Over promised, over priced, under-delivered
I'm American, based in Dublin with an Irish other half. We've both seen the inside of plenty of B&Bs throughout Ireland and the UK to have certain expectations. Before we arrived, The Edward II seemed like a godsend – SF was our first stop after a very long flight, we needed a place for our first night, and most of the city was booked out.
What our stay actually became boiled down to the following:
The Room:
Advertised as a "Classic queen" but really a drag. Cramped and clammy with shabby furniture sporting stains, burn marks, gnawed corners. Sink next to the bed and not in the bathroom. Wires *everywhere*.
The Ick Factor:
Found a old hand-towel stuffed in the windowsill to collect moisture. hair on the shower walls... and on the floor.
The Bathroom:
Toilet did not flush. DID. NOT. FLUSH.
The Noise:
A shared bathroom for the floor was on the other side of our headboard; it also served as phone booth for guests looking to multi-task at 2am. Also, housekeeping began at 8am.
The Construction:
kicked off in the lot next door at 6am. They couldn't help that, but it didn't help them.
But, most importantly...
The Staff:
At check-out I rationally and civilly complained to the woman at the front desk. She didn't handle the complaint but promised to let the manager – who wasn't in that day – know when he returned and he would contact us to resolve the issue.
(Later, after seeing a photo of the owner/operators on their site, we realised the manager hadn't been away, but in the next room the entire time.)
After returning to Ireland we called the hotel to repeat the complaint and got the same woman who checked us out. After being told it was our own fault we didn't complain sooner and more vociferously, I let her know about EU laws allowing chargebacks for failure to deliver service as advertised... and only then was I given 20% back from the cost of the stay.