D. Baer

Review of The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco

This is no longer a 5 star hotel. My room was not ...

This is no longer a 5 star hotel. My room was not ready until 2 hours past check-in. When I finally did check-in the room wasn't the one booked, and when I called down to the front desk the hotel staff was either unwilling or incapable of dealing with it. I suspect incapable, because the staff was very pleasant and also well-versed in being apologetic, which is of course quite different than resolving the problem. What sealed it for me was that the room itself wasn't pleasant - it was too dark (the room colors are gray and black) with insufficient lighting. The windows are on the small side, so the natural light wasn't enough to alleviate the gloominess of the room. The room was quite big, but so oddly proportioned and furnished that there was a huge amount of floor space and then a lone chair and small table languishing against a wall far from the windows. And everything took forever - one of the scarce lamps was broken and it took forever to get household services. A simple coffee took forever to arrive in the morning. And so on. Everyone was very nice but it was frustrating. Part of the issue may be that the hotel is understaffed. I neither know, or at this point care, because I switched hotels. I am a bit surprised, however, because my reservation was made through a corporate travel agency and I hold a Ritz card, either of which should have caused the hotel to think about my planned visit as one stay in a a long-term relationship. I was told later that the Marriott had taken over the Ritz name, and that corners were being cut here and there. That made sense to me, as the hotel was closer to that level of experience, if not of cost.