Hotels near Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco

We stayed in the Barnes for four nights in June 2023. Firstly, the hotel is really well located, right by Union Square with all its transport links and 20-30 minute walk away from the Embarcadero and Oracle Stadium. The room was clean and cleaned daily, staff were all very friendly, and it has a great gym (we stayed at the Galleria Park during our last stay in SF which was more expensive and the gym wasn’t fantastic). The bathroom was a little on the small side but the room was a decent size with a comfortable (but slightly on the softer side) bed, fridge, huge TV, coffee making facilities and a table with two bar stools. The hotel is good for the price you pay. We didn’t spend huge amounts of time in the room as we were busy sightseeing and it was perfect for what we needed. As other reviewers have pointed out, some parts of it are being renovated but we were not impacted by any noise so we had no complaints on that side. I note one other review mentioned noise from the road, we did experience that but it didn’t bother us.

Beautiful hotel in good location for us. Had appetizers and wine in the bar area. Servers were wonderful, friendly and checked back often. Sara at the front desk conducted the nicest check-in experience we can recall. Our king room on the 12th floor was a bit small. Surprised that in California the in-room coffee involved so much wasted cardboard and paper just to get a bit of sugar. Small complaint, though.

We chose this hotel because of the location for getting to the trolley, a Hop-on Hop-off tour stop, the local bus system, and the nearby BART system. For this it did not disappoint. The price is reasonable, and the hotel was very clean, and the staff was very friendly. From this, I digress. The noise level during the nights, was that a very loud level. All from external. Sirens, music, loud cars and trucks going by, garbage trucks in the middle of the night, quite a bit of yelling, and the like. Normal ear plugs did not help. If you stay here, you will need some heavy duty ear plugs. We get up earlier and the hotel lobby coffee was not ready ever before 7:00 a.m. there is coffee in the room, however if you need real creamer, you'll be out of luck until 7:00 approximately. Not a terrible review, just want people to be aware.

I arrived at the hotel early and asked for an early check-in, and they listened. Perhaps because it is a Japanese hotel, hospitality is apparent right from the hotel entrance. The room was clean and good for a family of four. The location is right across from the start of the Tenderloin, so I was scared the first day I arrived, but it was okay during the day. I stayed on the club floor and used it in the morning and evening. Children (11 to 7 years old) can use it for free.

I stayed 3 nights in a female room, beds in a capsule style, a spacious and quiet room, a big locker, and it covered my bag, common bag and jacket. In every floor they have a lounge with TV, microwave, freezer, coffee and tea. The location is excellent, close to the market, public transport and tourist points at 20 minutes walk. I love and recommend!

I want to share my recent experience at this hotel, which I regretfully cannot recommend. The hotel has an attractive location but is marred by a lack of basic amenities and poor customer service. During our six-night stay, we discovered on the second morning that there was no hot water. We informed the receptionist, Andy, but were met with a dismissive and rude attitude. We were informed that there would be no hot water for the rest of the day, and this lack of basic amenities was for a total of three days of the six days of our stay. Please note that according to California Civil Code §1940.2, it is the responsibility of the hotel to provide and maintain hot and cold running water for guests. To make matters worse, when we requested to check out early due to this issue, we were offered no refunds as our stay was prepaid on expedia. Expedia told us that the property was to decide while the property said it was expedia.. As I am a hotelier myself, I know it is the hotel’s call in the end. We were offered a shower facility in a separate building which was very inconvenient as we had to walk out of our building and take elevators to get there.. This was not a suitable alternative to the basic amenity that we had paid for. To add insult to injury, at time of check out, Andy offered us only $80 as a refund on a reservation worth over $1500, what a humiliating act, we could not believe it! Better not to offer anything, because really it is a shame to offer this to people.. We were one of the many customers to complain, and we saw that the receptionists had no sympathy towards anyone.. Yes, all businesses are there to make money, but not like this. What they did is close to stealing from someone! I cannot recommend this hotel to other travelers, and I will continue to write on other platforms to warn people..

The room is quite big

We loved everything about our stay. Starting with the warm greeting, the fabulous service, the amazing accommodations and the incredible views. We can’t wait to come back for another visit. If you need to recharge your batteries I highly recommend this location.

I was extremely disappointed with my recent stay. I spoke w/ the front desk manager & with many other staff during my stay at this location. This turned what was supposed to be an exciting, exploratory visit to Oakland for house hunting, into a bit of a drag and disappointment. I have outlined some of my feedback below as I think this should be addressed on a larger level so that others do not have the same experience as us. First, I am FUMING irritated by how I was treated by the valet at this hotel. It happened twice in the same evening, with the same person. He was rude, talked down to me about how to speak to the valet staff about how I need my car to be parked, and had extreme attitude, after making me move my own car several times because he was overwhelmed. This is unacceptable. I have driven cars in hundreds of hotels both in and out of the U.S. and I am not about to be talked down to by a valet attendant. The hotel itself. This hotel needs help. The bathroom is dirty and broken down. We had a tile loose above our bed that made us nervous to sleep and the floors were pretty gross in the bathroom. It was an extremely warm weekend in Oakland and our room was so warm and the AC was not working properly. We had to call and have a fan brought to our room because we couldn’t sleep. Also we had a lot of issues with the television not working on the internet. So had major limitations on working Netflix etc. The hotel service. We needed plates and silverware for take out one night. We had been out house hunting until later in the evening and we called for plates/silverware. I took nearly an hour to get these items to our room and we had to call more than once. We also requested our room to be serviced on Saturday (we called earlier in the morning to double check they would be coming). We had a stain on our sheets we wanted changed. We arrived back at the hotel later around 9pm after another day of house hunting to find our room completely untouched and unchanged. It was so frustrating because we were exhausted. This time I decided to speak to the manager on duty (who was friendly and understanding) but again had to call more than once because of the delays. Our room did not end up fully changed until 11pm. We stayed in Oakland because we are relocating back to the Bay Area and wanted to check out the East Bay and in particular Oakland, Rockridge and the Oakland hills. This is nowhere near the welcome we expected and was a major turn off to Oakland. Ya’ll need to get it together.

Stayed here for an overnight layover. A bit expensive but much better than sleeping in the airport. Very conveinent for a 5pm landing in SFO and a noon departure. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of communication when it came to (what I was told the night before) a complementary breakfast voucher.