San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the world. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any affordable accommodation in the city, more so from chained hotels.
During my most recent stay in the city, I was looking for somewhere close to downtown San Francisco. It would be the longest time I would have spent in the city, so I wanted a good location to fully explore it. Also, the property has to have good enough amenities for me to work out.
After doing some research, I stumbled upon the Parc 55 San Francisco hotel by Hilton.
Although it is named Parc 55, it is effectively a Hilton brand hotel under the Hilton chain. The Hilton San Francisco Union Square hotel is located right across the block and the two properties share some facilities like the swimming pool.
This is a review of my stay at the Parc 55 San Francisco Hotel by Hilton.
Parc 55 San Francisco: Location
Parc 55 San Francisco is located in the heart of San Francisco. It is situated within the Union Square area, right above Powell Street Bart Station.
If you’re travelling from SFO, it’ll be very convenient for you to get to the airport.
There are concerns that the hotel is located right on the fringe of the infamous Tenderloin neighbourhood. Although not a huge issue during the day, it might not be the best idea to walk outside the hotel area at night.
Parc 55 San Francisco: Booking
The standard king-sized bedroom costs an average of US$263.208 per night including taxes. For my 5-night stay, that is a total of US$1316.04.
Despite the cost, this is one of the cheapest Hilton properties in the San Francisco metropolitan area.
Because of the ongoing Hilton 3x points promotion and the American Express Hilton Surpass credit card, I earned 58,569 Hilton points from this stay. Using a modest 0.5 cents per point valuation, this earning is worth US$292.84. A 22% return, that’s not bad at all!
Parc 55 San Francisco: King Bed Junior Suite
The King Bed Junior Suite is huge compared to standard non-suite rooms in the hotel.
As you walk through the walkway from the door, there will be a set of sofas for guests to lounge in. At the other end of the room is a working table which faces the southern end of the city.
Every room comes with a large 49″ TV. For my room, the positioning of the TV is directly perpendicular to the bed. This is a really awkward position for people who like to lie in their beds to binge on TV shows in hotels.
Compared to other standard Hilton properties like the Hampton Inn Front Royal we’ve stayed previously, this is definitely a step up in terms of quality.
Bathroom
The bathroom in the King Bed Junior Suite is fairly basic. One thing that stood out to me immediately was how dim the bathroom is despite turning on all the lights available.
The design is also utilitarian at best.
As usual with Hilton hotels around the world, bathroom amenities are provided by Crabtree & Evelyn.
Parc 55 San Francisco: Restaurants
There are 2 restaurants located within the property. The first is Cable 55 and the other is Kin Khao.
Kin Khao has been under renovation since 2021 and has not re-opened during my stay. Therefore, the only available restaurant was Cable 55.
Because of the daily dining credits awarded for being a Gold Member, I have been dining in the restaurant every day for the 6 days I was there.
First of all, the restaurant is not going to blow you away like what we experienced in the Conrad Maldives Rengali Island resort.
The food in Cable 55 mostly serves casual American fare. In terms of the quality of the food, I would most likely not have dined here if not for the free credits. They are too expensive for what they offered.
Parc 55 San Francisco: Amenities
Gym
There is a gym room located on the 3rd floor of the hotel. The gym features most equipment you’ll need for a proper full-body workout.
There’s also a corner where they have a ton of treadmill machines.
Parc 55 San Francisco: Wifi
As digital nomads, Wifi speeds are most important to us wherever we travel. A typical internet speed for video calls would be 10-20 Mbps. Anything more than that is a luxury.
More than speed, reliability is also very important. We wouldn’t want internet connections that keeps cutting off or slows down every now and then.
The Wifi in Parc 55 is a weird situation, to say the least. Throughout most parts of the property, you’ll get a constant good enough bandwidth of 20-30 Mbps.
However, in the first room, I was given, I was getting an atrocious 2 Mbps. This is likely due to the positioning of the room from the router.
After requesting a change of room, my connection speeds got better to 10-15 Mbps.
Final Thoughts
Parc 55 San Francisco might not a contender for any best hotels in the world award, but it can definitely provide you with a comfortable stay when you’re in the city.
Despite the wonky wifi situation, I was able to get quite a bit of work done during my stay here. I would recommend staying here if you’re going to be in San Francisco for a while.
However, if you only have a couple of days to visit for travel, it might be better to stay closer to Fisherman’s Wharf. That will be closer to where most tourist attractions are.
