LOOKING FOR HOTELS IN SAN FRANCISCO?

DON'T STAY AT THE SHANNON COURT HOTEL!!!

If you drop by the web site, http://www.shannoncourt.com/, you'll find a very nice, seemingly informative web page about the Shannon Court Hotel in San Francisco. One of the things I look for when I shop online is pictures, and a picture of the hotel's typical room is a nice way to gauge whether or not you'd enjoy the stay. The picture of the room on that web page looks like this:

Elegantly appointed, lovely bed, quaint little coffee table, couch. Roomy. Attractive décor and colors. Nice, huh? I thought so, and I thought this would be an appropriate location to end a romantic evening with my spouse. So I called up the 800 number and placed a reservation.

This is what they gave me:

Ugly, huh? A tiny room. Brown, stained, worn carpet. A squat, hard bed. That brown box in the lower corner above and the middle of the picture below is the refrigerator they include in every room. There is nothing inside. No honor bar at the S.C.H. No couch. No coffee table. No elegant décor.

And definitely no romance. Notice the ash tray. I specifically requested a non-smoking room.

Where was the lovely room in the picture from that web site? This is more what I would expect from a TraveLodge or a Motel 8. The gentleman at the front desk didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Hm. Oh, and the valet parking? A joke. I had to wait 15 minutes on the street next to my minivan and my luggage with some bum sitting next to the hotel entrance muttering evilly and eyeing myself and my vehicle while my wife tried to get someone, anyone to park the car.

But that was only my introduction to this fine establishment. The web page mentions a huge restoration. Well, they didn't restore the elevator, a tiny, beat-up looking box which creaks and shudders and moves slowly enough that you can feel your hair growing while you wait. And they didn't restore the bathroom, which had peeling paint and cracked fixtures. The windows each have a safety bar on them that prevents one from opening them more than a couple of inches. So much for a little fresh air.

If you want someplace nice to stay while you're in San Fran, I suggest going just one more block down Geary to the Warwick Regis Hotel. Now that's a nice hotel. Their web page, at http://www.warwickregis.com/, shows accommodations that are a little closer to what you actually get when you make your reservation. The hotel is clean and elegant and the service is great. Only a week before my wife and I had stayed there, and the Shannon Court Hotel, in contrast, was a complete and utter let-down. The rooms cost a little more at the Warwick Regis, but the difference in price does not explain the disparity in quality.