HotelChatter

Check In
Check in at 1:30 AM and the check in was swift and pleasant. Is that a big deal? You try being swift and pleasant at 1:30 AM every night.

Common Areas
Giant marble staircases that were built wide enough so travelers from a century ago could carry their trunks upstairs easily. No joke, people used to travel with trunks.

Parking
$45 per night including unlimited access. Yeah, that is freakin' steep. However, don't try street parking around here, this is Nob Hill and you will no doubt get a ticket or towed. Best bet? The California & Van Ness cable car goes up and down Nob Hill, so if you want to work the public transit you can take BART from SFO or OAK to Embarcadero-ish, then hop on the cable car. Remember the Cable Car is $5 a pop. Then again, you can just take a cab from SFO or OAK and pay $45.

Room Reaction
Room 709 was a mix of old and new. The old being the building and the overall feel, the new was the sweet LG flat screen television.

Property
Old and classy. The place was all decked out for Christmas with guests and visitors congregating in the lobby for meals and meetings. The elevators are old and a tad slow, but we rode with Rudy Guiliani, which made at least one elevator trip a bit of fun.

WiFi
The WiFi in both the lobby and in your hotel room for $13.95 a night. Room 709 had a strong four bars of WiFi throughout our visit and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Of course, we always think free WiFi is the way to go, but if we have to pay, at least give us fast reliable wireless or tethered service, which Fairmont SF did.

Service
The morning after our arrival we had a 9:30 AM meeting South of Market. We walked down California and leisurely left a Starbucks at 9:00 AM with our latte in hand. As we were leaving to shoot across Market for our meeting we noticed two damsels on their way into the coffee shop, their hands were full. We graciously opened the door for them and as we did so an inconsiderate freak on his cell phone bumped into us knocking a grande latte all over our shirt.

We ran back up California and went straight to the front desk in a panic. The kind calm staffers took the coffee stained shirt off our backs, immediately sent it to the cleaners and had it back in our room at the break of dawn the following day.

Furthermore, while we were retrieving a clean shirt from our room the staffers made sure a cab was ready to whisk us off to our meeting as quick as possible -- we made the meeting on time. Now that is kick-ass customer service.

Location
Let us state the sad truth upfront -- Starbucks is a morning ritual, especially when on the road. The fact that the closest Starbucks to Fairmont SF is down Nob Hill in Union Square kind of defeats the whole purpose of staying outside Union Square now doesn't it? The important thing to keep in mind as far as location goes is wherever you go you will be going down a giant hill, thus you will later be walking back up said giant hill -- unless you cab it, cable car it, or have a clutcher before you reach the top of Nob Hill that is.

As far as view goes, this hotel has plenty of view rooms, but if you pay the low rate we did, expect to be looking at the interior "courtyard" -- more like roofyard. If you want a view, you better ask for one, and expect to pony up a bit more cash.

Cost
We paid $199 per night before taxes & fees) and that included a breakfast. It will be tough to beat that rate for a luxury hotel in San Francisco.

Bottom Line
As long as you don't mind hills, this is a great historic luxury hotel that is able to mix the old with the new fairly admirably. Remember, you will pay more for a view, but the customer service we experienced here was top notch, and we will take stress free coffee removal service ($10 charge) any day over a killer view -- well maybe not any day, but last Tuesday at least.