York Hotel, San Francisco

...where we stayed at the York Hotel at 940 Sutter Street, just 4 blocks from the central Union Square area and only 2 blocks from the major transport stops at Powell Street.

History:
Built in the 1920s, the hotel still has many of its original features, including Bakerlite electrical fittings and ceramic solid baths. It also has a history. If you're a Hitchcock film fan you'll love the fact that Vertigo was filmed here and you ...
...do your sightseeing from. The York Hotel is only 4 blocks from the central Union Square and 2 blocks from transport stops for the famous cable cars (and buses) at Powell Street. The number 2,3 and 4 buses also run along Sutter Street and stop right beside the hotel. Although located on a main street, the road gets pretty quiet at night time and is not noisy. There are some small shops (like a grocery store and a coffee shop) alongside the hotel which ... more

Just got back from a lovely holiday in San Francisco where we stayed at the York Hotel at 940 Sutter Street, just 4 blocks from the central Union Square area and only 2 blocks from the major transport stops at Powell Street.

History:
Built in the 1920s, the hotel still has many of its original features, including Bakerlite electrical fittings and ceramic solid baths. It also has a history. If you're a Hitchcock film fan you'll love the fact that Vertigo was filmed here and you will spot the square white hotel staircase used in the film as James Stewart suffers an attack of Vertigo. Also perseved are two of the rooms associated with the film (rooms 301 and 501, also referred to as the Vertigo Room and the Kim Novak room respectively) both of which can be rented for an additional cost and contain posters and photos taken from the original film.

Cost:
I booked the hotel on-line through Opodo at £42 per room per night (almost half the cost of many other 3 star hotels in this area). Your credit card holds the booking and the total due is payable upon check-out after your actual hotel stay.
To book direct you will need to call the hotel up - the rates are exactly the same. The price of the room includes a free continental breakfast each morning.

Breakfast:
The self-service breakfast was available in the PLUSH ROOM between 7-10am each morning. The drinks consisted of fresh coffee, vast selections of Pickwicks Tea Bags (herbal, black, green tea and fruit teas), orange juice (not freshly sqeezed though).
The food consisted of fresh bananas, a stack of fresh mini croissants, brown and white sliced bread (with several toasters for you to toast your bread if you chose), a selection of butter and jelly (jams to us in the UK), a tray full of chocolate muffins and blueberry and choco-chip muffins. The supplies were always served fresh and frequently topped up as soon as they ran low. It was a bit of a shame there was no variety each day (a different fruit say, or a yogurt instead of muffins one day) but, to be honest, it was great to have such a bountiful and tasty breakfast selection waiting for us each morning as it is not that common in the States to have breakfast included with the room rates. Having breakfast included was another definate advantage of staying at this hotel.

Location:
Located in the heart of San Francisco makes this hotel an ideal location to do your sightseeing from. The York Hotel is only 4 blocks from the central Union Square and 2 blocks from transport stops for the famous cable cars (and buses) at Powell Street. The number 2,3 and 4 buses also run along Sutter Street and stop right beside the hotel. Although located on a main street, the road gets pretty quiet at night time and is not noisy. There are some small shops (like a grocery store and a coffee shop) alongside the hotel which is handy if you need a phone card or some stamps or water etc...

Rooms:
My room (Room 219 on the 2nd floor) was large at approx. 18 ft x 13ft and having an en suite bathroom. The bedroom contained a central window with both nets and heavy outer curtains (looking on to the back of another building some 15 feet away). It had a phone, two bedside tables either side of the large kingsize double bed. It also contained a sideboard with TV on it, a coffee perculator / kettle with a selection of free tea and coffee. There was a large comfortable 'round' chair and a writing desk with tall chair. All in all the room was well furnished with matching bed covers and curtains (though the floral designs of the linens did seem a little dated but they were clean and quality material.

The bathroom measured approx. 8ft x 6ft and contained a bath, a tall fixed shower head (not as handy as the removable, flexible ones I must say). The floor tiles were large plain white ceramic tiles and the wall had small one inch mini white tiles. The tapware was all silver and a plentiful supply of clean white towels were always available. The hotel's environmental policy stated that only linen and towels left on the floor each day would be washed - so th choice was yours as to how frequently your room was laundered.

Service / staff:
24 hour service was on offer (though not for food and drink).
Staff were always VERY helpful and knowledgeable and put themselves out to provide an enthusiastic service.

Facilities:
The Plush Room: This was areal treat - a small caberet type room with deep red velvet chairs surrounding little round black shiney tables. At the back of the room there was a small raised stage lined with heavy blood red coloured velvet curtains. A really exclusive little club where famous local jazz musicians come to play from time to time.

A bar: near the lobby / reception area serving alcohol and soft drinks until about 11pm each night.
An exercise room (just a small room with 3-4 bits of sport equipment in it really).

Lift (handy for the 7 floors that exist). Staircase (as used in the Hitchcock film, Vertigo!).

Internet access: for $2 for 15 minutes - it's pricey to use but availble if you need it in the lobby area.

Other:
Managers at the hotel told me that the hotel would be closing during the summer for 2-3 weeks whilst some major refurbishments were carried out to the Reception area and lobby and the hotel will be under new management before this time also. However I was assured that the original features of this 1920s hotel would be preserved and its history protected.
I hope so - it would be a shame to have this little gem of a hotel spoiled. Go there whilst you can.  

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