A Huge Disappointment
I am not the type to write bad reviews on a hotel, however my recent experience at the Cornell Hotel de France could no go without review. My husband and I were on our second anniversary trip. After 5 amazing days in Napa at a beautiful boutique Inn, we decided to end our trip with two nights in San Francisco. We selected the Cornell Hotel de France because of its reasonable price, excellent location, charm and from reviews we read on trip advisor. After our stay, I cannot image who is writing such glowing reviews.
First let me say it is tiny…every thing is tiny! If you look at pictures posted online, it is even smaller! My husband and I are rather tall people and were concerned when we were getting a queen bed, but thought it could be cute so we went with it. To our surprise…the “queen” bed was a full bed to say the most. Our tiny room was equipped with the tiniest of tvs which looked like it was from 1995 and did not have color any more. When we got to our room, ALL of the windows were open. This is a large city and we were on the first floor. For safety reasons, it did not make us feel great that we came into a room were windows were unlocked and opened. Now lets talk about locks…you don’t get a card to unlock you room, there is a key…a true key that you must carry around with you to unlock your door as well as a master key to the hotel as they lock the door beginning at 9pm. The location seemed amazing, two blocks from Union Square, a block from the Sir Francis Drake….while those were all very convenient, the true next door neighbor to this hotel is a porn show…yep a live porn theater and all that means is right next to the building. 
Now I will address our biggest problem. There is NO AC in the building. NONE, NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH! It was so hot my husband and I thought we were baking in the oven that was our tiny room! When we looked at the website, not once does it mentioned that this building is without the modern convenience of air conditioning. I have stayed in some pretty interesting places in my life and some pretty amazing ones, and no matter how shabby the place…never have I been without AC…not even a window unit. When were mentioned how hot it was they said “That is because we don’t have AC….you should just leave your window open.” How is their solution to leave your first floor window open in a huge city like San Francisco? We might as well go ahead and invite criminals to come take out valuables! When we asked for a fan, they seemed somewhat shocked, and when the room was still hot with one tiny fan and we asked for a second, the maid told us we didn’t need one. What right does she have to tell us how hot we are in the room and how many tiny fans will make us feel comfortable. When we checked out we mentioned our disappointment with the accommodations and the lack of AC. We also mentioned that this was not listed on their website. They did nothing for us and instead said that they are working on their website and will take into advisement that they should mention no AC. 
In other complaints, the shower was dirty, the water did not turn on in the tub until we had tried to run it for a good 10 minutes. Warm (not hot) water was available for a 5 minute or less shower. You can hear every footstep, conversation, door opening or closing throughout the entire hotel. Be prepared to hear the porn theater next door. 
So here are my final thoughts: Though the pictures look cute and it sounds like a great deal….do not select this hotel unless you don’t mind noise, tiny spaces and living in an oven with no AC! I would much rather have spent a little bit more to move to a nicer hotel. San Francisco is great…the Cornell Hotel de France not so much!