SF hotel recommendations?

[CallingAllAngels]

We are going to San Francisco for a few days in June and my H is freaking out about the cost of the hotel. Ideally we would love to spend <$300/night. We will have our two kids - 7 and 5 years old, and probably will not have a car for this leg of the trip.

We are mainly just hitting the highlights in SF and then heading to see family in Gilroy (we will get a car for this part of the trip). We will do Monterey/Carmel from the Gilroy leg.

H suggested staying in Berkeley and taking BART into SF each day. Would we hate ourselves if we did this? I think we are flying in on Saturday morning and leaving Tuesday evening.

Thank you!

[emilyinchile]

You should be able to find something in SF for under $300/night! I just chose a random Sat-Tues in June looking for 1 room for 2 adults and 2 kids, and there are a bunch of well-located hotels (Hilton Union Square, Sir Francis Drake, Parc 55 are the first 3 results) on hotels.com that are around $200/night. Are those prices not showing up for you? You can also try Priceline. I would not want to stay in Berkeley and deal with BART, it seems like an unnecessary hassle.

[orangello]

Don't stay in Berkeley - while it's a nice place, if your main goal is to see SF, stay there. I've stayed at the Embarcadero Hyatt and it was nice - the building itself is incredibly ugly lol, but the location is great.

Just be careful with inexpensive hotels listed in Union Square - some of them are actually in the Tenderloin or Tenderloin-adjacent, and those areas can get a little rough around the edges (depending on where you live, this may be a wild understatement - I lived in SF so was used to this area, but if you're from a more rural area, it could be sort of a shock!). I'd check the tripadvisor reviews for any hotel you're considering.

[CallingAllAngels]

Hmm, we are going the last weekend in June and the Hilton Union Square is $529 and the Sir Francis Drake was $350-ish/night. Maybe that weekend is more expensive. July 4 is at the end of the week, so it's a big travel week.

Honestly, H has been looking more than I have. He's freaking out because San Francisco is expensive. He is having a hard time finding anything less than $400/night.

[alleinesein]

Stay out near the airport in Millbrae or Burlingame. There are a ton of hotels that are under $200 a night and most of them will have some type of shuttle service to SFO. From there you can hop on BART into the city and you will also be in a good location to get a rental car for when you head to Gilroy.

[dorothyinAus]

Usually we stop for an overnight to/from Australia and stay at the Hilton Airport, using the hotel's shuttle to/from the airport and BART to get into the city. We never really have time pressures, so BART is not a big deal but this last trip there were serious delays on the line and we skipped heading to the city in order to be able to get to our flight on time.

For New Year's I wanted something a bit more special, so we stayed at the Best Western Tuscan Inn in Fisherman's Wharf. That was great, and handy to the cable car to get into Union Square, but it;s not really convenient to the airport. And the shuttle drivers got a bit lost both to/from the airport.

We stayed at The Prescott near Union Square for our honeymoon and I would definitely recommend that hotel.

[Mushe]

Try Priceline before staying outside the city! We always have luck with Union Square, and usually end up at the Hyatt.

[CallingAllAngels]

Thank you for all the advice. It is all very helpful. After talking last night, we decided we are staying in the city. I just think that it will be more practical if we need to run back to the hotel in the middle of the day, which is likely with the kids. Thank you for the advice on avoiding the bad areas of Union Square.

Priceline scares me! I have always booked directly through the hotel because I'm worried that we will end up with something terrible or that the hotel will lose/never get our reservation (we have had that happen with other travel websites). I should probably look into it though.

[CallingAllAngels]

Apr 23, 2015 8:08:28 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

I just checked Hotwire for your dates and the cheapest option that came up is $259/night in SoMa. It's a little less convenient than Union Square (it's basically just south/southeast of it) but still in the middle of the city. It might even be the W.

A Union Square East option comes up for $272/night but it has an 80% recommendation vs. 95% for the SoMa one.

Personally, if you really want a deal and are willing to give it a shot, I would take those numbers and bid something lower on Priceline (like $200-250 for Union Square East).

Thank you!  This is very helpful.  I haven't used Hotwire/Priceline before - we usually try to book in specific hotels for points - but these prices are much better than anything I've seen through TripAdvisor or the hotels' web sites. 

[gtkim]

Apr 22, 2015 11:09:39 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Hmm, we are going the last weekend in June and the Hilton Union Square is $529 and the Sir Francis Drake was $350-ish/night. Maybe that weekend is more expensive. July 4 is at the end of the week, so it's a big travel week.

Honestly, H has been looking more than I have. He's freaking out because San Francisco is expensive. He is having a hard time finding anything less than $400/night.

I believe that is gay pride weekend which could explain the higher prices. 

Our original vacation plans included SF and we purposely planned to go the weekend before for this reason. FWIW, I was finding tons of things then for under $300/night.

[CallingAllAngels]

Apr 23, 2015 11:00:37 GMT -5 gtkim said:

Apr 22, 2015 11:09:39 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Hmm, we are going the last weekend in June and the Hilton Union Square is $529 and the Sir Francis Drake was $350-ish/night. Maybe that weekend is more expensive. July 4 is at the end of the week, so it's a big travel week.

Honestly, H has been looking more than I have. He's freaking out because San Francisco is expensive. He is having a hard time finding anything less than $400/night.

I believe that is gay pride weekend which could explain the higher prices. 

Oh crap!  It is going to be a total cluster?

[emilyinchile]

Ditto RockNVoll (as usual on all things SF!). I just Googled, and Pride IS that weekend, but I don't know how that affects the more touristy areas vs. the Castro. Little lesson for the kids in how we're all different, and that's just fine if a man wants to dress up like a Vegas showgirl? Haha.

[CallingAllAngels]

That's good to know. We are committed to being at SIL's at the end of that week, and have been really looking forward to going to SF for the few days prior. We could try to pick another spot in Northern California, but San Francisco is definitely at the top of my list.

At least there is an explanation for the jacked up hotel rates. I think we are going to try to book something tonight.

[expatjen]

We are going to SF in May and found hotel prices to be upwards of $350/night - even with my sister's hotel discount (she works for a national chain). Instead, we booked an apartment in the Marina for less than $250 a night on airBnB - I also looked on VRBO. We plan on using public transport and Uber while in the city for a week.

[CallingAllAngels]

Apr 24, 2015 3:22:41 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Apr 23, 2015 12:56:48 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

That's good to know. We are committed to being at SIL's at the end of that week, and have been really looking forward to going to SF for the few days prior. We could try to pick another spot in Northern California, but San Francisco is definitely at the top of my list.

At least there is an explanation for the jacked up hotel rates. I think we are going to try to book something tonight.

Definitely stick to S.F.  Pride is no reason to avoid the city!  If anything, I'd try to find a way to attend the parade.

We talked about it last night and are definitely going to the parade. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be crazy-crowded, but from the comments here (and on the TripAdvisor forums) it sounds like we should be just fine.

[1confused1]

Check VRBO. My girlfriends and I rented a cute apartment for a weekend and it was way cheaper than a hotel. We stayed in Nob Hill and were able to walk down to Union Square.

[indylady]

I've had a ton of luck using Travelzoo. It looks like there are some deals right now too.

[krystee]

You have probably booked already, but if not, we stayed at the Best Western Tuscan Inn for a great price last year. Our room was small so you may want to be sure there is enough room for the kids' beds if you stay there. It was walking distance to Fishermen's Wharf, Ghiardelli (pretty sure I massacred that spelling) Square, the cable cars, and a rental car place.

[Mushe]

Apr 23, 2015 7:56:52 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Thank you for all the advice. It is all very helpful. After talking last night, we decided we are staying in the city. I just think that it will be more practical if we need to run back to the hotel in the middle of the day, which is likely with the kids. Thank you for the advice on avoiding the bad areas of Union Square.

Priceline scares me! I have always booked directly through the hotel because I'm worried that we will end up with something terrible or that the hotel will lose/never get our reservation (we have had that happen with other travel websites). I should probably look into it though.

I totally get it, but I can tell you what works for us.  We limit to Union Square East, 3.5-4 star.  We each have a login, and if it doesn't work for him, I'll try in a few days, and then he tries again, etc.