Nice little old hotel in the heart of San Francisco! Overall, awesome location, good room, nice staff, and a peaceful sleep.
Keep in mind that this is an *old, historic* hotel, not a Hilton/Marriott/Hyatt, so if you were wanting a large, new, fancy hotel with continental breakfast etc, this isn't it. HOWEVER, if you're looking for a clean, cozy place to just sleep, this is the perfect place :)
The guy who helped us with check in (can't remember his name) was really nice, helpful, friendly, and professional :)
***When you arrive to check in, I highly recommend double checking with the person at the desk on what their system says your check out day & time is. Apparently when Airbnb's system transfers the reservation info into the hotel's system, it doesn't always transfer correctly--their system had us down for check out a day early and the hotel desk guy called & messaged me to check. I let him know that it was the next day & sent a screenshot of the reservation in the Airbnb app, and he said no problem, he could fix it & we were good. (Thanks again!)
The hallways and stairwell had some cigarette & pot smells, BUT--the room itself was odor-free, and nice & clean. The bed was comfy, and the room had nice new furniture. There is a small heating element, but there is no A/C, so if you need air blowing on you, you could bring a small fan or get one from the nearby Target. The room temp was fine for me mostly without the blanket, and this was end of August.
I saw the reviews that mentioned about noise at night, but we didn't have any street noise at all--maybe being on the 3rd floor and farther back from the front of the hotel made the difference, or we just happened to be there on quiet nights. I do agree that the walls are thinner, but not too bad.
The hotel has turn key doors, and an old style elevator! Like the other reviews say, definitely try it at least once! You just have to hold the buttons for a couple seconds to activate them, both for calling the elevator, and for selecting your floor inside the elevator.
There are at least a couple lounge/office areas--one on the ground floor, one along the stairwell in between the 2nd & 3rd floors, and possibly another farther up the stairs (there are 5 floors). There's also a laundry room attached to the ground floor lounge if you need it.
It's in a good area of the city, not sketchy (it's basically right next to the financial district & a block from Union Square). It's also only a block from the south entrance of Chinatown, and a couple blocks east of Powell, the street the old cable cars/trolleys run on! (Note about the trolleys: if you try waiting at a corner and it passes you a couple times, you'll be better off walking down Powell to the turntable/first stop at Market, cuz then you'll be guaranteed to get on the trolley. Definitely use the trolley to get to/from Fisherman's Wharf!)
The hotel is just a few blocks from the Montgomery train station (coming from OAK) & the Powell station (coming from SFO). Oracle Park is about a mile/20 minute walk. Plenty of good restaurants within walking distance!