Review: Hotel Griffon in San Francisco, California

I have just completed a stay in San Francisco at the Hotel Griffon, which is located at 155 Steuart Street near the Emarcadero. The first thing I noticed when I arrived was the small size of the room. It turned out not to be an issue. The combination of the location of Hotel Griffon and the friendliness of the staff made up for that issue.The Hotel Griffon is located just a couple blocks away from The Embarcadero and therefore is in a great location for people who enjoy getting around town by foot. I found plenty of restaurants to dine at within walking distance and some great happy hour bars as well.

As I mentioned the rooms at the Hotel Griffon are indeed small. They are no more than 20 feet wide at any point in the room from wall to wall, and considerably smaller in most areas of the room. I was traveling alone on business and had just enough room to store my clothes for my five day stay in the drawers and closet. If you were staying for the same period with two people in a room you would have a significant issue. The hotel advertised the bed as being a queen bed, but I find that hard to believe. The bed was also rather short.

That's enough of the negatives though about the Hotel Griffon. The staff was very friendly and helpful during my stay. I asked about a couple locations for possible happy hour visits and they informed me what portions of my walk to those locations could include sketchy characters that I could come across. When I inquired about clearing out the mini-bar so I could store my own soda and snacks it was done within a couple of hours. The Hotel Griffon in San Francisco advertises a morning continental breakfast. During my stay the restaurant they use for this was closed as a new business moved into the location. This was not a problem though as the Hotel Griffon set up a table on each floor with an assortment of breakfast foods. These included bagels, croissants, muffins, lunch meat, fruit, milk, and orange juice. As the table ran low it was quickly replenished by the staff.

The Hotel Griffon is located within walking distance of many different restaurants. There are plenty of options of fast food sub shops or fine dining within a couple blocks. I found a couple very good micro brew bars within a 15 minute walk of the hotel as well for happy hour. I felt very safe making these walks as there was plenty of people walking the streets of San Francisco, most of them being business people. Speaking of business, the Hotel Griffon is great for business travelers as it has wireless internet throughout the hotel, a computer in the lobby for use by guests, and they will copy and fax documents for you if you request it. The only negative for business travelers is there really isn't much desk space in the room to complete your work.

Overall, if you can get over the lack of working space and storage space in your room, the Hotel Griffon in San Francisco is a great choice for business travelers.