A normal hotel – Review of Hilton San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco

There were a lot of ups and downs to this stay. First, the pros. I was given a late checkout thanks to my Hilton Gold status, I thought the grab and go market was one of the better in-hotel dining options I’ve seen in a while, and I had a room on the 21st floor with a great view and that was largely insulated from street noise.

On the negatives, the wifi service was out for most of my first day in my tower. None of the provided coupon codes worked, nor did my last name and room number, and getting this resolved was an incredibly frustrating experience. First, I was directed by a member of staff to call a hotline for their wireless provider who left me on hold for 30 minutes and then hung up on me. I ended up leaving the property for most of the day because I had to get work done, and upon my return checked in at the front desk to see if the problem had been resolved, where they gave me yet another coupon code that didn’t work. Finally after dinner, I messaged the staff via the Hilton app to say I still didn’t have working internet and FINALLY got a working code. It should not have taken me the better part of 8 hours to get this sorted out, and all the staff, with the exception of the woman I messaged on the app, were not nearly as proactive or helpful as they could have been.

My other main complaint (which may seem petty to some, but it really does bother me!) is that it is inexplicable that in 2022, some Hilton properties even in California don’t have recycling bins. Given the prevalence of takeout and in-room dining these days, that is so wasteful and I genuinely don’t get how this isn’t a system-wide element.

Overall, I would likely look elsewhere for a place to stay in San Francisco.