Villa Florence Hotel — Hotel in San Francisco

Villa Florence is a hotel full of character and certainly one that draws upon the modern and esoteric elements of the city of San Francisco. From the larger-than-life ostrich poised in front of a tangerine quilted backdrop to The excellent handmade cocktails cert every night during happy hour from 5 to 6 PM in the lobby bar, there are little touches hear that could make this hotel great.

The rooms are a decent size given the very central location and price points for the hotel. We had a twin room which comfortably since two double beds; there is also a separate built-in wardrobe that also stores a very large suitcase. The bathroom is indeed very small but Squeezin a full-size both type as well as a shower, toilet and sink. It is certainly a bathroom the only allows for one person at a time.

The room is warm, the Wi-Fi is first, the TV is large and perfectly functional and there is a well-stocked minibar available. The lighting in our room was largely artificial as the windows have French shutters that restrict the light and, in any event, the room only faced onto a wall of other rooms in the hotel. If you enjoy natural light that you may want to ask for a room that specifically looks out onto the street if this is available. I sense that originally this is somewhat of an older hotel as the rooms are not exactly soundproof; I could hear each time someone above me was moving as well as people walking up and down the corridor in front of the room. If you are a light sleeper this is something that you want to take into consideration when staying here.

At the time of this review, TripAdvisor does not mention that there is a fitness centre or gym here. Indeed there is one available on the second floor which is a decent size and thoughtfully equipped. I have certainly been to worse gyms in larger hotels with fancier brand names.

The location speaks for itself. Union Square is surrounded by some of the best shopping in San Francisco and you are within striking distance of Chinatown, market Street, SOMA and of course the BART. There is also a handy Walgreens moments from the hotel that also stocks decent breakfast items and snacks.

The staff there are quite friendly and more than happy to help out and ensure that you have a great experience. This was evident from the check in with the chatty reception who was keen to let us know what was in the area. The bartender in the evenings certainly holds his own chatting with everyone at the bar while making drinks.

When I come back here and stay again? The hotel has a lot to offer and given the relatively modest price points for the location, it is indeed hard to beat. The reception told us that at the time of checking in and therefore at the time of this review, the hotel have just taken on a new management within the last week. To that end, if the new management can make adjustments to modernise elements of the hotel (including some soundproofing) whilst retaining the idiosyncrasies, the service quality and price point: this hotel would be an...

When I arrived at Villa Florence I gave them my debit card, and asked them to pay my stay entirely upfront. They agreed and ran the transaction. After a week (of my 2 weeks stay) I find out that my debit card is out of credit and I can't understand why, I find on my bank website that the hotel took 3900 dollars without any apparent reason.

When I ask them why, they say that it was because when I arrived they simply "blocked" the total amount of my stay, and then they withdrawn the money needed to cover the costs up until that day. Obviously this wasn't expected, but I just let it go. After few days, other 3000 dollars are marked as "blocked" on my debit card, when I ask them about it, they say the system accidentally blocked this amount, after a day I manage to get a letter from them to forward to my bank to get this amount released, this without any kind of apology.

The morning I go to checkout, I find out they blocked other 2000 dollars from my debit card! They couldn't explain the reason, after a whole day of back and forth with their accounting department they just let me leave the hotel without settling my stay's fees. They also said that the blocked amounts were released on their hand and that in few days I would have got the money back on my card. After few days I see a new transaction on my card of the amount of what I still owed them, but my bank says that the blocked amounts are still blocked, and that I will have to wait 2 weeks for the authorization to expire to see my money back...

So, to stay 2 weeks in this hotel, for a cost of 5.000 dollars, I had to charge my debit card with almost 15.000 dollars, and I'm now still waiting for my money to get back on my debit card. They didn't apologize, didn't offer me a coffee to apologize, or anything at all. It was everything completely normal to them!

Now, moving to the real hotel review... This place is marketed as "recently completely restructured", actually they just replaced the lifts that were broken, and probably change the wallpaper. The rest of the hotel is still very old, it smells badly, the wood on the windows and on the frames of the walls is swollen and painted over and over.

My "king bedroom" was quite small and very loud, because the walls are made out of paper and the street (at the 7th floor) is still loud. The pre 1st world war windows for sure don't help. The furnitures are very old, the power sockets on the two bedside tables didn't work. There wasn't a single lamp that wasn't half broken.

The air conditioner is window mounted, so, very loud. I had to turn it off to sleep.

The hall of the hotel is completely allocated as restaurant, so there's not even a single chair you can sit on while waiting for something. You must stay in your room.

I must say that I had a better time in some 2 stars hotels in Union Square compared to this supposedly "4 star" hotel.

Please, just read the bad reviews about this hotel on this website to get confirmations about what I just said. Go...

Literally the worst experience I’ve ever had. Just walked out after checking out earlier than planned bc I never had a moments peace. I was attempting to give myself a treat with an evening at a hotel in the city and when I arrived at 4 I was checked in and by 5 another person had been mistakenly checked into my room and walked in while I was changing. Thank god I had not left yet and left my things in the room alone for them to peruse!

When I called down to reception to let them know what happened, I was put on hold for at least 10 min while they were checking in other guests. They offered a free breakfast as compensation, which I accepted thinking that would be the only hiccup of my very short stay. Not the case.

When I walked into the bathroom to shower I noticed there were active mold blooms around the windows, so I packed up and went down to the front desk to ask for another room. She switched me into a smaller room away from the street (the latter part was nice). But then whoever was in the room next to me was in some sort of wrestling match til about midnight. I wasn’t going to complain about this, but I want to paint the whole picture at this point.

So when I wake up the next morning and come downstairs to collect my free breakfast, I didn’t have a coupon for it (bc they had likely slipped it under the door of my original moldy room after I left) and they wouldn’t honor it. Even when I spelled out all the things that happened they wouldn’t choose to just give me the free breakfast, which has to be a total cost of maybe 10$ to them for my hardship. I then told them I would be checking out immediately and went upstairs to pack up. When I came back down I attempted one more time to explain my situation and ask for some sort of compensation, but they did literally nothing but say sorry and silently stare at me.

I feel much better after reading the rest of the bad reviews. Take them to heart. I could see how you could come here and have it be a great stay, but I have also experienced first hand coming here and having the worst hotel experience I...