What hotels would you guys recommend in San Francisco? We're looking for something inexpensive, probably around Union Square.

We'll be really looking forward to visiting the city in October! I'll definitely be checking the previous thread on SF.

Not inexpensive, but I had the best possible hotel staying experience at this location:

http://www.kimptonhotels.com/hotels/factsheets/argonaut-hotel-fishermans-wharf/index.aspx

The most comfortable fluffy beds, and a staff that bent over backwards to make certain I was 110% happy. One of the few times I've ever felt compelled to write to the company and commend them for good service. I have since stayed at another Kimpton hotel in another city and had a similar experience.

There are other Kimpton properties in the SF area:

http://www.kimptonhotels.com/hotels/hotels-sanfrancisco.aspx

Thanks, Tony. We'll look at that. Unfortunately our primary need is for something inexpensive. We're also having a hell of a time because it looks like there's some sort of convention in town in October that has sold out most of the hotels we're looking at. At least anything near Union Square. It's really frustrating.

Ask for the corporate room rate of a large Bay-area company. They will never actually verify this upon checking in. The registration clerk may say something like "Apple room rate?", but you just mutter "uh-huh" and you'll be good. HP, Oracle, IBM, these are all good candidates to get a much better rate than the retail rate.

The prices can really vary with demand, especially near Union Square. Also, be aware that any hotel in SF will charge 30+ for parking, and It'll be closer to $50 near Union Square.

I've had good experiences at two of the Joie de Vivre hotels. The Hotel Tomo is about a mile and a half away from Union Square in Japan Town, and is a nice midlevel hotel. The Galleria Park is really well located, though it's of course more expensive.

What brings you to the area? Will you have time for any empeg related activities?

Matthew

We stayed at The Chancellor when we went to SF. I'd happily recommend it.

I can recommend the places I've stayed at: Westin St. Francis and Grand Hyatt, right at Union Square and Hotel Palomar, a very nice boutique hotel, 2 blocks from Union Square.

Tony, thanks for the Kimpton recommendation. We didn't end up with one of the ones you mentioned, but there's a Hotel Triton directly across the street from the Chinatown gate that we booked this afternoon. That was a Kimpton hotel too.

Matthew, we're just visiting for fun. We've wanted to see SF for a long while now. We'll be in SF for about six days and then on to Sonoma for another five or so. It would be great to meet some empeggers, but we'll have to see what works into the wife's site-seeing plans

So, now if anyone knows a good place to stay in the Sonoma area, that would be much appreciated

Awesome. Please report back, I'm curious to see if your experience lines up with the other Kimpton-property stays I've had.

So far: yes! It's a great hotel, and very quirky This one has a very funky decorative style. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful, and I really don't have any complaints (well, aside from the shower - I don't like the showerhead and the temperature knob shifts about five degrees F every millimeter I move it). Some might find the room small, but I don't mind it. We ended up with a corner room overlooking Bush and Grant, and two of our windows look directly across at the Chinatown gate, so I think we ended up with a pretty good spot. I think with taxes it ended up at around $205 per night.

I think my wife would be happy to do lunch with some other folks (or dinner, or whatever) one of the days this week. Sorry for the short notice, but its been a hectic trip already. My wife was sick for the week running up to the trip and is just now getting over it. I was unlucky enough to catch it the very night before we got up at 3am to go to the airport and travel for about 11-12 hours. Fortunately I recover much faster than her, and despite already putting about 20 miles on my Fitbit, I'm at about 95% now! Woohoo!

So again, sorry for the short notice, but is anyone up for a mini-meetup?

Also, if you haven't seen my thread in the general forum, I could also use a little help.

*edit*
oh yeah, and I kind of need help on one more thing. I seem to have lost the 802.11n USB adapter I was using in my laptop to transfer photos from my camera with the Eye-Fi. Does anyone know where in my area of SF I might be able to buy another one?

I'm free every night this week.
I'd love to meet up for dinner in the City!

You're looking for Central Computers, 837 Howard Street. It's not Frys, but it usually has what you need at reasonable prices.

I'm afraid I'll probably miss any meetup activities. I"ll be downtown around lunchtime today if you're around, but other than that my next few days are booked solid.

I don't know a good place to stay, but my favorite place to eat (anywhere) is Ad Hoc in Yountville.

We definitely thought of that place, but I'm not sure we'd get a reservation at this point. We do have one at Redd, though, which is supposed to have a great pastry chef.

They have a bar where they'll fit you in, and I'd guess if you call (don't use open table) they'll have a real table, maybe not during prime dinner hours, but early or late. It's well worth any hassle.

We may try that. The other concern is that my wife is a pescitarian, and Ad Hoc seems to be pretty meat-heavy. Do you think they have decent veggie and/or fish options?

Yes, they've made an entirely vegan menu for a member of our table, and have offered to bring something else instead of the main course if you're not interested in whatever is on the menu that night. It's probably best to let the reservationist know, but I wouldn't expect any dietary restrictions to be a problem.