Fine Wine, Good Service - If You Can Find It
Written: Feb 24 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Decent rooms, quaint surroundings, good service.
Cons: Dilapidated shower/tub. Towels, linens, carpet could be fresher.
The Bottom Line: A nice change from the large modern hotels in San Francisco, although still not inexpensive.
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| philipchu's Full Review: Andrews Hotel |
While reading online reviews of the Andrews Hotel, I came across characterizations like "best kept secret" and "out of the way location". And there seems to be some truth to that - the taxi driver who picked me up at the airport said "Anders Hotel? Andrew? What city? On Post? Where on Post?" and then called someone on his cell phone to consult their "database", which I assume is Google Maps or Mapquest. Then he missed it by a block, stopped at the Post Hotel and said "Is this it?"
The Andrews Hotel isn't really in an out-of-the-way location - it is a short walk to Union Square (for you shoppers out there, Macy's and Saks , for the less styling like me, there's a good Borders), and there are numerous hotels on the way. It's a bit longer but quite manageable walk to the aFinancial District and Moscone Convention Center (the latter being my destination). Turn south, and there's the Tenderloin, which evokes in me a craving for a good steak and nervousness about walking through urban decay, although it didn't seem bad when I walked that direction to the nearest Walgreen's for toothpaste.
The hotel itself is quaint in appearance, with a small lobby and somewhat posh ("reservations are highly recommended") Italian restaurant named Fino on the first floor. It extends to seven floors, serviced by an old-style elevator with the sliding metal cage door. I was caught a few times just standing there waiting for the outer door to slide open instead of just pulling it open when my ride arrived.
I expected this century-old hotel to have tiny rooms, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that my "Petit Deluxe" room (if I remember the name correctly from the hotel web site, http://andrewshotel.com/) turned out to be a suite with both a comfortably-sized bedroom and living room. The bedroom had its own sink and mirror with hand towel, closet and TV, while the living room had a desk, bureau, TV on its own stand and two fairly comfortable leather chairs. Still, it's not exactly a home theater, so I watched TV from the firm-enough queen bed. Both TV's are identical - small LCD screens attached to a DVD player and playing DirectTV channels, a bit disconcerting to me since it seemed that all the shows were playing an hour ealier than I expected. I was briefly concerned that the bedroom TV remote didn't work but the remote from the living room operated it just fine. Oddly, the bedroom TV seemed to have a worse signal and had some additional channels that just showed a ghost.
The bathroom was my least favorite area - the dilapidated condition of the tub made it difficult to discern its cleanliness, and I had some trouble taking a shower without leaking around the curtain and leaving a pool of water on the floor. So I started leaving one of the bath towels by the edge of the tub to soak up the water and also protect my feet from the cold floor, but that left only one bath towel for actual drying - a bit stingy if you like a morning and evening shower. And I noticed what looked like some blood spots on one hand towel after I used it - although I often have dry hands it didn't seem I was bleeding, so perhaps that towel was just permanently stained. Similarly, although the linens were for the most part clean, the heavy bedspread had some dark spots underneath.
There is just one person at the reception desk, and occasionally just a sign saying that one person will be back, but each of the three different people I dealt with was very helpful. When I checked in, the person manning that shift let me know about the complimentary continental breakfast served on each floor (a pretty good assortment of danishes, muffins, fruits and orange juice left out on a table in the hallway from 7am-9:30am) and the complimentary glass of wine served daily in Fino from 5-7pm, gave me a couple of area maps with the hotel location marked, and offered to loan me an umbrella as it was raining (and would continue to do so for my whole stay - but on Monk, San Francisco is always sunny!) Another desk worker patiently waited while I selected from among their free DVD "rentals" and quickly replaced my desk key card when for some reason it stopped working, and the third guy reserved a cab for me for my return to the airport. Overall, a pleasant stay, not really cheap at $200 a night ($170 or so plus tax), but compared to $400 and up at neighboring large hotels during that convention week (the annual Game Developer's Conference) a satisfactory choice.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
philipchu
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Member: Phil Chu
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Reviews written: 60
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
writer of software and prose
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