Property: Hotel Stratford San Francisco, Handwritten Collection
Status: Accor Platinum
Room booked: Little Queenie, $130 USD/night
Room upgraded/type: Classic Room, upper floor
Early check in/late out: 1 PM late check out requested and granted
Welcome drink: Yes 4. 2 welcome drink card provided as Accor Platinum and 2 additional drink cards in room
Welcome gift: Cake
Decided to visit SF for a couple of days with my partner. Originally, I was thinking of staying near the airport, but ended up postponing our flight back to SYD and so it made sense to stay in the downtown (also my partner really wanted to see all the attractions of SF). Did some checking around and amazingly Accor had what I think is a very good rate on a property in downtown SF (that price included all taxes and fees).
The hotel itself is located on Powell Street near Market Street in Union Square. In other words it's not in a sketchy part of the city (i.e. Civic Centre). Additionally, the hotel had some good reviews and since it's an Accor property I expected it to be better than the usual Comfort Inn or Motel 6 I stay at in SF.
The (upgraded) room was very modern and spacious. There were no foul odours and one of the things I appreciated about the hotel is it's chic. It's not the cookie cutter style you tend to find at a Novotel or ibis. It has a character to it.
The bathroom was also nice and didn't have the dreaded shub:
In terms of hotel amenities like a gym or pool, sadly there wasn't any. There also didn't appear to be a hotel restaurant, which isn't a huge deal since SF has a number of great restaurants.
The welcome gift here was a delicious chocolate cake which my partner (who has more discerning tastes than I do) agreed was indeed of good quality and tasty:
At check-in I was given two vouchers for a signature coughtail of my choice at the nearby Bartlett Hall. In addition, there were two vouchers in the room for a craft beer at the nearby bar as well. Ultimately, I ended up using one of the vouchers on a coughtail:
One thing I noticed whilst heading to my room was this notice:
Fortunately, it seems that when they say the water would be turned off, they meant the hot water (which as a Canadian isn't a huge deal).
I did not request early check in as we were arriving into SF around 8 PM. However, on the day of checkout, I visited the front desk to see if I could get the 11 AM standard check out pushed back. They asked what time, and I suggested 1 PM. They obliged without any pushback whatsoever. Now that's refreshing!
One thing I wasn't expecting was they couldn't hold our luggage when we did check out (as we were hoping to do some last minute exploring before heading to SFO to catch our late night UA flight back to SYD). They did suggest a luggage storage facility across the road which charges $8/bag, but we didn't see the point in doing that so just headed back to the airport early and spent the balance of our time at the Polaris lounge.
I would not hesitate to stay at this property again should I be in the SF Bay Area (particularly if I need to be downtown), particularly if it is at this rate. It's a good quality hotel with character, something that is a rarity especially stateside.
-RooFlyer88