Hotel Des Arts
San Francisco, CA 94108-3704
Phone: (800) 956-4322
04/16/2007 Posted by rbadin
I have to agree with mikelee09. I just came back from a long weekend up in San Fran with a close friend. We were really looking forward to staying at this hotel, partly because of the high rating on Citysearch and other favorable press reviews and partly because of the cool concept and well-presented website. Every member of the staff we met was totally unresponsive, humorless and unhelpful. They would barely say hello or good morning let alone smile. My friend and I joked that perhaps they are all part of a real life post-modern art project to explore just how rude they can be to guests before the guests pack up and leave (it took us one night). When I first arrived, it took about 5 minutes or so before anyone responded to the buzzer to let me into the building. When somone finally did respond, I couldn't tell whether he was a member of staff or a frustrated guest. He opened the door, pointed to the ancient little elevator in the back of the building, and walked out. Our "suite" was a fraction of the size of anything you would expect from the website. The bathroom, a dismal little corner of about 10' x 5', was tired and grungy. When I opened the window and looked outside, I saw a pile of discarded shampoo bottles and half used soap on the roof of the adjacent building. The door would only shut with a lot of crafty cajoling (unlocking the main door to the suite was also a feat requiring 2 keys). Had we gotten any sleep that night, perhaps we could've maintained our patience and sense of humor. Unfortunately, the old heater near my friend's bed howled to life at about 4 am waking us up from an already fitful night sleep from the constant street noise. The very next morning we booked ourselves into another hotel at the same price (it was fantastic). The only good things about the hotel: the beds and the art. The ultimate irony: when we tried to find out how to buy some of the artist's work, the receptionist had no clue where to suggest we go.
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