Westin St Francis

The hotel is very well located - right at Union Square, an easy walk to the Moscone Center and much of downtown San Francisco. It's great for conference attendees since it's close to Moscone, and great for tourists too since the hop on hop off buses all come to Union Square. It's convenient to a lot of shopping and dining as well. The rooms were on the smaller side since it is a historic hotel, with somewhat limited counter space in the bathroom. It was great for a single traveler but could have been challenging if there had been two of us. The beds were of course "heavenly" and there was no noise from the street in my room on the 11th floor. Read less

The Westin Saint Francis is an extremely well located hotel, right on Union Square. Having booked directly through the Bonvoy site for a Christmas/New Year stay, we were happy with the rate and style of room we’d chosen. Our friends followed suit and booked a room for the same dates to join us. What we didn’t realise is that the front of the hotel and the rear are very different so here are a couple of tips. The rooms at the front are in the Heritage Building, this is the prestigious Union Square frontage and it’s typical of many large hotels that were built at the turn of the 20th century. The frontage and lobby are impressive. The rooms have been recently modernised and are well appointed, if your opting for the Union Square view, request a room on a higher floor, some of the rooms are set back so you may not get a full view so if the view is important ask for a room at the very front, not one set back. The rear of the hotel is tower that was bolted on to the rear of the hotel and was built in 1969/70, it doesn’t look like a great effort was made to integrate the two ground floor areas so you shamble clumsily through to the reception area (unless you’ve entered via the vehicular entrance on Geary Street). This area is fine but it’s a bit dated with lots of lacquered brass, there’s a confused lobby seating area which is a Starbucks in the morning then a bar in the afternoon, I found it a bit untidy at times. The rooms at the rear are accessed by external glass lifts that require you to present your key card to a panel and punch in your floor number to restrict access. As you ride up to your floor you realise that the key access is devised to restrict access to the lifts to stop people riding the lifts for the view, which is pretty spectacular once you clear the rear of heritage building. On that note if you’re booking a room in the tower, book one on a high level if you want a view, as the lower floors have obstructed views so you may be disappointed if your looking at the rear of the heritage building or it’s roof! As our friends booked the tower and we’d booked a room heritage in the heritage building with a Union Square view we shuffled around so we could be accommodated close to each other. We looked at a few rooms and opted for ones on a higher floor. The view was spectacular (pictures attached) and the rooms much bigger. The trade off, the rooms haven’t been updated as recently as the ones we looked at in the heritage building but they were perfectly acceptable and modern. The lifts whilst affording a great view as you go up are a bit of an attraction so people sneaking in to ride up can be a little irritating. The room we had originally been allocated in the heritage building overlooking Union Square was a bit noisy so all in all I think our choice to relocate to the tower was the right one for us. As we were there over the festive season the hotel was very busy and the common areas at times were heaving with people who came in to seek respite from Union Square or to look at the spectacular confectionary dioramas (pictures attached) or the decorations in the lobby. At times ploughing through could be a bit of a chore but it was the holidays so I’m guessing normally it’s much calmer. All in all a great stay and the service we received after our shuffling around was excellent. I think the hotel would benefit from a general freshen up / update as can the tower rooms - hotel competition in San Francisco is pretty high. That said I’d probably opt to stay at the Westin St Francis again. Read less