Mirage Inn & Suites — Hotel in San Francisco

The Mirage Inn was one of those places we booked specifically because of the price. A few days into our 3 week trip in America, we noticed this to be the only location that not only pre-charged our card, they overcharged us $115USD more than the advertised price through our choice of booking agency.

A few weeks later we arrived late at night to the Mirage Inn. The garage was ridiculously tight and could barely fit our SUV in. Given the number of rooms here, the garage would not be able to accommodate all guests. We made the decision that we would UBER the next day to ensure we would not lose our parking spot.

There is no elevators in the facility and the hallways are narrow, so I'd advise people with disabilities to avoid this place.

We dragged our bags up a narrow staircase and approached the disinterested front counter clerk to check in. Barely speaking a word, he printed out forms for us to sign. We immediately noticed that the room was $115USD more than we agreed to when booking, which explained the extra charge on our card. We immediately informed the clueless individual that this is not what we agreed to, showed the price and receipt to what we had booked under and outright told them that we will be pursuing the extra money they had charged us. Frustrated after 20 minutes of arguing, we said we would deal with it in the morning.

The floors in this place are disgusting, riddled with stains that have either been poorly cleaned or not cleaned at all. The facilities themselves looked heavily worn and dated. I made the decision to take photos of our facility (attached) on arrival to ensure they did not charge us any cleaning fees or damage fees as they give the vibe of charging customers at will. Our room was odd, the main area was disgusting but the bathroom (which had obviously been renovated) was visually nice. Too bad they they are obviously not being cleaned well as there is already mold and soap scum build up in the showers and the water was barely lukewarm at its hottest and had no pressure whatsoever. The bed was poor compared to other similar rated facilities on our adventure and we found ourselves with incredibly itchy skin and welts from sleeping in it, a reaction we have never had from any other stay.

In the morning my wife went out to approach the manager about refunding our extra charge. My wife returned to the room in tears and I spent a good portion of the morning consoling her. As she retells, the manager immediately became furious at her, yelling that she will pay it, his prices are never that low and it was not his problem before slamming the window and yelling at someone else on the phone. It was only through my wifes wishes that I did not confront the manager myself. Lucky him.

After consoling my wife, we then went to the "breakfast bar", which is honestly a joke, it shouldn't be listed on the Inn as "free breakfast available". Stale bread for toasting, watered down juice and coffee that did not resemble coffee at all. We made the decision then and there that we would avoid this place as much as we could for our short stay in San Fran, only returning late at night to sleep. We packed our things at daybreak and left, the stay here being the 2nd worst experience of our USA vacation.

The next few days were discussions with our booking agency of choice to receive our money back. To our surprise, the manager had informed them that we forgave the mistake and had accepted the extra charge. We were furious. We actively took time out of our vacation to pursue our refund, eventually securing it.

While the booking agency has apologised, we have received nothing of the sort from the Mirage Inn. They seem to only respond with copy pasted responses so that's what I expect I'll get to this, if anything.

In the end, we hope this experience will help others avoid this awful facility, management and staff. I know I can't give lower than 1 star, but that'll just be for my shock on the difference in quality between the bathroom and room.

DO...

The absolute WORST customer service on the face of the planet! If you have any questions be prepared to basically be yelled at for asking. Also, be sure that you do not have any issues when paying because you'll be told that if your method of payment isn't "simple" it can't be done. I booked a room for a friend and called to make sure everything was fine and was yelled at saying I need to change the name on the reservation through "whatever site I used to book the reservation." After I asked for clarity, the front desk person realized that I made the reservation through their very own site. They never even asked me how I booked the room, nor did they properly check the reservation before yelling at me and snottily explained to me that they don't get paid for reservations made through other sites so I need to deal with "them." I got a short apology but the yelling on the phone continued. Then there was an issue with my card going through so I used another card just so that the room can be issued. Sorted out the original card issue (forgot to activate my new card) and called back to use the preferred card (which was the original card used to make the reservation. literally no more than 15 mins later). Got yelled at by the new front desk person who admitted that they didn't know how to trade out the card. Again, a soliloquy about who was being charged what for this and that and an emphatic "NO I cannot" was exclaimed my way with a dash of "this isn't my hotel" which I think meant they didn't have the know how to deal with this situation. It was an unbelievably shockingly rude experience. They go from 0 to 100 in a flash. I've had to deal with these kinds of payment situations at other hotels and it's never been a problem. But it was a huge problem here. Wow. I've always wondered what this hotel was like and now I know. Stay here at your own mental health risk. Very unprofessional, unhelpful, rude and...

This hotel had many pro’s and con’s to it. Basically you get what you pay for with this stay. Pro’s are, it was a beautiful room. Very modern. Right across the street from the zoo. Ocean is a short 5 minute walk away. Bathtub is very nice if you’d like to take a bath. The corner store next door is very convenient & the owner of the store is very nice! If you have ever stayed in San Fransisco you know how hard finding parking is, so I really loved that this place had on site parking! Con’s are the reasons I won’t stay again. The bed is AWFUL. The mattress is the hardest mattress I have ever slept on. And the pillows have no comfort ness to them at all. The room we were placed in had the window right by the entrance so if we wanted the window open everyone could see us and we could hear everybody coming and going. Which I understand that someone has to be in that room, so that isn’t a big deal. Water pressure is low. The shower head is one of the rain ones. So there isn’t much pressure. The towels. The towels made me the most upset. You are given two body towels, two wash cloths, and two hand towels. I use 2 towels when I shower; one for hair, one for body. So I asked for a third towel, because my fiancé needed his own towel. They refused. Said that each room is only allowed two towels, so if we want another one we need to swap it out. Breakfast was closed due to Covid. Again; not a big deal because there is a breakfast place next door and a convenience store on the corner. Office staff was nothing special. Not rude, not nice either. Kind of gives off the vibe that you are bothering them when you check in. Barely ever actually at the window. Outside is not pretty, at all. Carpets throughout the hallways and such are stained and old, but inside the room is all wood laminate so that’s not a big deal. Hope this review...