In short, I would say to everyone not to get close to this hotel. There are a lot of other hotels around that would cost the same or less (Radisson, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Argonaut, Courtyard Mariott – where internet is free!, etc.) but without the scandalous additional charges.
Room ****
I have nothing to complain about the room, other than the fact that they don’t provide a fridge. How weird for a Sheraton! If my trip isn’t a road trip, this might not be a problem at all. But since this is a three-week road trip, we keep chocolate, drinks, fruits (yes, we continue to eat fruits every day even when we travel!), and takeaway food because food portion in the US is outrageously big
Facilities *
While this hotel has everything a normal Sheraton would have (minus a fridge and a shower cap …), the charges for using these services are what I consider a scam. In the age where many hotels offer free wireless internet in the room, Sheraton charges US$14.95 per IP address (or per computer) per day! Our family of three, which bring three laptops and my husband also uses iPhone 3G, ended up being charged almost US$58 for internet for one day because the staff didn’t inform us about it and the internet use terms and conditions also did not explain that the charges are per IP address, not per room per day. Yes, we know that wireless internet is free from the lobby. But doing a business Skype call from the lobby, while his wife and kid sits next to him in the lobby to play computer games while he’s busy with work, each one of us in headphones so we don’t bother then 30 or so other people in the lobby? Figure that! 🙂
They also charged us $49 per day for parking, while surrounding hotels can offer it at half that or even free!
Had we not pre-booked and pre-paid the room months earlier, we would have fled from that hotel before receiving our key!
Location ***
Location is right in the Fishermans Wharf area, so it’s walking distance to the cable car, the wharf, and many restaurants. However, being so strategically located in the touristy neighborhood also means noise and crowd. We heard noise from outside (and from the room above us) constantly throughout our four-night stay – there’s never been a quiet moment in and around the hotel. Checking in and out was also troublesome because of the long queue … when we checked out, the front entrance was overcrowding with luggage trolleys and people who were waiting for their valet car to arrive. The scene looked more like a school trip dismissal rather than a four-star hotel experience.
We had to wait about half hour before our car got out, with no one attending the luggage and no security standing by. If anyone wanted to steal a couple of laptops or camera … that would have been the perfect scene because it was so crowded and understaffed, no one would pay attention.
So … just stay away from this hotel if you don’t want anything to ruin your holiday mood in San Francisco 🙂
Thoughts from Little Singapore 