San Francisco Central Hotel — Hotel in San Francisco

If you take heed of one review, please let it be this one - for your own sake. I stayed in this hotel for 6 consecutive nights in July 2023 so i think it is fair to say that my experience of this place is what you can expect if you book to stay here. ||||I arrived on a Friday evening. I was travelling through California for a number of weeks on holidays and San Francisco was my last stop. On arrival there was lots of transient/homeless/addicts hanging around car park of the hotel. it appeared to be more of a motel than a hotel. The room was dark and dim and basic but it was fine. I'm used to staying in budget hotels while travelling. During my travels I do lots of full day trips/tours which require early starts. On my first night I went to bed at about 10pm as I had an early start. The person in the room above was making loads of noise. Stomping and banging around and what sounded like they were moving the furniture around the room. I waited a full hour and when the noise didnt stop I phoned to reception who contacted the room above me and the noise stopped. ||||I was awoken the following morning (about 6am) by a very clearly homeless and addicted person banging on the door of a room across from me screaming to buy more drugs from the occupant. The exchanged carried on for quite a while with the occupant stating he had no more drugs to sell but the addict not believeing/accepting this. I again rang reception and explained what was happening. They phoned the occupant of the room which resulted in a further heated exchange between the homeless/addict person and the occupant. I could clearly hear everything. Shortly after this there was an explosive verbal bust up complete with threats of violence between a man and women who were occupants of another hotel room. The windows are single pane and the walls thin so you can hear everything in other hotel rooms all around you even if you are not directly connected to them.||||I was out all saturday and came home late saturday night and went to bed and slept. I went out early on Sunday morning for the day and came back that evening about 9pm. There was a party going on in the room above me complete with loud, vibrating music and lots of people talking and laughing. I rang the receptionist (who was very unhelpful and appeared begrudged that I phoned him with a complaint). Nevertheless he said he would call the room. The noise did not cease. I phoned again 15 mins later and the receptionist did not answer. I waited another while to see if the noise would stop - it didn't, it got worse. I got dressed and went down to reception. The receptionist was so unhelpful and rude and told me come back in the morning and speak to the manager. I went back to bed and after a further 30 mins of music that was vibrating the walls i went back to reception and demanded to be moved to a different room away from the noise. He told me I was very lucky as he had 1 room left. I noted that it was not lucking to have to move rooms due to noise at nearly midnight when I have a 5am start for a tour. The new room was ground floor and right on the street. There were honeless addicts outside making noise (althiugh not as loud as the party). The wifi only worked in half of the room. I didnt get a wink of sleep and had to get up at 5am. When i turned the shower on the water was cold. Lovely - a cold shower at 5am before a full days tour. I could not speak to the manager that day as i had to leave before he started work (at 10am) and was back at the hotel long after he finished work (at 4pm). I arrived back at 9.30pm. There was a homeless guy outside the door playing music on his phone. At this point I was so frustrated I went to reception and demanded to be moved room again, away from the ground and people makkng noise. I was moved to a third floor room. I got sleep that night - hurray! ||||The following morning (Tuesday) i went to reception and spoke with the manager. I explained all of my issues with the hotel to him. He urged me to go online and look up the area of San Francisco the hotel is located and the "unique issues" this area faced. I pointed out that no where on his website (where he describes the hotel as charming and cosy) did he mention anything about homeless addicts freely congragating on the property of the hotel, drug deals going on from the rooms, cold showers, dodgy wifi and guests being allowed to have loud parties in their rooms. The manager offered to refund me 1 nights stay. I was not happy with this and said two nights would be more acceptable. However, he would not budge on this and would only refund 1 night. I accepted this as being better than nothing but was still unhappy. He later confirmed to me that he was checking the cctv and expelling the occupant who was selling drugs from the room. He also hightlighted that the hotel does not have security staff to monitor the homeless congragating on the property of the hotel and that staff can only contact the police if there are issues but he also fully acknowledged that the police rarely (if ever) respond on the day the report is made - if at all. ||||The following morning (Wednesday) I got up early again for another tour - no hot water in the new room. Once again I was out all day at back that night after the manger had finished. I was also so exhausted from the trip and from having to complain about ongoing genuine issues every day that I couldn't motivate myself to go down and complain again. I decided to watch a movie on netflix on my phone. Low and behold the wifi kept cutting in and out making the movie unwatchable due to buffering (if you are wondering why I didnt use mobile data it's because i was travelling from Ireland and the rates to use data in the USA are astronomical. I gave up and went to sleep. ||||Thursday morning (checkout day) i got up at 4am due to my flight being early. Once again, no hot shower for the 24 hours of travelling ahead to get home. When I went to reception to checkout the recpetionist knew nothing about the discount of one night that the manager had agreed to apply as the full cost was showing on his system. He advised me he would get the manager to look at this when he arrived to workbefore my card woukd be charged. ||||I left. I am now at the airport awaiting my flight. I don't ever review accomodation or restaraunts or anything but I couldn't let this one go. In summary - book this hotel if you desire the following:||||No sleep due to other guests having parties.||||Drug deals going on in neighbouring hotel rooms.||||Homeless addicts freely hanging around the grounds of the hotel and calling to neighbouring hotel rooms and making noise at all hours.||||No hot water for showers.||||VERY dodgy wifi.||||No hotel security.||||Unsympathetic hotel staff who act as if you are inconveniencing them when you have a genuine complaint.||||Single pane windows and thin walls whereby you can hear EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. ||||Also in summary I had 3 mornings of cold showers, one night of complete deprivation of sleep, another 3 nights of interrupted sleep due to noise, 3 different hotel rooms, very unreliable wifi and mostly unhelpful/unsympathetic staff. ||||Finally, most of the other people who stay at this hotel (and I do not mean to sound judgemental here) seem to people from the tenderloin (skid row) area of San Francisco who stay here when they can muster enough money to rent a room.||||Book at your peril. This is the worst hotel I have ever stayed on. Hell on earth is a generous...

Lots of homeless people on site who honestly aren’t the main issue. The outside rooms on the perimeter are exposed to the street in a way you have people reaching through the barred windows and hear their lighters as they hit their glass pipes and get high. I’ve had people reach through my window and curse me from the street leaving all kinds of miscellaneous trash and even a beer bottle as they party it up within reach and access to my room. My drapes were burnt as a man lit it with his cigarette bud. Theres no security and the manager on site is a bully and liar. We had just returned (car still running) and we were unloading our vehicle, the front desk didn’t mention a parking pass at that time of check in or when I went to retrieve my deposit but paid for a permit good through 3/29 the manager took down our license plate saying our vehicle would be towed off site if we didn’t pay additional fees for parking. I informed the manager i paid for parking and I was simply unloading my vehicle I have equipment and crates for my service animals so it takes time to set up my room although my pass was not displayed. In addition to this I was leaving taking the other parties with me to the airport and would not be here long anyway. He still put a notice on our vehicle and ignored me completely, I finished my task and left to the airport then returned with my animals to feed them and hadn’t been at my room to settle or anything for more than an hour before I heard a loud cranking outside my door. The manager only having a brief encounter with us called a towed truck as he left the property fleeing while they were attempting to take my vehicle with all my belongs attached to the roof causing other guest attention to me and my vehicle as well. This property will lie, threaten, and treat you like a criminal or trespasser bullying you into paying additional fees regardless if you’re a paid guest or not in our case our stay was an extended stay meaning it’s an additional $300 - $350 just for parking you will be charged every night which makes no sense as a guest, my vehicle was severely damaged in the process of the attempted tow because I have an anti theft lock device on it and my emergency break is engaged for safety reasons due to my experience living In the city. This place will rob you too, I overheard the manager speaking about the “renovations” and how a few rooms have been painted already which is why I assume that’s why they charge and ticket for parking for guest instead of using discretion to make extra money they will forcefully take from you.. WARNING!!! DO NOT STAY HERE!! The prices are a trap and not a true reflection of hidden fees or worth it for the service and treatment in addition to all the risk factors with people creeping around the parking lot and outside the rooms. The rooms are heavily damaged and even the basic amenities/services are not provided for a week stay we were...

Location is fantastic. Service is sketchy, ghetto & staff are greedy for money. They’ll charge you $80 more than their website quotes for the same room you see quoted on their website or a third party. If you wanna switch rooms on day of checkout, they will charge you an early check-in fee even if you already spent the prior night there. Oh, and a new deposit.

In the early hours of the morning on the day of check-out (approximately 5:00 AM), a disruptive guest created a chaotic and unsafe environment for everyone staying at the hotel. This individual pounded on room doors, pulled the fire alarm without cause, and caused widespread panic among guests. The fire alarm incident necessitated a full inspection by the fire department, who checked each room to ensure safety.

Throughout this ordeal, the hotel failed to provide proper security or staff intervention. Guests, including myself, were left to handle the situation, which should never be our responsibility. Moreover, the front desk staff offered no apology, resolution, or effort to mitigate the experience. Instead, I encountered dismissive and unprofessional behavior when I raised my concerns.

This incident significantly impacted my stay. My friend and I had to work that morning and were relying on the hotel to provide a safe and restful environment, which was not delivered. Due to the disruption, I was late to work, resulting in lost commissions. Additionally, the hotel charged me a late checkout fee, despite the chaos earlier in the morning and the fact that the property was not fully booked the following night.

Do I recommend?

As a place to party on weekends or if you’re just looking to sleep.

The number of towels in the room are based upon how many beds you have, not the number of guests each room can fit.

Ex: two beds (normally sleeps 4) would have two sets of towels, not four. One bed (sleeps 2) would have one set of towels, not two.

Keep that in mind. Don’t be surprised if your tv doesn’t work.

The hotel maids do a nice job making the place look as nice as possible, it’s just the front desk staff I...