Just read my entire review before booking.
We arrive. We are not greeted until the front desk person says "Next!" very impersonally 20 minutes after standing in line. We walk up to our room and the cleaning woman is in "our" room just starting to clean it. So we had to quickly drop off our bags and leave. I had no time to change because she was inside. Meanwhile the entire hotel smells musty. The hotel claims to be historic; well it definitely smelled historic. 
The room was tiny. There was the bathroom, the bed, a closet and 2 feet empty space surrounding the bed and that was all. The ac/heat unit was the kind that is set into the window. The halls are filled with massive mirrows and long corridors! It seriously looked like something straight out of the shining!!! Ahh! 
The location is good and bad. Let me explain. Geographically it is excellent. There is a bus stop and a Bart Subway (airport and other transportation) just steps from the front door. Many of the must see neighborhoods are not far and there are plenty of places to eat in the neighborhood. That was the good; and here's the bad: the neighborhood! The neighborhood is called Civic Center/Union Square and it is the home of hundreds of pushy homeless people looking for some change. You literally could not walk two feet without someone begging and aggressively demanding some change or food. Oh and if you are a pretty lady or are going to be with a pretty lady, be prepared for some abrasive staring and shouting in her direction. I wore my purse that wraps around my body just in case. But don't get me wrong, the neighborhood isn't dangerous or "ghetto" it's streets are just literally the home of many many homeless people. 
Finally I think the only major positive thing I can say about Hotel Whitcomb is that it does not have a shared bathroom. Your bathroom is right in your room like most normal hotels not in San Francisco.