The Kensington Park Hotel, San Francisco

.../> It is part of the Personality Hotels group, each of which is modeled on a different concept, the idea for Kensington Square in particular being traditional glamour, its slogan being "Luxury in the heart of the city".

And luxurious it is indeed. We stayed for one night only, directly following on from a rather skanky beach front motel in Santa Cruz, so maybe our goalposts had been moved somewhat, but it really was everything ...
...break.

The location is great, a block away from Union Square and minutes from excellent shopping and great dining. We were able to park temporarily outside while installing ourselves before handing back our rental car. However they do offer valet service parking on the premises for $35 per day.

LOBBY/WELCOME

The lobby looks impressive, all marble and polished brass, and although they do not have a person ... more

OVERVIEW

My boyfriend and I recently stayed at this lovely hotel in San Francisco, which could best, though oddly, be described as a chain boutique hotel.

It is part of the Personality Hotels group, each of which is modeled on a different concept, the idea for Kensington Square in particular being traditional glamour, its slogan being "Luxury in the heart of the city".

And luxurious it is indeed. We stayed for one night only, directly following on from a rather skanky beach front motel in Santa Cruz, so maybe our goalposts had been moved somewhat, but it really was everything you could ask from a hotel on a romantic city break.

The location is great, a block away from Union Square and minutes from excellent shopping and great dining. We were able to park temporarily outside while installing ourselves before handing back our rental car. However they do offer valet service parking on the premises for $35 per day.

LOBBY/WELCOME

The lobby looks impressive, all marble and polished brass, and although they do not have a person opening the door for guests, the front of house staff were extremely welcoming as soon as we approached. According to the website, "The Concierge Staff pride themselves on arranging entire itineraries from transportation to dinner reservations and theatre tickets". I suspect they are all themselves struggling actors or artists, which makes their dedication to service all the more impressive, especially given the fact that we were dressed for road trip, not posh hotel, when entering.

A complimentary sherry is served in the lobby in the afternoon every day, which is a nice touch.

The hotel incorporates a theatre, so entertainment is never far away. This also gives a feeling of going on a glamorous night out on entering the door!

ROOM

The room we stayed in was one of their smaller ones, but still was a good size incorporating a small welcome pack of branded toiletries in addition to the usual shampoo and soap. The linen was fantastic; I didn't count the threads but assume it was of the Egyptian cotton high thread count ilk. The bed, although queen sized, was pretty much king sized by European standards, where I could have had a party on my side without my boyfriend noticing. The bathroom was decent too. There were several side lamps in the room to allow for anyone to design romantic and flattering lighting to their desire.

All rooms have wireless internet access if you're out for business.

SERVICE

I already mentioned the nice front-of-house people; I needed to use the internet and they gave me access to the business suite where they have a courtesy PC. It is nominally not meant to be used for more than 30 min at a time, but they made it clear to me that I could stay for as long as I wished by arrangement.

DRAWBACKS

Street noise. Inevitable in central San Francisco one might say, but hey, double glazing never killed anyone. Bring ear plugs if you're a very light sleeper, or ask for a very high up room.

Stingy with the water. In our room we had two bottles of water which would have cost $2 each had we touched them. Might as well not have put them there.

Lack of view from lower floors. As this is not on top of any hills (as far as this is possible in this city), you can't really see much from your window except the next hotel over, unless you're very high up.

The complimentary breakfast coffee. This is literally self-served out of a cupboard on the third floor, and not easy to find. Serving it in the massive lobby from a side table would make more sense.

CONCLUSION

Go there, be romantic. You won't regret it. But go out to Starbucks for coffee, it's more atmospheric than the corridor. 

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