The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco — Hotel in San Francisco

The RC is a lovely, very comfortable hotel that does not have the offerings or amenities of a true 5-star hotel or other RC properties. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but please let my review help you clarify what you're looking for. Here is a slew of notes—some positive, some not—to help you out:||-The RC uses full duvet covers! No triple sheeting that leaves the duvet exposed. That is so rare in the US these days, even at fine hotels, that it's worth it almost for this alone.|-Diptyque toiletries are excellent, but RC chose a weak scent (Philosykos) that doesn't really do much.|-The shower curtain was beginning to yellow, and reminded me of what you'd find in a Holiday Inn Express|-Art in rooms and common areas is very mid|-Weak water pressure and hot water is a struggle. No hand shower.|-Thin towels and robes (for outstanding bath linens go to the Taj)|-Improperly furnished rooms means the dresser is cluttered with gross upsell minibar items|-Strange furniture finishes and decor choices, and the room feels like a very, very nice Marriott and not the RC|-Turndown service is automatic, but doesn't comprise much. Water by the bed is the same that was there already, small chocolates, no slippers on linen. None of these things is necessary, but they are all signals that you're staying at a hotel where the staff is aware.|-Grotesquely overpriced F&B. I know this is a huge part of a hotel's margin, but holy moly this is above and beyond. I felt embarrassed somehow. The Amex FHR breakfast credit is $87. It's just incomprehensible.|-Cost aside, literally the best scrambled eggs I've ever had (except my mom's).|-The breakfast restaurant is a dark hovel that feels like a Hyatt—strange decor that makes the no-taste convention crowd golf types feel hip, and sports on TV. Nothing airy and bright about it at all. I felt pretty glum sitting in there. A hotel breakfast should be a celebration of the morning! Flowers, fabrics, textures, coffee in silver pots, light|-Weak coffee (crying), although I requested strong coffee for room service breakfast on my second morning and it was delicious.|-Jorge at the front desk was great: he worked with me to find the right room after the first one smelled of stale men and the second felt like it was down in the basement|-Hallways are dark, somewhat dreary. The carpet pattern is designed in such a way that it looks scuffed and caked in dirt. Elevator lobbies have strange furniture that feels rather bland.|-There is no full dining restaurant, just the lobby bar. It's a nice space, but since it's multipurpose there are people working on laptops, and bright TVs playing sports, and the bar has a gauche red light on the front of it—altogether these things are more indicative of an airport Hilton|-I did not try the Club because I was greatly skeptical that it would meet expectations, and from what I experienced in the rest of the hotel I'm glad I saved the money.|-Check-in conversations were loud, and everybody could hear everyone else's business. Now that RC is part of Marriott there's all this extra stuff about status and various credits|-The rooms have chaise sofas, which is such a good choice! Well done!|-Absolutely outstanding Caesar dressing||While investment is needed to overhaul some aspects of the hotel, there is much to work with, and the best feature of this property is that it isn't ostentatious and showy. It is understated and classic, in the tradition of the Ritz-Carlton, and not trying to be a slicked-up hyper-luxury location. That was my favorite part. It felt old-school, like the RC was in the 90s, when our family stayed at the Detroit hotel with traditional, but attentive hospitality. This location feels similar.||My advice to the hotel is: the hotel needs a renovation, but it should be done in keeping with the neoclassical bones of the hotel. A great example of how to do this well—including how to handle the unavoidable constraint of tiny bathrooms luxuriously—is the Hotel Bristol in Warsaw. Replace fourth floor guest rooms with a full service restaurant. Brighten the breakfast room and soften it. Bright colors, but not too much: balance, taste. Combine television and coffee into a new, single unit that takes advantage of the wall space. Change Diptyque scents (not sure how much leeway individual properties have here). Remove the the gift shop and expand reception to include individual desks that have more privacy and are out of the way of the main circulation. Embrace the smaller-feeling, traditional vibe of this property, and use in-room amenities and service to complement. When corporate wants to build a new location in SF in some BS glass tower, send them to me and I'll talk them straight.||TIPS:|-Get a courtyard-facing room unless the outward view is worth it. The street noise is intense.|-Avoid a room on the 4th floor. You will have to go through a...

I had very high expectations and don’t feel like it lived up to its name.

The service was excellent, definitely five stars or more - every person addressed me by name from the housekeeper to room service server to bell hop, and each one went above and beyond. Nothing compares to the quality of service from the staff.

The building is just gorgeous - all the glitz and glam from the outside (it almost looked like a church, rimmed with renaissance-style sculptures) to the splendid inside. Gorgeous lobby with restaurant, a wine tasting room, and a small perfumery. The perfume shop Krigler was a standout - such friendly staff and I treated myself to an item.

However, the room was a bit underwhelming. It was beautifully styled with great decor, but there were minor let downs and lack of the attention to details that I expect from 5-stars. For example, the shower curtain was almost 2 feet too short for the shower, really poorly designed and leaked a lot of water. To make matters worse, it had pink mildew/bacteria on the edges - I’m shocked they didn’t change it. The gowns were thin and rough, not soft and luxe like other 5-star hotels I’ve stayed at. The hangers didn’t have ridges so things kept falling off. Not a lot of counterspace in the bathroom, I barely had room to lay out my toiletries. The room was a bit small and the windows didn’t open - need to call housekeeping just to open the windows and come back to close them. One of the windows was sealed with peeling black duct tape - definitely didn’t expect that type of haphazard makeshift cover up at the Ritz! No full length mirror in the entire room - the only one had a shelf in the middle cutting off the view. There was only 1 USB port and 1 outlet on each bedside - not enough for someone with multiple devices. I asked for a fridge and it was great that they brought one, but it was in bad condition with scratches all outside, like what you’d expect at a 3 star hotel.

The food from room service/the restaurant was also underwhelming. The burrata was bland and lacking both salt & pepper, while the bread was burnt and bitter. The charred broccolini was delicious, perfectly balanced acidity, salt, and chili. However, it was deep fried and soaked in oil, which the menu failed to mention and really should have - I was expecting a healthy vegetable side based on the description and got something that was the opposite. This is nit picky but the food was brought out on a very run down tray that was chipped and peeling everywhere.

Finally, they charged extra for wifi which is just ridiculous. A hotel like this doesn’t need to be pinching pennies and should include it in the room rate. I had to share my Bonvoy status to get the charge removed.

Overall, it is obviously an excellent hotel but I’ve stayed at better ones for the same or lower price. If service is important to you it can’t be beat, but if room functionality is more important there may be better options. I was coming from the Conrad Downtown in New York which in my opinion was leagues above this - I value a well set up and functional room more than staff...

I travel a lot and stay most often only in 5 star hotels. Booking the Ritz San Francisco was a big mistake. This hotel is good only for its name, which it does not match. The hotel is very old and uncomfortable. The staff is not honest. We wanted to leave immediately, we really didn’t like it, we were promised that they would cancel without payment, but they didn’t keep their word and we had to stay, having spent two hours on negotiations.

The hotel does not have a city view as described on the website. Only the club rooms at the very top have any acceptable view not of the wall.

The rooms are smoky, although they claim that the hotel is non-smoking.

There is no ventilation in the bathrooms. Only by turning on the warm water - the whole bathroom is in steam and it is impossible to breathe.

The room itself is very damp, the windows are so misted all the time that you can't see anything. In the same weather conditions, we stayed in other hotels - but there was no such thing. Even on the same day we went to another hotel with friends and everything was fine there. In the morning we woke up absolutely wet, the bed and the whole room were damp.

The air conditioning system is very old. The air conditioning is so loud that it feels like you are at a construction site.

The water in the bathroom drains forever to become hot, you have to wait a long time. And the worst part is the shower. The shower just sprays water like a spray. Impossible to wash well. The bathroom is very low, does not correspond to the status of the hotel. And one more thing - this redneck warning in the bathroom that you can’t take away shampoos otherwise we will be charged an extra $ 50 - what is this all about? They don't have disposable shampoo jars?! Is this the 5th run???

There is no pool or jacuzzi. That's what we were told at the front desk. How can a hotel be 5 star without a pool? As far as I know, according to international certification, this is impossible.

Another disappointment is the breakfast. We went downstairs in the hope that there was a buffet, we would spend no more than half an hour on breakfast and go about our business. But it turned out that breakfast is only on the menu. If we knew this in advance, we would have ordered in the room. Well, we made an order and waited 40 minutes!!! We were already late everywhere and we had no choice but to get up and leave hungry.

After all this torment, we managed to cancel the second night and we moved to another hotel.

It should be noted that when we chose a hotel in San Francisco - this hotel was the most expensive of all. But it turned out to be the worst. We have already visited four hotels on the 5th arrival in San Francisco and we can say with confidence that The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco is the worst, never choose it.

We stayed on New Year's Eve and it should be noted that this hotel...