Stanford Court San Francisco — Hotel in San Francisco

Edit/update (Jan 15): The hotel got in touch with me, apologized for the poor service, experience and the confusion, and provided a satisfactory resolution. I suspect staff being on vacation over the holiday period contributed to the experience I had.

Edit/update (Jan 2): Still no refund on credit card statement, no reply to my email from 8 days ago, no call back from the "director" who said would be calling me 5 days ago. No text, voice message, nothing. I will try calling to chase one last time today and give it to the end of the day for the refund to appear, otherwise I will post on every other review site I can find. This is an example of horrific customer service.

Terrible customer service booking experience, don’t return calls or emails - be careful

I made a reservation on Dec 18 to start Jan 7 through Jan 13.

Two days later (Dec 20) I called the hotel to cancel the reservation because my travel dates changed. In the booking email I received the policy stated: “Cancellations & modifications made up to 24 hours prior to the day of arrival are fully refundable.” The reservations team said I had made a prepaid non-refundable booking but that they would transfer me to the front desk to see if they would make an exception. The person at the front desk explained that my booking was over a specific event week and that's why the policy is different but that he would refund my credit card and I’d then get an email confirming the refund.

5 days later (Dec 25) I had not yet received the refund on my credit card so I emailed them asking when I’d get it. I still haven’t received a reply to that email (it’s Dec 29 today).

3 days later (Dec 28) I called to chase the refund. By this point I had cancelled all other parts of the trip (flight, car etc). The reservations team said that the reservation had not been refunded and needed to transfer me to the front desk. The call cut out when they transferred me so I called back. This time the transfer worked but the person had to put me on hold and the call cut out again! I called back a third time and this time the person told me that the reservation was still active and not refunded and they didn’t know what had happened. They said that the hotel director needed to look at this and the director had popped out but would call me back shortly. I confirmed they would definitely call me back by the end of the day.

It’s now the day after (Dec 29) and I have not received that call from the director, no emails, voice messages or texts from anyone.

I don’t have the time to keep chasing this so I’ll report it to my credit card company. The communication has been terrible.

The unfortunate thing is that I travel twice a week to SF for business usually staying at the Ritz a block away but wanted to see if I could find a different regular place to stay but given the terrible communication and pain it's been to get them to process the refund I am going...

I booked this hotel last minute because our apartment needed some construction work that meant we couldn't stay there overnight. I requested a room with a desk and asked if it was at all possible to check in early (1-2 hours before the 4pm check in time) since we'd need to work from the room. I got a reply acknowledging the request for a desk, but saying that there was a $50 fee to check-in early. This was a big surprise from a four star hotel. Usually if the room is ready, they let you in.

Then the construction workers canceled on us the day they were supposed to arrive, so I reached out to the hotel asking if it was at all possible to waive the cancellation fee. I never got a response. I would have understood if they said no (not their fault the construction company was flaky) but no response at all is unprofessional.

Since we had to pay either way, we decided just to spend the night there instead of waste it. We checked in at 6pm, well after the official check-in time and got up to our room to find there was no desk, despite the confirmation of that request. The room was nice enough and we no longer needed to work there the next day so it was fine. However, the carpet between the room and the bathroom was frayed and lifting, with several small nails pointing straight up from the floor. I caught my foot on it twice, painfully, and I called the front desk about it. They sent a maintenance guy who did a repair, but that's some very poor quality room upkeep at a four star hotel.

When we checked out, they tried to charge me for the early check-in fee, even though we hadn't arrived early, and I got a rude "I don't believe you" face from the British receptionist when I pushed back. Not only did I get the attitude about the extra fee, but they also charged full price for the room, even though I'd stepped on a NAIL thanks to their shoddy maintenance.

All in all, this is absolutely not a four star hotel. There are several other, much nicer, hotels nearby that have friendly, attentive customer service and well kept rooms where you don't risk needing a tetanus shot.

I do want to mention a few bright spots though: -The man at the front desk when we checked in was extremely friendly and efficient. -The food and drinks at the bar were good and very well priced (considering this is San Francisco), and the bartender was friendly and knowledgeable. -We had a really nice view overlooking downtown SF, even though it was only the 3rd floor (thanks to...

The "high speed wifi" that was advertised for my stay was absolutely terrible. I was unable to download apps I needed for my stay and other documents. The windows in my room were horrendous, initially I thought somebody forgot to make sure they were closed where in fact, they were just terrible insulated. When the President was across the street, we could hear the radio's of the Policemen on the street. I used the earplugs provided, but that doesn't fully block our the sirens at night as you feel like you are standing on street level and they are going by you. Additionally, the hotel was not build well in the sense that I could hear the other rooms around me if people were laughing or stomping around. More than the average hotel. But by far the most inconvenient thing was the terrible elevators. Only 2 of the 3 were operating but all 3 are clearly broken. The middle elevator when you press down from your floor, get in it will take you up to the top floor, then back down. You could tell there was vinyl planks installed incorrectly as they scrunched under your feet. The right one was the opposite issue. When we got in and pressed our floor, it would take us all the way to the top and we had to ride it back down to the level. Due to these terribly acting elevators, I waited on my floor for 15 minutes before having to take the stairs because they would not clear with people and I was late to my conference and I missed the over price breakfast that day. Significant price gouging to pay $3.00 for a piece of fruit. FInally, we got locked out of our room on the day of check out before 12pm which caused chaos downstairs and us to lose our last bit of time to tour the city. Despite the many many faults, carelessness and cut corners that the hotel has made, the staff was amazing! A fantastic man checked us in, he as well as the men standing at the door gave fantastic recommendations for food around the area. He gave us great advice about the transit system as well as parts of town that were fairly safe for tourists. Ultimately, I would not recommend staying at Stanford Court to anyone, I would tell them it would be worth the price to stay somewhere else. I plan on returning to San Francisco, but not to...