Hotel Review: Best Western Plus Americania in San Francisco

The Best Western Plus Americania is a hotel, I wanted to stay at and review it for a long time already. Usually, I stay in different parts of the area due to work and distance to work and of course prices. As you probably know, San Franciso can get pretty expensive. I was heading back to San Francisco and got stuck in Miami for about 8 hours. The original connecting flight from Miami to Dallas was delayed. In the hope of getting to Dallas and have about 2 hours overlay to test a new Priority Pass lounge, I tried to get an earlier flight. I was put on the standby list and even tho I had a First Class ticket I would make it only into economy class on this flight. The flight was overbooked anyway and I still had my original ticket for the already delayed flight to Dallas. This one would be in First Class on a Boeing 767. This is the real first-class product. Anyway, I decided to go with that. In the meantime, I tried to kill some time by visiting the Avianca and LATAM VIP Lounges at MIA. I got a notification that the earlier flight will be delayed as well and thought lucky me that I went with the 767. A few minutes later this flight got delayed even further as it already was and I would have only 20 minutes to make it from the D gates in DFW to the A gates. It was not enough time to catch my flight. I decided to change my itinerary again and instead take the direct flight from MIA to SFO. I called American and they were able to confirm me immediately for this flight. The only downside was that this flight wouldn’t leave until 9:30 p.m. Not a big deal as I was checking out two new lounges I have never been to in Miami.

You probably won’t believe it but the direct flight to SFO got delayed as well. What’s going on with Miami? Anyway, I made it into SFO about 30 minutes late and was at the baggage claim around 1:00 am. I checked my app to make sure my bags even made it with all the flight changes and sure enough, they didn’t. Half of it was stuck in Dallas and the rest was unknown at least according to the app. I filed a baggage claim with the baggage office of American in the terminal and headed toward the rental car center to pick up my car and head to the hotel. The advantage of coming in that late is, there is no traffic at all. The whole city is like dead at that time and it was super easy to get to the hotel from the airport.

Check-In

As you probably can imagine, there are not a lot of guests checking in around 2 a.m. This made the whole check-in process quick and painless. Within a short time, I had the room keys in my hands and the front desk clerk took care of my car. They only offer valet parking at this hotel. I grabbed my bag and headed around the corner to the elevator. You need your room key to even call the elevator. It’s a security thing, maybe because of the bar connected to the hotel and drunken people could just walk in without being really noticed by the staff. As I was super tired at 2 a.m. I just wanted to go to bed.

1 King Bed Room (Room 3349)

Unfortunately, all the rooms have their windows facing the hallway instead of out of the building. I am not a big fan of hotels that style because basically everyone walking by could look in your room and I don’t want to give anybody incentives to break into my room. I closed the blinds, either way, just to be able to sleep in a little bit and not get woken up with the first sunlight.

The room was tiny. To the left a small work desk, to the right, the bed and a chair and at the end of the room the washbasin. To the left of the washbasin is a small closet with a safe and to the right is the bathroom with the shower. The bathroom was very small as well.

One of the biggest downsides of the room is that there are no power outlets near the bed. The only power outlets I could find were at the washbasin and a few more at the small work desk. Lucky that the room was so small, the charger cord for my laptop reached all the way to the bed. Unfortunately, I had to leave my cell phone on the desk to get charged.

Be warned the room has to air conditioning only a heater and a ceiling fan. From walking around the Best Western Plus Americania it looked like there are some rooms with a portable A/C unit. It could get a bit warm in the room and it did. Even with the ceiling fan running and the tiny part of the window open, it wouldn’t cool down a lot throughout the day.

Other than that the room was ok. Everything was clean and working.

Public Areas

The highlight of Best Western Plus Americania is definitely the heated pool above the parking garage and located on the 3rd floor of the Best Western Plus Americania. The perfect place to cool down and relax during the hot summer days and also useable in the colder winter days. The area around the pool is not very big and only limited seating is available. The sun deck, which would be on the fourth floor, is closed for maintenance but already for a long time. It didn’t look like anybody was actually doing any maintenance to it.

One floor lower is the fitness center. It is pretty well equipped and offers a view of the hotel courtyard and on the other side of the hotel driveway.

The lobby level features a small business center with two PCs, refreshments (coffee in the morning, and water during the rest of the day). The front desk clerk doubles as concierge and can give you tips if you have any questions about the city.

Dining

Directly connected to the Best Western Plus Americania is the K-OZ restaurant. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The restaurant is not part of the hotel if it comes to billing. You can’t do room charge here, be warned. I felt for it and assumed you could do room charge because it was directly connected to the hotel building. I came down for breakfast and asked to do a room charge but only brought my room key and left my wallet in the room. I explained the situation and the waiter let me leave to grab my wallet. Of course, I came back and settled my bill.

The restaurant is open daily from 7:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. for breakfast. A lunch and dinner option could be Teo Restaurant & Bar. You get 10% off if you show them your room key.

Conclusion

The Best Western Plus Americania has sometimes pretty good room rates and it’s a great spot to explore San Francisco. As a tourist, you probably don’t care so much about the small rooms. You are probably outside the whole day anyway, exploring the city. The K-OZ restaurant is connected to the hotel but there are many restaurants just within walking distance of the hotel. It’s a short walk from the hotel to Market St, the heart of San Francisco. From there you can take BART or other public transportation and get wherever you want to go. There is no need to rent a car. The hotel is frequented by international guests. I met some Germans and Austrians. If you are here to explore the city and be out and about, you could make this hotel for sure your homebase for the time being.