This is a perfectly adequate old-school hotel in an ideal location two blocks off Union Square - but on the good side, outside the Chinatown gate, rather than the Tenderloin side- for an un-heard of price. They let us book for only one night on a weekend and we paid $127 for a queen. Yes, the room is small and dated. But it was clean and the window opened for fresh air, and the bed was comfortable with down-like pillows that didn't tweak my neck. The room had a fabulous claw-foot bathtub that I could actually soak in all the way to my neck, and HOT water. My husband was running the marathon and had to get up at 3:30 am and he got a very good night's sleep.

I can see it would be noisy if there were noisy people on our floor, but we didn't have that problem, and as to street noise, well, it's a city. A big city and this hotel is downtown and it has old-style windows. They contract with the 450 Sutter garage, which was $25 for 24 hours, with in and out privileges. The front desk was very friendly and she let us check out at noon instead of eleven.

The downsides: no coffeemaker, and the coffee service in the lobby was pretty grim, with powdered creamer. There is a nice cafe across the street, but since I live locally I would just bring my own little coffeemaker next time. The hairdryer did not work and the elevator is slooooooow. But for the price, I would totally stay here again, the location is absolutely ideal.

The location couldn't have been better - right near the gates to chinatown, and round the block from union square, and all the transport routes.

Can't complain at all!

The Baldwin is OK. The staff are friendly, the location is good (right near Chinatown) and the windows open, so you can get fresh air. I also liked the fact that it was not affiliated with a chain. My only complaint is that it's frumpy without being interesting. All of the furnishings look like they were chosen by someone who had forgotten his glasses and randomly picked things out at a Home Depot closeout sale.

We stayed here for 4 nights. On the plus side, the location was very convenient, it was right outside Chinatown and was an easy walk to SFMOMA, the Ferry Building, and bus stops. The room and bathroom were clean and okay, although I asked for an extra pillow because the one pillow I got was flat and hard.

Having just a ceiling fan and no A/C, it got too hot in our room. What really didn't help is that the ancient radiator in the room, while technically turned off, was still running a little bit of hot water. The front desk guy came up to look at it but really couldn't do anything about it.

Our room faced the street, so there was definitely noise to deal with, but that would have been okay. What wasn't okay was the constant banging sound (something in the building rattling, maybe the elevator shaft) that was so loud I could hear it through earplugs. Couldn't sleep through that.

On our 2nd day there, even though we left the "Do Not Disturb" sign on our door, our room was cleaned anyway. This was just a little annoying because the whole reason we put the sign out is because we don't need new towels every day or to have our room cleaned when we've barely been in it. On our 3rd morning there, we had no water pressure in our shower. Another time our room got cleaned and the bar of soap we had only used for 2 days was thrown away and replaced with a new one, wrapped in plastic. As eco-conscious travelers, this was irritating to see.

We stayed here to save some money, but in the end, the prices were still too high for what you get.