The Best Hotel in San Francisco: The St. Regis

Travel perfectly illustrates the subjectiveness of "best." Someone who's accustomed to staying at the Travelodge might check into a Hyatt and think "this is a great hotel." Someone accustomed to staying at the Four Seasons might do the same and think "what a dump." And most travel writing is done by poor writers on sponsored press junkets, for media reliant on advertising dollars, which explains why so much of it is effusive fluff. As a professional travel writer and editor for more than ten years, I learned that the best travel writing provides the "decision empowering" details that lets readers figure out whether a hotel, destination or experience is right for them. 

I met Lilian Wagner when she was the Director of Sales & Marketing for the Park Hyatt San Francisco, now Le Meridian.  The hotel was my top recommendation at the time, and Lilian became a good friend. 
She's now the DoS&M at the St. Regis San Francisco, and issued a standing invitation for me to visit.  Lilian knows that a comped stay would not deter me from writing honestly about the property (a lesson hard learned by the DoS of the former Regent Hotel in Sydney). I knew her confidence level was as high as my expectation of perfection.

The hotel wasn't perfect. Upon arrival, there were three things wrong with my room. The phone handset on the "integrated room control," the electronic "do not disturb" button, and the  DVD player remote  were not working.  Now, no hotel can keep its electronics 100% functional. What sets a hotel like the St. Regis apart is that they were all fixed, with one call to guest services, in the hour that I went down to the spa for a swim.  Other imperfections: the Sony Dream Machine stereo/DVD player and its speakers are behind a closet door that must remain open in order to fast forward or hear sound through the system instead of the inferior flat panel TV speakers.  And there was only one accessible power outlet in the room. With my computer plugged in it at the desk, my phone had to charge in the bathroom.  Now, I know my butler would have shown up with a power strip in five minutes, had I paged him, but really, these are inexcusable design flaws for a year-old, new build hotel. Matt Ouimet, are you reading this? Let me know when you've fixed them. 

I wouldn't ordinarily start a hotel review by listing flaws. But in this case it lends credibility to my proclamation of the St. Regis as undoubtedly the best hotel in San Francisco.  The design is stunning, from lobby to rooms, with a stylish aesthetic that's modern and surprising, yet still inviting and comfortable. The service is efficient, gracious and pervasive without being stuffy or overbearing. The Remède spa is great, including separate male and female saunas, steamrooms and hot tubs with the strongest therapeutic jets I've ever encountered at a spa. Remède also supplies the in-room bath amenities, which are among the best this product snob has ever found at a hotel. (When I packed these away on my first night so I could take them home, the housekeeper left a double set the next day... That's great service!) Add two great restaurants, a happening bar/lounge scene, impressive views and a perfect SoMa location, and it's easy to understand my enthusiastic recommendation, despite the few flaws.

Now, it's also easy to recommend hotels with room rates that start at $400/night.  But recognizing that price figures into most everyone's determination of "best," tomorrow I'll post two other recommendations that cover a broad spectrum of affordability.