No uncanny tuck-in service at the Queen Anne
Written: Jul 27 '03 (Updated Nov 10 '03)
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Pros: Beautifully decorated with Victorian elegance, centrally located, quiet neighborhood, haunted
Cons: Temperature controls, functionality of room's drapes, too short a stay, missed tea time
The Bottom Line: The Queen Anne is a beautiful hotel with great ambiance that's best suited for a romantic getaway, unless you're looking for ghosts.
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| adriennefoster's Full Review: Queen Anne Hotel |
A couple of co-workers, Deanna and Monique, and I had been talking about taking the San Francisco ghost walk for quite some time. Since the "Great San Francisco Ghost Hunt" offers a 25% discount to groups of six adults or more, it was worth our while to grab our significant others and go together. With it being an evening walking tour, I also saw this as an excuse to stay overnight in San Francisco to create another entry for the Great Hotel Write-Off. The tour started at the Queen Anne Hotel, a powerful clue that it was haunted, so that was where I chose to stay.
The Queen Anne was first built in 1890 by Senator James G. Fair, a Comstock Lode Silver King. According to its brochure,
...It opened as "Miss Mary Lake's School for Girls" which offered upper-class young women the opportunity to groom themselves for their future roles in San Francisco society. Years later the building narrowly escaped the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. As times changed, so did its occupants. The finishing school closed when the building was sold and became "The Cosmos", an exclusive gentlemen's club, which was later sold again to the Episcopal Diocese who founded the "Girl's Friendly Society Lodge". Today the Queen Anne Hotel welcomes guests from around the world. The building has been fully restored, keeping most of its original features (marble sinks, bay windows, woodburning fireplaces) while adding private baths and luxury amenities to provide the ultimate in comfort and convenience for the modern traveler....
Unlike the other hotels I've recently stayed in, I couldn't recall any ghostlore of the Queen Anne. Looking at its website, the photos of its interior had a period beauty to them. I find a sense of amusement in how San Francisco uses the term "Victorian" to refer to anything related to the very late 19th century. If we're going to be really technical about it, it applies to the years encompassing 1837-1901 and particularly to the U.K. It was a period of great prosperity for Britain, yet it also beheld some gruesome elements (a snobbish class system, corruption, poverty, improving yet minimal labor laws, body snatching, Jack the Ripper, etc.). It was a period the Queen Anne seemed to embrace and I was intrigued to learn which traits it chose to follow.
My Queen Anne experience
Once we settled on a date when we could all do the tour (July 19), I walked into work one morning when Monique announced that she booked a room at the Queen Anne that night through its website. (Deanna was bringing more of her family with her than just her husband, so she opted against staying overnight.) I came close to booking a room through the website myself, yet wanted to ensure I reserved the room with the most active phenomena. When there was no spot on the on-line form for special requests, I phoned the hotel directly. I was told the room I wanted was the Mary Lake Suite, which was $205 per night. Noting my reluctance at the rate, the fellow answering added "...but I could give it to you for $165." It was a bit on the steep side, but if I only stayed one night, what the heck. At least they had parking, which could be treacherous in San Francisco. When I let Monique know that I booked the haunted room for that night and the price, her mouth dropped. "I'm paying $158 just for a regular room with a king bed!" She immediately called the hotel to change her reservation and took the Senator Fair Suite.
First rule for the Queen Anne: you save money by booking with them directly by phone.
Being a little familiar with San Francisco and taking a quick look at a map, it was relatively easy finding the hotel, which is located in the Western Addition district. My problem was finding the parking lot the hotel claimed to have. It had a Sutter Street address, but the lot across from it had wrought-iron fence where I couldn't see how guests were supposed to enter. San Francisco has some frustrating parking issues, but I had to pass the hotel once in a trip around the block to before I thought that the Queen Anne was located on Sutter at Octavia.
Second rule for the Queen Anne: parking can be found behind the little store across the street on Octavia.
Beyond the front desk, the lobby was lengthy, spacious, and gorgeous. It looked every bit the type of lounge one might expect from its days as a men's club. It had two fireplaces, coffee was available on the sideboard, and a couple of fellows were setting up a game of chess. Stained glass pieces could also be found in different spots all over the hotel. An old confessional across from the front desk had been converted into a phone booth. Of course, when Monique's husband, Marty, who is a carpet layer, inspected the floors, he said the corner work was rather sloppy, but for us ignorant ones the decor showed a definite influence from the British upper class.
Checkin went smoothly. I was alone since my boyfriend, Russell, had catch up with me after work. They had my reservation, gave me my parking permit, and with only a couple of small bags, I declined the services of a porter. The lobby elevator oddly had floor buttons on the outside, which was a bit confusing, but when I was told that only the up button was functional, everything went fine.
Room 410--a.k.a. the Mary Lake Suite--was spacious, clean, and beautiful. It had a maroon, buff, and dark teal color scheme with lots of gold trim. If any pieces of the furniture weren't antiques--and much of what is in the Queen Anne was--then it worked well with the rest of the room. I liked the convenience of having a coffeemaker with coffee and refrigerator in the room. All of the rooms have cable TV.
The bathroom was big with plenty of space to move around. A little basket held all of the little complimentary toiletries the hotel supplied, including soap, conditioning shampoo, lotion, bath gelee, and a shower cap. Like the big chain hotels, it had a hairdryer bolted to the wall. It was the first time I had stayed in a room with a bidet. Russell and I ended up arguing over which gender it was meant for. There was also an additional sink vanity outside of the bathroom.
Despite the beauty of the room, there were problems. When I tried to close the curtains at bedtime, one side would not close all of the way. I like sleeping in a dark room; once the sunshine started seeping into the room, I woke and was unable to fall asleep again. I wanted to take a bubble bath, but the way the shower curtain rod was designed it could only be pulled to the back end of the tub. It effectively blocked the source of the bathroom's light. I tried to make one outgoing phone call, but when I pressed 9 to dial out as instructed, all I received was a busy signal.
The worst part was the difficulty adjusting the room's temperature, which was probably a good reflection of San Francisco's inconsistency in the summer. The Bay Area had been having warm weather recently, but once the sun went down it turned really cold, especially in San Francisco with its bay winds. When we arrived, the room was too warm, so we opened some windows. When we returned from the ghost walk, it was chilly. We closed the windows and turned on the heater. When we woke up, it was too warm again. We were told that the air conditioning was regulated at the front desk, but the clerk that evening did not know how to operate it. Since we were only there for one night, this issue was never satisfactorily resolved.
Although the Queen Anne is centrally located in San Francisco, the neighborhood it is in was rather quiet, which is a big plus for those who are sensitive to noise. (There are sections of this city that can be very noisy.) It is nestled in a patch of blocks that are primarily homes and smaller hotels, with a few low-key businesses, most of which closed on Sundays.
This hotel has no full-scale dining establishment, but it does provide its guests continental breakfast in the morning and tea and sherry in the late afternoon. Breakfast is served 8-10 a.m. on weekends and an hour earlier on weekdays. In the saloon, they put out a spread of coffee, tea, hot and cold cereals, pastries, fruit, juices, bread, bagels, and muffins. The danishes were a bit stale, but the muffins made up for them. The orange juice was fresh squeezed. Watermelon must be at the peak of its season in mid-July, as the flavor was wonderful.
Unfortunately, I never partook of the Queen Anne's teatime. It is served from 4-6 p.m. daily. Our little group had previously arranged to meet for dinner at Tommy's Joynt.
The lack of a full-scale restaurant in a hotel is no real disadvantage in San Francisco. This city has a superior reputation for its variety and quality cuisine available and plenty of places can be found within walking distance of the Queen Anne.
Checkout was easy. All of the charges were appropriate. I signed the bill off, wishing I could stay another night to try their teatime and see how management resolved the temperature issue.
The ghost stuff
The ghost tour met in the hotel's parlor at 8 p.m. and through our guide, Jim Fassbinder, we learned that the ghost at the Queen Anne is one of the friendliest in the world. Apparently, she has been identified as none other than Miss Mary Lake, who was heartbroken when her school was closed. People who have encountered her have absorbed a very feminine and loving feeling from her. Room 410 had been the one she occupied as an office during her happy days as proprietress of her school.
Fassbinder conveyed one story of a man returning to his room, the Mary Lake Suite, late one night, so exhausted he couldn't even undress. He threw himself on the bed and immediately went to sleep. When he awoke, he found that not only had a someone pulled the spare blanket over him, but it had been tucked in all away around his body in a way a person would have difficulty doing for himself.
Other common phenomena around the Queen Anne is cold spots. During a past tour, Fassbinder explained several of his guests were a group of teen-age girls. That was a big impetus to arouse a very intense cold spot that night in the Mary Lake Suite. Sometimes they can also be found in the corridors of the lower floors in hotel, where some believe Lake is checking on her students.
Fassbinder tried to learn what happened to Lake after the school closed, but was unable to trace any record of her life or demise. He produced the one photo he believed to be her, showing an attractive young woman in Victorian fashion. Until new info can be found, her fate will remain a mystery.
Despite the chilliness of the room when we returned from the tour that evening, no one bothered to tuck us in during the night. However, Fassbinder did give me some tips on things to do during future trips to haunted hotels.
The bottom line
The Queen Anne Hotel has 48 rooms with private bathrooms available for let throughout the year. It has a 24-hour front desk and concierge. Rates include a continental breakfast, morning newspaper (which we didn't receive, so I suspect this was a weekday feature), local weekday morning limo service, and afternoon tea & sherry. Other services that I presume require additional charges were same-day valet wash or dry clean and business center services. Parking permits were additional fee of $14 per night, with in-and-out privileges. It also has rooms for special functions, such as parties and weddings.
After the problems we encountered during our single night stay at the Queen Anne, I recommend it with some reservations (no pun intended). Since I was unable to see how they resolved the obstacles we faced, it's hard to grade their service. It's a beautiful hotel with great ambiance. If you're not going for the ghosts, it is probably best as a romantic getaway.
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This is an entry in the (2003) Great Hotel Write-Off, hosted by lyagushka and tombarnes. It's fun and supports the spirit of a common goal: providing consumers and Epinions with a wealth of consumer information that you can find nowhere else. For more info and to read the entries by other contestants, please go to http://www.angelfire.com/moon/lyagushka/index.html.
Recommended:
Yes
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