally pretentious and obnoxious- loud phone conversations in the crowded elevator and people who were self-important for wearing a suit. Sometimes the elevator smelled strongly of sweat, and a friend was unable to sleep with a room by the elevator- they are loud. There is very limited room service- you can order a few types of cooked food from the expensive market downstairs- but since it is directly off the elevator at the ground floor, it hardly makes sense to do so. You do get a $15 voucher for the market, at check-in. Bottles of water cost $5.

Selling the room we had reserved is not good business, but other than that it was a nice stay. I was told this happens, fairly often. I appreciate *most of the staff who offered comps and were very ammenable, but this time a very select *few of the staff were gruff and not pleasant to deal with. We would stay again, but next time would prefer a time when floors of the hotel are not booked for business gatherings, which seemed at the root of most of our problems. Overall, we had a great time, but with some...