Washington Square Inn

The location is exceptional for visiting the North Beach area of San Francisco with Chinatown and the Wharf close by. There are many restaurants and bars right outside the door, and also Washington Square Park is right across the street. Personally, I like to be greeted at hotels by real people, but this is completely contactless, which I knew, and it was fine. It's an older building, so if you have an upstairs room, it's 28 steps every time you come or go, which is also fine if you are not disabled in any way. Parking was a few blocks away at the North Beach Garage ($35 per night) and was reasonably priced for the city. I asked to have two chairs in the room, and there were two metal folding chairs provided-it was comical! We paid for the Junior Suite, which is the highest level room, and were hoping to have a table and chairs in the room, or some sort of desk situation. There are no refrigerators or coffee makers in the rooms (Costco coffee is provided in the lobby (no decaf)), and the mattress did not fit the bed frame. There was about five inches of the wooden bed frame on each side of the mattress to navigate when getting in and out of bed and to bang the back of your legs on. That was actually the worst part. Also, it was very noisy because our windows were open (no AC) and there is a bar next door. To be fair, there were World Cup games being played and it was the biggest Pride Weekend. These are things you should know, but they shouldn't necessarily stop you from booking, because the location is exceptional.

Simple and straightforward Corridor could be noisy

Location was great, large room, great view We have old technology and the "Open key" app took a long time to open the door. Couldn't share the app with my partner so we had to ensure we were together when returning to hotel

Location and the charm. Lighting could be better.

The location is amazing! The check-in process is contactless, which is a bad thing. You have to download a digital key to get into your room, but if you don’t have a US mobile phone number, you can’t receive a message to download it. I went ahead and turned on my foreign SIM card to receive the link, but the message didn’t come through, so I had to call the provided number using the phone in the hotel’s lobby to talk to people who work at the hotel, who told me where to get the key. As a tourist who traveled a long time to get to the US, the last thing you want is to figure out how to get into your room. The hotel itself is worn out, the rooms smell like a wet basement, and the black mold, or whatever it was, in the shower doesn’t look good, to say the least. There is no sound isolation, so you will hear everything from what people are saying in other rooms to what’s happening on the street.

The location is everything with this property, right next to tony's pizza and the lovely North Beach community where there are plenty of lovely shops, bars and restaurants. I love this area of SFO and recommend it, if you can find a different hotel to enjoy it from. About the hotel itself? No positives other than location. This hotel was so DIRTY and mouldy and horrible to stay in. There was so much black mould all over the ceiling of the shower room and my bed had HAIRS on the linen as well as exposed wiring and no way to lock the door internally (as a solo female traveller did not enjoy). Not only this, but housekeeping come around at 7am and you have to YELL at them not to come in. I reached out to the hotel about the issues and they didn't even care enough to reply. Also note: many stairs, no elevator!

AVOID!! Amazingly, there is No staff or security on site whatsoever !! your Lucky if they even answer the phone to help you. Whole place smells old and musty like mothball. Visible mold on walls and shower in bathroom. Check in and out instructions unclear and complicated. No amenities. No room key unless you download a weird app. No hospitality. No customer service. Truly horrid!!! I would love my money back

Very comfortable, clean room. Great location Nobody there to greet you. You use your phone with an app to get into your room. We weren't the only people who had trouble opening the door at first. Subsequent attempts worked well. There is a phone number to call if you have a problem but they don't always answer the phone other call you back so you may have to call more than once.

C

Excellent location Electronic check in with no staff on premises although they responded quickly to things that went a stray

We loved this hotel. Loved the high ceilings, comfortable bed, ambience and the fact that coffee maker was available all day and there was ice maker too. These little things make all the difference! We were a bit unsure about downloading the remote download key to the door, especially as it didn't work the 1st time we tried it. But the second time it worked and we got in and used it successfully for rest of our stay.

Location and cleanliness Separate bathroom

The location is great. Plenty of restaurants are close and it's a good neighbourhood. There are no staff. This is more like an AirBnB experience.

Great location- so many great places nearby to walk to. Room was clean and comfortable.There was a coffee/ tea bar in the lobby so you can have coffee in the lobby and look at the park. Very interesting that there is no staff, receptionist or any other person on site, just the cleaners in the morning. Kinda the self automated hotel.

Perfect.

Quiet and clean We got quite cold and would have appreciated an extra blanket at night.

We arrived a little after 3 and someone let us in but we had to find someone in housekeeping to call someone to send us the link to obtain the digital room key. We were sent very specific instructions on to check out by 11 AM but when we returned to pick up our bags at 10:45 and check out, the digital key was already disabled. Housekeeping unlocked the door so we could get our bags.

Having no staff to interact with was particularly challenging….

Location Big stain on floor in room. Not much room to open suitcases. No one to talk to in reception area.

Traditional building with classic feel throughout, not a chain hotel! Attractive and vibrant location on the square . Nice lobby area for sitting by the window with coffee available. Upstairs room was bright, airy and attractive. Downstairs room was much smaller and less appealing. Hotel was not able to provide 2 rooms close together as requested. Key activation via phone can be fiddly and doesn’t always work. We needed to reconnect to the Wi-Fi login every day and every time we stepped out and returned to the building. Be mindful of the stairs with heavy bags (2 flights and no elevator)