Les M.
Yelp
I stayed for a couple of nights in one of the two rooms with a patio-balcony. I didn't know it at the time that it was in the annex building and not the historic main building. So the furnishings were not real antiques but probably mass produced recently.
The buffet breakfast was nice. What set it apart was the rich variety of fresh fruit (cantelope, strawberries, kiwi, melons...). The baked goodies appeared to be from Safeway, as did the quiches, which were in aluminum pans.
The small garden in back was nice, as not all bed and breakfasts in San Francisco have this.
The hot tub is also really pleasant. The first night I stayed I could not figure out how to turn on the jets of water. The second night, a group of women who were celebrating the awarding of a Ph.D. in social psychology at Stanford joined me. We were lucky that staff had not yet left for the night, and one of them learned that there was something under the chair that turned the jets on (there were no instructions posted on how to use it).
The bed and breakfast when I stayed there had a delightfully civil British family staying there as a Suisse Romande family that was doing a camping trip in an RV in Northern California.
The first morning a very loud, very corpulent American businessman was having a very loud conversation with a business associate that seemed to go on forever. To my astonishment, the husband of the (British) family asked him to not have a business conversation (at 7 a.m.) via Skype, etc. At that time, I also went up to the American in support of a little basic civility.
After putting up some resistance, he--not good-naturedly--did leave the dining room, to everyone's relief, or delight.
He should have been staying at Best Western, not a 125-year-old Victorian.
Marty, the owner, was genuinely kind and generous. He allowed me to cancel the room on the second floor facing Van Ness when I realized, despite it being the grandest room, faced west as well as the street. This--six or so days before I was supposed to stay there.
I had a difficult decision choosing between Chateau Tivoli, Parker's Guesthouse, Noe's Bed and Breakfast, and the Parsonage. In the end, I decided to split my stay between Chateau Tivoli and here. Both have their strong points.
One thing that Marty told me is that there are no discounts for extended stays. I would really like to settle for a stay of a week or longer, so I was disappointed to here this.
Prices on weekends skyrocket, for the better rooms, to $295, to which are added fairly heft San Francisco taxes, etc., making both nights I stayed come to almost $700. For San Francisco, that is still reasonable.
For those who want to get away--in time and space--that is worth it.
In fact, it seems as though the Victorian flats of San Francisco are going the way of the wrecking ball. This bed and breakfast is only 2-3 blocks from Alamo Square, which on one side faces the "Painted Ladies." Already, one of them has been demolished.
Sad, sad, sad.
*****
My room in the annex building faced a garden and was on the second floor. It was long and narrow, the queen bed next to the doorway. There was a fireplace which was purely ornamental, with a log still covered in paper. Opposite was a vent for heat, as the mornings even in summer in San Francisco are cool, even in the Mission.
The jacuzzi tub really was too small to use. It was rather difficult to take a shower, as one had to step up onto the surrounding flat tile space, whose usage remains somewhat mysterious to me.
I did have trouble closing and opening the door to the deck, which blends into the much smaller deck space allotted to the room next door. I was told both rooms are identical (interior) although they did not appear that way in the couple of photos posted on the business's website.
It would be nice to be given more than one tiny bar of soap. I was told that if I needed more all I would have to do is ask for one more at the reception desk on the first floor. The one person on duty there seemed often harried by guests checking in and out as well as by having to take telephone calls.
