Prescott Hotel - Not Worth it!
HOTEL REVIEW OF THE PRESCOTT HOTEL � SAN FRANCISCO:
I stayed at The Prescott over a long weekend in mid November of 2005. I was looking for a hotel room � and found that the Westin, Hyatt and other larger hotels were sold out due to several conventions in town. I opted for the �upgraded Club Level� at a price I thought reasonable if it lived up to expectations (in the low $200s).
First of all � this hotel, due to its history, is doomed to begin with. In its early days � the hotel was a small �speak easy.� The rooms are incredibly small � requiring you to either open the close door or the bathroom door. Not both at the same time. They do their best to distract you from the size � adding nice linens (now the trend for all) and giving you Aveda grooming products, as does the Westin.
Do you get what you pay for? When paying the amount for The Club Level � you believe you are getting an upgrade. The rooms are still the same size. And in fact, getting to the rooms become a bit of a pain in the butt. For some reason � the hotel purchased the upper floors of a building behind the original building. In order to get to this famed CLUB LEVEL room � you must first take an elevator up to the fourth floor � and the walk across an enclosed ramp to take you to the back building. Once their, I had to take another elevator to the 7th floor and down a small hallway � in which my luggage and myself and to walk single file to get to the room. But wait � it should be worth it for the famous Postrio inspired happy hour? First of all � happy hour here is from 4:30 � 6:30. In San Francisco? Who goes to happy hour then? Usually � most hotels have happy hour from 6-8 � so that you can have a cocktail before you go out to dinner. Not here. This is a chow line for cheap people who are being sure to get their monies worth. For this weekend � the lounge was filled with older folks who were in town to attend a local university football game. For this crowd � having unlimited martini�s at 4:30 in the afternoon is a plus. (And I must admit � they nice chap at the bar is charming and poured freely!) But surely the appetizers would be great? Well � get this. You think you are getting wonderful woodburning fireplace pizza from the famous Wolfgang Puck. Well � perhaps he did the dough. But that is about it. Poor Julio at The Prescott � the bartender in this small lounge just off the ramp between the two building is also a pizza cooker. He takes out frozen pizzas that are given to him, tosses on a few pieces of basil leaves or red peppers � and tosses them in a small convection oven in his little bar closet. He can do one little pizza at a time � and so the guests all wait around, knives and forks in hand � and when one gets done � he walks around sliding little pieces of the pizza, as he were feeding the seals down at Pier 39! And if this tastes like the pizza�s downstairs � then I think old Wolfgang has lost it. If I were him � I would be horrified to know that his food was being marketed and served this way! What is funny is that, on the one night when I tried this (and not again!), many of the individuals were commenting to each other that this would be their meal for the night. My gawd! Wrong crowd!
The hotel advertisement claims that �With our exemplary service and attention to detail, you'll find that the Prescott Hotel, a Kimpton Hotel, offers some of the best accommodations in San Francisco.� I have stayed at many hotel in San Francisco � and I assure you � it is not true. Spend the money at any of the other real four or five star hotels. Kimpsy claims that every hotel �tells a story.� I am not sure this is a good story. I caution you. Unless of course � you want to be a seal!