Fairmont San Francisco

I was quoted on the phone that parking would be $27.00 per night, but it was actually $57.00 per night.There was NO soap in the bathroom at all, at the sink or in the shower. I called for service and a man delivered ONE small bar. Had to go into shower to get soap, or out of shower. One phone did not work.No coffee in room.[...] I will never pay for a stay with Fairmont again. I had heard such positive comments about it so I thought putting out the extra money would be justified, my mistake. I am SURE regular customers that book with regular agencies get much better service.

We have stayed at the Fairmont in Seattle before andhad a wonderful experience. We can't say the same for this Fairmont. At check in, no one bothered to tell us thay had given away our reservation for a queen size bed. Instead they just sent us to our room and hoped we couldn't tell the difference. When we called down to the front desk they told us they were sold out for that night but the following night they would move us into a queen bed room. The front desk person told us to bring our luggage down with us the next morning and they would see that it was put in to our new room. When we returned to the hotel the next afternoon to get ready for our dinner reservations, we asked if our luggage was in our room and we were assured that it was. We got to our room and our luggage was not there. I went down to the desk to ask where it was and was informed that we should not have brought it down that morning and that they were not sure where it was. The man from the bell desk was very rude and it took about 25 minutes to finally locate our luggage, making us late for our dinner reservation. To top it all off, the heater in the new room would not turn off, making it almost unbearably hot in our room - it was a very hot weekeknd in San Francisco while we were there. As we were checking out, we informed the staff about everything that had happened and were offered no apology or anything. This was not what we expected from a hotel like the Fairmont.

The hotel is just so so. Sone hotel staffs were neither patient nor polite. I was disappointed.

No in-room coffee. Bed was very soft. Room was small, but typical for older hotel. Internet was $14 extra per day!

I've stayed at the Fairmont a few times and this experience was quite unfortunate. The room was very, very small, and I had to listen to the guy next door snoring through the paper-thin walls for the entire evening. The lobby is gorgeous (but insanely crowded), but the noise really made for a less than pleasant stay.

The hotel is beautiful and historic; public areas are elegant, and the view from our room was spectacular. Efficiency and friendliness of staff was hit or miss...Check-in was smooth and easy, and housekeepers were diligent and accommodating. However, several times the concierges on duty were doing paperwork or on the phone and couldn't be bothered making eye contact as we stood at the desk waiting for some sign that they'd attend to us. The hosts at the restaurants and the staff in the shops were standoffish. Our room was spotless; the bed was luxurious; the shower was fantastic. But there were a few small things about the room that detracted from our stay--nothing we'd even mention at a lesser property, but this is is the San Francisco Fairmont, so expectations run high. Among the little annoyances: 1) No coffeemaker in the room. And the coffee bar in the lobby closes ridiculously early. The front desk clerk explained that the hotel thought it would be "better" for guests if the hotel provided coffee or tea to the room. Translation: Without coffee-makers in the room, exorbitant room service is the only option. 2) The in-room safe didn't work. We called to report this as soon as we noticed it and were promised someone was on the way up to fix it. Two more phone calls and an hour later we finally left the room without being able to lock away our laptops. The safe was fixed when we returned later, but still... 3) The TV took too long to warm up and as long as ten seconds to change from one channel to the next. Antiquated and irritating satellite system. Our most annoying experience: The concierge directed us to a computer for printing out boarding passes. The computer is in a hallway--one must stand at a kiosk while using it; nowhere to rest purse or packages or pen and paper. You must swipe a credit card to use the computer; for $3, you get 5 minutes. Sounds like enough time, but the computer and printer are so slow and cranky that if you hesitate at all, you'll run out of time. In our case, the boarding passes that printed out were illegible--no toner in the printer!!--and we had to have someone at the front desk reprint them for us; the person who did this told us that we could have just asked the concierge to print the passes, as lots of guests do. If that's the case, we asked, why did the concierge send us to the rickety computer at the kiosk??? In general, the staff we encountered were too often indifferent--not gracious or smiling or friendly enough. As elegant as the hotel looks, we found the overall experience a little disappointing. The Fairmont is lovely to look at, but world class? Hardly!

Service wasn't what we expected (forgot to leave new towels when old ones removed; one tiny soap bar for entire visit, despite a request; maid removed newspapers we wanted to take with us); Contrary to the Orbitz billing, wifi wasn't included in our rate (although it was free to any member of the Fairmont Presidents Club). And think twice about the Nob Hill location -- nice views, but it's a long trip down a very steep hill to go anywhere else in San Francisco.

good

This is a classic place to stay in San Fran as the hotel is filled with much history, but the staff is unfriendly and the hotel is so big that you can easily just become another number.

Nice room, but since the door is about a 100 years old, there is no effective noise reduction and it felt like I was trying to sleep in the hallway while housekeeping and all the guests were slamming all the other doors around me. This issue really needs to be addressed.