The Hotel Castro San Francisco

Visiting family who live in the Castro and this location was excellent. Super clean rooms, the bed is really comfortable, the ease of checking in getting into our room, and the response of we needed anything was great. Would definitely recommend staying here. Like some other comments, the walls are thin but people weren’t being overly loud.

POSITIVE: Check in was easy - on our arrival day (Monday), we requested and received early (3 pm) check in (normal is 4 pm), which was helpful as Castro St. rush hour starts after 3 on weekdays. Didn’t have a problem with the access code mentioned in other reviews at check in or throughout stay. There’s a space right in front for easy loading/unloading. Note: if you have a car (we didn’t), parking is limited - the hotel recommends using SpotHero. To get an overnight (free) street space, you likely would need to find one up Castro or one of the cross-streets, which is doable but will take luck & time. Tip if you have a car: drop bags off, punch in access code and drop off in room. There are 4 rooms each on floors 2,3,4. Level 5 is roof lounge with excellent panoramic views (when not raining) couches and cozy fire pit. We booked a handicap accessible room (we needed two twin beds). Our room had a toilet/shower room with pocket door, sink with lighted mirror just outside pocket door, 2 twin beds, HDTV connected to wifi, 1/2 height wardrobe cabinet below TV, small fridge, coffee maker, tea kettle, small table for meals/work, and terrace overlooking back of property. Terrace had a chair and small cube. Prior reviews indicate better to be in back of building on higher floor. We were in back - it WAS very quiet, peaceful - got great non-interrupted sleep. Plenty of nice restaurants, a really nice supermarket, pharmacy, a Starbucks, and shops within walking distance. There are some homeless but they’re friendly and respectful and we never didn’t feel safe. (One actually held door open when I went into Walgreens and hands were full.). Check out was easy - take photo of QR code, leave door hanger, vacate unit, building. We were asked in texts a couple of times if all was well on our stay. Never needed to contact customer support. FOR IMPROVEMENT: We only found out lobby bar not open Monday or Tuesday - after arrival Monday (and we checked out Wednesday morning.) Still, they gave us two drink tokens - which we will use if/when we return. Very limited counter space and no shelves - none in toilet/shower room, a little area on either side of sink, small table (see note about lighting below), a few sq cm on nightstand between beds(see note about lighting below), and top of wardrobe closet. Very few power outlets - there is a cluster of 4 with 4 usb slots on small table, one behind nightstand(see note about lighting below), 2 on wall between small table and wardrobe, 2 at door, 2 hopefully GFI protected (didn’t see reset button) at sink - so unless you travel with a power strip, you’re going to have to sequence what gets recharged when thru your stay, or leave phone/ipad etc. away from bedside - not road warrior desireable. Coffee maker is Nespresso - lots of caffeinated pods zero decaf pods (for old timers or an evening cup. More caf pods in essentials cabinet on 1st floor lobby. They also provide small assortment of teas in room and more in essentials cabinet. Lighting and light switches not optimal. No light fixture above or on small table - closest light to table are sconces on either side of beds - hard to see what you’re doing at night. Lamp on nightstand is wired to outlet controlled by dimmer switch for sconces. Not well thought out. You turn off sconces with wall switch (which also turns off nightstand lamp). If you wake up you are in complete darkness and have to make it over to wall switch to light lamp on nightstand. Guest before us plugged nightstand lamp into 2nd outlet which left zero outlets for phone chargers. Hence if you like your phone charging at bedside, and want to be able to turn off bedside light, you will need a power strip (unless management realizes this and provides another.) Below the TV is an Android mini-tablet - it is a Google Hub, can play soothing audio, and although I’m techie competent, i never figured out how to pair to TV, or stream from my iPhone or iPad to the TV. To stream, i had to sign in on tv to various apps - i.e. Fubo, Netflix, etc. That is what faqs card says you have to do so if you want to watch Netflix etc, make sure you travel with pw’s - you won’t be able to stream from an iPad or iPhone. Beds were def not your typical (firm) American hotel grade - they reminded me of European hotel mattresses on a frame with slats - no box spring, comfortable but didn’t support, so slept on my side to avoid back aches.

Really enjoyed our stay here. Great location, cute hotel. Already looking forward to coming back.

Very compact room. Glad I was traveling solo as I felt two people in the room would have been too tight. There was noise from the bar underneath the hotel and on the street that facilitated the need for white noise to drown it out if trying to go to bed before 1am. Location is great to everything in the Castro.

Loved this hotel. Perfect location for everything I wanted, very comfy and cozy, LOVED my king-sized bed. This was the perfect spot for a solo traveler, I definitely see myself staying here again! Being in the Castro, this hotel emphasized and highlighted the culture that makes this neighborhood. Especially loved the views from the Nest!

Great location! Rooms are small but otherwise nice. It makes a great stay for a good value!

I'm sure it is as clean and comfortable as advertised, however I will not be staying there because the virtual check-in process requires uploading a driver's license and uses facial recognition to verify your identity. I'm not super paranoid about that stuff, but it felt a little invasive to have to provide facial imaging to some random hotel while there are plenty of other options in the neighborhood that don't require it. When i asked to cancel my reservation I was told that it was outside the 24 hour cancellation period so no refund was possible. They explained that the virtual check-in process is described in the terms and conditions, which is not something I usually read when booking a hotel room. Just found the whole process a little creepy.

I stayed at the hotel for 4 days. The location is convenient to the Castro neighborhood, but there were problems. Because it is across the street from a grocery store, delivery trucks begin arriving every day around 5AM. They park on the street in front of the hotel and it was very noisy. If you are ok getting up at 5:00AM, it may not be a problem for you. In the evening, the loud music from the lobby bar, and the loud patrons on the sidewalk, make sleeping an issue. If you are ok with loud noise until 1:00 or 1:00AM, then maybe that's ok for you. Lastly, the door access, elevator and room codes stopped working after day 3. It took customer service almost 20 minutes to respond to my chat and texts. I was finally given new codes, but those codes worked only once. Another 20 min with customer service. Every time I left my room, the codes stopped working. I spent a lot of time standing in the rain and cold on the sidewalk waiting for codes. In all, I spent 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon trying to get reliable access to my room. I eventually gave up and decided to skip my holiday party and just stay in my room. I didn't want to risk trying to get in at 10 or 11PM. There is no onsite help, and their virtual help is overwhelmed and can't respond in a timely way. For my trouble, they offered to refund the $50 cleaning fee. I didn't realize there was a $50 cleaning fee. There are a lot of hotels in San Francisco; I wouldn't choose this one again.

Visiting family for Thanksgiving and decided to fly in early to get a little SF getaway squeezed in. First, the location is AMAZING! Right in the heart of the Castro district. We are a gay couple, so this was heaven. Shopping, restaurants, clubs - all within a few blocks. And of course Muni is right there to get to other parts of the city easily. The room was (very) small but super cute! The decor was amazing. And very well laid out given its size. The size is an issue however - we couldn’t fully unpack since there was no room to put things. So if you are staying for a longer period of time, you may find it a bit uncomfortable. (we only stayed 2 nights). This also isn’t a regular hotel. It’s more like an Air BnB situation. There is no front desk. But there is a bar next door that apparently serves as the front desk. Just a heads up if you’re looking for a more traditional hotel experience. Overall we will definitely be staying here again when we come to SF.

There is no parking anywhere near the hotel. I was told to use an app called SpotHero to find a space, but that app only deals with hourly and monthly parking, no overnight parking. There is no lobby in the hotel, so there is no one at the front desk who can give help and advice. There are no refrigerators or closets in the room. Give the Hotel Castro a miss.