Hilton San Francisco Financial District

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

5084 reviews

• 

  A clinic in how to turn a 5 star rating into ZERO stars.

  A clinic in how to turn a 5 star rating into ZERO stars. Hilton Financial had been a "go to" spot for business and vacation for me for over 20 years. I checkied in last month using one of my free hotel days associated with my Hilton credit card. Imagine my surprise when I found an $800 charge on my account for what was supposed to a free night? I've now invested 5 phone calls on hold with the hotel and with the Hilton Honors team. This a premium priced hotel which has historically come with attentive service. My goodness, what happened? Believe me, I will get the refund. But, how much trouble will you put through? I just cancelled my next stay. Plenty of other options.

  Mar 27, 2026
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  Overall a good stay

  We stayed here for three nights and we enjoyed our stay. I am a gold member, and was given two free bottles of water at the check-in desk upon arrival. I was also given an upgrade from a standard king room to a King room with a deluxe bay view, it was a great view however the windows on the outside were a little dirty. Everything else about our room was very clean and we had no issues with that, room amenities were good with the coffee machine and tea making. The shower was a little dated but otherwise had decent pressure. The housekeepers made up our room daily with new towels etc, and refreshed the tea/coffee that we had used. The rooms do not have a lot of soundproofing. On our first night, the guests in the neighbouring room were being extremely loud talking up to midnight which was keeping us awake. We called the reception desk who sent security up to get them to stop a few minutes later which we were very grateful for them sorting the issue out so quickly. The hotel is in a good location, from the airport we took the BART train for around $11 and then walking 10 mins from the nearest station. There is a bus stop right outside the hotel which is nice. Chinatown is close by with good options for food. On a few days we took a Waymo from outside the hotel which was fast and convenient, easy to get it. With my gold status, we got $18 each for food and beverage credit for a total of $36 on three separate days. Having only stayed in UK Hilton's previously, I had read this credit might not be enough to cover breakfast. However, we found that the menu options for breakfast were large portions and this amount easily covered our meals at the sit-down hotel restaurant and the "to go" desk in the lobby. On the night we arrived, we had a dinner using it and the food portions were very filling. Overall we were happy with our stay. We never had to wait long for elevators and everything in the lobby area seemed pretty nice with plenty of places to sit and relax. I would recommend this place.

  Mar 18, 2026
• 

  Convenient. Good sleep. Great team.

  Hilton San Francisco Financial District is one of my favorite hotel properties in San Francisco for convenience to dining, shopping, transit, and historical points of interest such as Nob Hill, Chinatown and North Beach (little Italy). Best of all, it's a very easy walk to Saturday Farmers Market at the Ferry Building. The team is always warm and welcoming. I usually ask for a City View. The Bay View rooms are SPECTACULAR also.

  Mar 12, 2026
• 

  Great hotel with one unforgivable flaw

  Barn doors on the bathroom when I’m with family ruins the experience. I’ve stayed here probably 10 times, but this is my last visit.

  Mar 07, 2026
• 

  Would not stay here again

  1. ARRIVAL IS CONFUSING If driving, it’s not clear where you’re supposed to go when you get here. The driveway in front of the hotel was completely blocked with cars so I couldn’t pull up to the lobby entrance. The only option was to go into the parking garage though I read beforehand that hotel guests need a key to get in. It is a garage that is also used by the public so I took a ticket to get in. The garage has levels A – E and there are signs for hotel guests to park on levels C, D, and E. A and B are for public parking. We parked on C and I had no idea where to go to get into the hotel from the garage. I followed others to the elevators and went up and fortunately that took me to the lobby, but I wasn’t sure where I was going to end up. 2. GARAGE SMELLS LIKE PEE People are clearly going to the bathroom in here 3. DIGITAL KEY ISSUES I received an invitation to check in 24 hours prior to our stay so I did. The app said the digital key will arrive as soon as the room is ready. The next day, I checked the app and it changed to “preparing room, digital key will arrive shortly”. It stayed that way for the rest of the day. Check-in is at 3:00 PM. We arrived at 3:20 PM and they told me the room still wasn’t ready. I went back down to the garage and checked the app again and it changed to “we don’t recognize this device, please visit front desk and we will set you up with a digital key”. I went back up to the lobby and showed them the message and they told me “Yeah, it’s not ready but you’ll get the key when it’s ready”. I went down to the garage again and refreshed the app and it changed to “ready”. This was all in the span of about 10 minutes so I’m guessing the room was ready all along and they just never released it. I was told you need a physical key to get out of the garage after checking out as the digital key won’t work once you check out, so I went back to the front desk a third time to pick up the keys. 4. ELEVATOR LINES There are 4 elevators serving 550 rooms as well as a 5-level parking garage that is also shared with the public. The elevators are old, noisy, and in constant use. Hotel guests need to scan a key to go up to the rooms and the scanner takes several tries to work. Except for very early in the morning or very late at night, there is always a line. People get tired of waiting so rush in and overload the elevators. Beware if you are claustrophobic. We were on the top floor and it would stop every 3 – 4 floors on the way down and filled up quickly. Guests on lower floors often couldn’t get on. I found myself altering our schedule based on the busyness of the elevators. The morning we checked out, I got up and ready earlier than I normally would in order to make several trips to the car with the luggage before the elevators got too busy. If you just want to go to the lobby for a quick drink or snack, you really must consider whether or not it’s worth it. 5. NOISE & PARTIES I specifically paid a little more than I would have liked for a premium room on the top floor thinking it would be quieter. At 10 PM after putting the kids to bed, the next room over starts blasting music and people were singing and yelling. I went down to the front desk and the woman there was very sympathetic, apologized, and called security. As I was waiting for the elevators to go back up, 2 security guards showed up and we rode up together. I heard one tell the other one “I just shut down 2 and now this”. To their credit, they banged on the door and told them to knock it off and they did. Of course by that point, I was wide awake and laying in bed waiting to see if it would start up again. It did remain quiet for the rest of the night but between that and what the security guard said, this seems like a place that attracts this kind of crowd. 6. WEIRD ROOM SMELL & LIGHTING Entering the room, it smelled musty. We had a balcony so we were able to get some fresh air, but it wasn’t pleasant. All the overhead lights and lamps in the room use a bright, daylight bulb that creates a weird bluish/white glow. It reminds me of a light you would use in a workshop or garage. This made the room cold and uncomfortable so I kept most of the lights off. 7. NO SOAP IN BATHROOM We were only there for 1 night (thankfully) so we used the shower gel to wash hands but it’s odd that there was lotion but no hand soap. 8. NOT IN GOOD AREA I figured some of the reviews were exaggerating when they say the hotel is not in a good area. For some people the sight of a homeless person is enough to condemn an entire city. While I’ve been to San Francisco many times and stayed in hotels in different parts of the city, this isn’t an area I would want to stay in again. I can’t quite put my finger on why other than to say it just feels shady. The surrounding streets and alleys are dirty and the whole area – including the hotel itself - feels worn out. Some good things.... 1. THE ON-SITE RESTAURANT WAS EXCELLENT Surprising considering our stay wasn’t great but I would come back here to eat again. Both breakfast and dinner were great. 2. THE VIEW WAS GREAT While we had a nice view, the overall condition of the hotel and issues we encountered made it less special.

  Feb 17, 2026