4/10 Rating
I was excited to stay at Hotel Castro, and to be in the middle of one of the most queer historically significant neighborhoods in SF. Unfortunately, the location is the only thing I really enjoyed while staying here.
For $300-$400 a night, you really do not get what you pay for. There is a pretty long list of inconveniences I experienced while staying here. Here are some of the top few:
1. There is no front desk management, and the hotel is run through a service named Kasa. Maybe good for people who are avoiding social interaction, but it does leave you doing more work for check in, booking, requesting things, etc. Mostly it created a barrier for me where I felt like there wasn't really anyone around to help when I needed things. The human element of hospitality is important.
2. The couch in our room was extremely uncomfortable. Cheap, squeaky, and we actually spent a lot less time in our room because it just wasn't nice to hang out in. There was no place to really comfortably sit in our room which wasn't just in the bed. The balcony chairs are also pretty uncomfortable.
3. We learned there is a noise monitor in our room after receiving an automated alert that we were "being too loud". I didn’t realize we were being surveilled in that way, and it was honestly unsettling. Also, the noise? The hotel provided hair dryer. Just an unpleasant and unnecessary reprimand.
4. I took a personal phone call outside the hotel and sat at a table in front of the Lobby Bar, and someone came out and told me I had to order something to sit there. Our welcome card literally says guests at the hotel are welcome to hang out in the lobby bar. I felt like I was maybe being profiled or chastised for doing something wrong? Idk, I'm a paying guest at the hotel, and even if I wasn't, the bar was dead. it wasn't like I was taking up someone's seat.
5. Our TVs in our room never worked. They both ran extremely slowly (like 5+ minutes to boot up, won't load anything fast enough to stream or watch anything at all) and one of our remotes didn’t work. The wifi is so slow we also couldn't use it. It effectively removed all in suite entertainment.
There were other small issues throughout our stay: our shower had a pretty significant leak and kept dripping all night every night, housekeeping won't clean your room unless you specifically request it during your stay, the fire pit on the roof was out of order and the music played up there is situated right behind the seating so the obnoxious droning slow pop synth was too distracting to really relax. There's also no part of the roof with shade, so if it's too hot it's not a great place to hang out. Holes in our throw pillows. And late checkout has a fee of $102 for 2 HOURS. Just so insane.
Also hope you are alright with the intimacy of anyone in your room hearing absolutely everything you do in the bathroom, because it is fully audible. The pocket door for the bathroom is hard to operate and has gaps so all sound escapes. Hope you're good with that lol
There are not many amenities- no parking, no breakfast, not even an ice machine. The rooms are tiny for the price.
Overall it wouldn't have been a horrible stay if it cost $150-$250 a night. But it is at least double that, and for all of the reasons stated I will likely not be staying here again.