Where to Stay in San Francisco with Kids: St. Regis San Francisco Review

During our family vacation to Hawaii and Bora Bora, we flew Southwest Airlines so had to stay overnight in San Francisco. We decided to stay several days to break up the long journey from Baltimore and see the sights of San Francisco. We stayed at the St. Regis San Francisco using Marriott points for 3 nights. This was our first stay at a St. Regis hotel and we were impressed by the outpouring of attention and gifts for our children. The St. Regis San Francisco is widely known as one of the best luxury hotels in San Francisco. We think it is also one of the best hotels for families in San Francisco. For help deciding where to stay in San Francisco with kids in luxury, ready our St. Regis San Francisco review. It gets our vote for best family hotel in San Francisco thanks to the outstanding service and extra touches that made our family feel special.

Where to Stay in San Francisco with Kids in Luxury: St. Regis SFO Review

**Our WTA score represents our own views based on our personal experience with the entity being reviewed.

St. Regis San Francisco Location

The San Francisco St. Regis is located At 125 Third Street in the SoMa District of the city center. The hotel occupies part of the Williams Building, home to the Museum of the African Diaspora and adjacent to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Art enthusiasts will appreciate its location as well as luxury shoppers due to its proximity to Union Square. It is also popular with business travelers due to being near the Moscone Center and Financial District. Other nearby attractions include Oracle Park and the Yerba Buena Center for Arts.

We found the location convenient enough since we could walk or hop on the trolleys to many San Francisco attractions. The St. Regis San Fran also offers complimentary luxury car service in a Tesla for guests of the hotel. The courtesy car is available on a first-come, first-served basis for drop-offs within a 2-mile radius of the hotel. We took advantage of this service and enjoyed a luxurious ride to the Golden Gate park. The kids thought the Lamborghini style doors of the Tesla were the coolest thing ever.

How we made our St. Regis booking

St. Regis San Francisco is a Marriott Bonvoy Category 8 hotel (at the time of publishing this post). Since Marriott frequently changes hotel categories, double check before you plan your stay if you plan on redeeming points. Since the implementation of peak and off-peak award pricing, the hotel requires 70K points on off-peak nights, 85K points on standard nights, and 100K points on peak nights. We booked a standard room since our elite status with Marriott Bonvoy entitled us a complimentary room upgrade at check-in, based on availability.

We were upgraded to a Metropolitan Suite, which would have cost $881 per night plus taxes and fees. The rate for 3 nights in a Metropolitan Suite would have been $3,222.00, so this was a valuable points redemption.

Heartfelt Welcome at the San Francisco St. Regis

When we arrived at the St Regis SFO, the bellmen and front desk staff gave us an exceptionally warm welcome. The hotel staff continued to wow us with outstanding service throughout our stay.

We were hoping to receive a one-category room upgrade, but they went even further. When they saw that we were a family of four with a lot of luggage, they upgraded us to a suite so that we would have plenty of space. They offered us bottled water and generous welcome gifts for our entire family. We received a bottle of champagne, a bowl of fresh fruit, and a welcome note from the GM accompanied by a little box of gourmet chocolate.

The kids each received a scrap book and markers to record their memories from our San Francisco vacation,  a puzzle of San Francisco’s sights, and postcards of San Francisco attractions for them to color. The General Manager Jacqueline Volkart also came over to say hello and chat with us while we were checking in to the hotel. She was warm and engaging with our children and seemed to genuinely enjoy their high energy and curiosity. We’ve found that not all high-end luxury hotels are so welcoming toward young kids, so this instantly put us at ease. She told us about some of the family-friendly things to do in San Francisco nearby and invited us to the nightly champagne sabering ceremony, which was about to begin.

Champagne Sabering Ceremony

Jacqueline secured us a table with a great view of the action- when a staff member opens a champagne bottle with a saber. This nightly St. Regis tradition dates back to Napoleon Bonaparte’s battles and has been the signature St. Regis evening ceremony for over a century. They brought our kids flutes of sparkling cider so they wouldn’t feel left out. That meant the world to them. Together with bubbly we celebrated our first family vacation in San Francisco and the beginning of our epic family vacation to Hawaii, Australia, and Bora Bora.

 

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That night, we returned to our room to find the Astor Library Cart full of children’s books for them to read during our stay. They also left a plate of giant chocolate chip cookies, glasses of milk, two stuffed bears, and a huge rainbow made of balloons. The kids were thrilled and we were highly impressed by the heart-warming gesture. The cookies were insanely delicious too!

St. Regis Metropolitan Suite

The St. Regis San Francisco has newly refreshed rooms and suites offering modern decor and city views. We stayed in a 980 sq ft Metropolitan Suite, which had a spacious living room, bedroom, bathroom, dressing area, work area and dining area. Metropolitan suites have huge windows and marble window seats to allow guests to fully enjoy the city views.

Metropolitan suites have two 55-inch plasma flat-screen TV’s, one in the living room and one in the bedroom. Other in-room amenities include 3 phones, stereo, work area with printer, mini bar, free bottled water, safe, iron and ironing board. Two rollaway beds can be added for a charge of $100 per night in addition to one crib. The stated maximum room occupancy is 3, although we stayed as a family of four with more than enough space.

Our bedroom featured a plush king bed dressed in luxurious Frette linens. It was the best night of sleep we’d enjoyed in a long time. That bed with a pillowtop mattress was much more comfortable than our own bed at home. Our suite also had a separate dressing area with a 3-way mirror and space to lay out our luggage. There was also ample closet space and drawers had we decided to unpack, with closets in both the living room and bedroom. We had a ridiculous amount of luggage and still had plenty of space for everything.

Metropolitan suite bathrooms have limestone floors, marble dual-sink vanities, a separate shower room with a rainfall shower head, and a large soaking tub. A small TV on the mirror is convenient if you like to listen to the news while getting ready. Pocket doors separate the toilet and shower from the rest of the bathroom and close off the bathroom from the dressing area.

Our kids had so much fun taking a bath in the extra-long and extra-deep bathtub. Luxe bath amenities by Remede, the same products used in the St. Regis spa, smelled like peppermint. The Remede body wash has little exfoliating beads which make your skin extra soft.

St. Regis Butler Service

One aspect of staying in a suite that we adored was the complimentary butler service. This signature St. Regis service sets apart the brand from many other luxury hotels. We enjoyed morning beverage service delivered to our room by our butler. We were able to choose from coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate served with biscotti. It was so convenient to just call and ask for our morning beverage service as soon as we woke up, without rushing to get ready for breakfast. We lingered over our hot tea and hot cocoa in our cozy bath robes while deciding on our plans for the day.

Butler service also includes unpacking and packing, shoe shine, and pressing of 2 garments per day. We were just beginning our vacation, so we didn’t have any items to be pressed. Since we only were staying 3 nights, we decided not to have our butler unpack for us. However, we loved the luxury of that option and would have certainly indulged for a longer stay.

Butler service is such a bespoke personalized service that not many luxury hotels offer. Butlers are available 24/7 by phone or email to get you anything you need, with a nominal 15% surcharge for items that they must leave the hotel to acquire. That’s incredibly convenient if you forgot to pack something but don’t want to bother running out to get it yourself. Service also includes nightly turndown service, where slippers and robes are laid out and bed linens turned down. They even have small children’s bath robes and slippers, which the kids wore to the pool.

St. Regis Spa, Fitness Center, and Pool

The St. Regis San Francisco Spa offers a full selection of treatments including massage, body scrubs, body wraps, facials, manicures, pedicures, waxing, eye treatments, and paraffin hand treatments. The Remede Spa is the best rated luxury spa in San Francisco and is beautifully designed. The luxe spa offers handmade truffles and champagne to guests in the relaxation lounges, which are separate for men and women.

We did not get any spa treatments but I did escape briefly to indulge in the spa amenities while the kids splashed in the pool with their dad. I enjoyed the eucalyptus steam room, cedar wood sauna, and whirlpool, all of which were blissfully relaxing. The women’s bathroom and changing area of the spa was beautifully appointed, with chic furniture and a serene ambience.

The 24-hour fitness center offers over 5,700 sq ft of workout space with city views. There is a private yoga and Pilates studio as well as an impressive array of cardio and strength equipment. Water and fresh fruit were available for guests.

The highlight of the spa and fitness center for our kids (and the only kid-friendly aspect) was the indoor heated pool. We made our way to the pool as soon as the kids woke up and stayed for several hours. There were some pool toys available like noodles that the kids enjoyed. The pool offers city views and natural light, although it wasn’t as stunning as some indoor city pools we’ve visited (like the atrium pool at Park Hyatt New York). Towels and water are available to guests in the pool area.

St. Regis San Francisco Dining

St. Regis San Francisco restaurants include the Grill at the St. Regis, the Lobby Lounge, and 24 hour room service. The Grill serves locally-sourced seasonal fare for breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch and dinner. The Grill has a children’s menu, which is something we always appreciate when traveling as a family. The Lobby Lounge serves afternoon tea, cocktails like the St. Regis signature Bloody Mary, and elevated restaurant fare in a sumptuous lounge next to the bar.

We normally enjoy complimentary breakfast as part of our elite hotel status, but unfortunately our Gold Elite status with Marriott does not include breakfast. We did however enjoy our complimentary morning beverage service in our suite for breakfast, which included fresh honey from the hotel’s beehives for our tea and biscotti. Since we did not eat any meals at the St. Regis San Francisco restaurants, we cannot speak to the quality of the food other than the delicious cookies they offered us. As far as the drinks and the ambience, we thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and the champagne offered at the Sabering Ceremony in the Lobby Lounge.

Our only critique is that since the restaurants are on the main level of the hotel, the street views are not as appealing as if they were located on a higher floor. The Lobby Lounge has shades that obscur the view and helps give the lounge a more intimate feel. We noticed other guests having afternoon tea there, which looked like an elegant affair with tasty treats. The lobby bar also offers complimentary coffee and tea in the morning, which is an amenity we always appreciate.

Last thoughts on our St. Regis San Francisco Review

The personalized service and attention to detail at the St. Regis SFO truly impressed us. The friendly staff went above and beyond to welcome our family with thoughtful gifts and delicious treats. They made balloon art for our kids and delivered it to our room twice, which the kids adored.

The Astor Library Cart for bedtime reading was a special touch that we’ve never seen at any other hotel. The exceptional service and warmth toward our children makes this hotel stand out as truly memorable from our brief stay in San Francisco.

We found the newly redone decor modern, sleek, and minimalist. The location was not ideal since we couldn’t walk to many of the attractions we wanted to visit, at least not with young kids. St. Regis SFO made up for that with the courtesy car, and we had fun riding the trolley around town as well. Overall, we had a wonderful stay and would not hesitate to stay there again. The St. Regis San Francisco has rightly earned its reputation as one of the best hotels in San Francisco. It also gets our vote as one of the best hotels for families in San Francisco thanks to its welcoming hospitality toward children.

 

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