The Omni hotel is nice enough, and tries to offer decent service. But the rooms are definitely hit or miss and it is quite random whether you will get a nice accommodation.

On the plus side, the hotel is conveniently located downtown in the financial district. A bit far from the convention center or tourist destinations but great if you are in town for work. The staff is generally professional and helpful.

The lobby is a bit small and it can be difficult to get past all the doormen to get to the desk. Mind you, they are friendly and willing to help, but often there are 3 standing right in front of the doors, sometimes one is on the staircase leading into the hotel, so it feels like you are sneaking past the Secret Service every time you enter the hotel. At some hotels the doormen quickly open the door and get out of your way but here they are usually in conversation and don't notice you until you are already past.

Speaking of small, the rooms are on the small side as well, which is not too uncommon for an older property. Don't waste your time on a "premium" room as the extra square footage is mostly in a long hallway that isn't useable. On paper these rooms are larger but they end up feeling the same size.

Premium rooms also have two televisions but unfortunately the Omni is one of those hotels that has upgraded to 'high-def" TVs but not high-def programming. Everything on screen is stretched wide to fill the wider screen, which ends up making everything all distorted - all the actors look squat and fat. Some hotels allow you to set the TV back to the regular aspect ratio to fix this, but not the Omni. I guess they don't want the black bars on the sides of the screens. But the result is that they can claim to have high-quality TVs while the picture quality is actually worse than your average Holiday Inn.

Premium rooms offer "a courtyard view". Be aware that this means you will probably get some light through the window but the actual "view will be of a wall, or large machinery. Definitely nothing you would take a picture of if you aren't an HVAC engineer.

If they are busy don't gamble on a smoking room unless you really don't mind the smell. The Omni gets a lot of heavy smokers so those rooms truly reek.

The hotel restaurant is okay, basic big-city hotel food (at very high prices) but nothing to get excited about.

All in all, if you can book during a slow period when you can easily change rooms to find one more to your liking then the Omni is an acceptable downtown hotel. But when reservations are scarce you are better off at a more reliable property.

We had the pleasure of 3 nights at The Omni with our family of 4 including 2 teenage girls one of whom uses a wheelchair. The staff at the Omni could not have been more helpful and friendly and although there were not many families that we could see staying I highly recommend this place to families looking for an up market experience. Milk and cookies were delivered every night for our girls and every time we passed through the lobby they returned with red roses, a toy cable car, chocolates, postcards, an unused cable car pass left by a previous guest, and best of all a big smile.

The service was quite simply fantastic and very personal. I must give a special mention to Lex the conciege who was great and even helped us when he saw us looking at the map when he was off duty and we were shopping.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone - it won't disappoint. The location was quiet and yet within reasonable, relatively flat walking distance of everything we needed.

My family of six recently spent two wonderful nights at the Omni San Francisco. The Omni was our last stop on a two week long family vacation. We enjoyed our stay immensely. We loved the location as well as the terrific service we received at the Omni. At first I regretted my decision not to stay in the Fishermen's Wharf area but I came to find the Omni's location to be the perfect spot to explore the whole city. We walked as well as rode the cable cars (there is a stop right in front of the hotel) as well as the F Line street cars to get around. I highly recommend the Omni.

All of the prior reviews are true - the Omni is excellent. It may have been the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in - definitely in the top two.

We stayed for two nights at the end of July. We had a 15th floor room with a partial view of the city. The rate we paid included valet parking for each night, normally an additional $48 per night charge. The room was large and very clean. The bathroom had a double sink with a very large countertop.

The hotel was very convenient to Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf. The entrance to Chinatown was only a short walk from the hotel and the cable car route to Fisherman's Wharf stopped right in front of the hotel. Our rental car was parked on Friday afternoon and we did not retrieve it until we left on Sunday.

The service had the hotel was exemplary. Each employee we encountered was very friendly and helpful. The hotel concierge gave us a great overview of the area and the doormen provided excellent dining tips.

As members of Omni's Select Guest program, we were treated with complimentary beverage service each morning, consisting of a pot of coffee and tea and a choice of several fruit juices, along with a choice of three newspapers. This service was very prompt - we requested 8:00 each morning, and the beverages arrived by 7:30. This service allowed us to enjoy our coffee and tea and newspaper before heading out to breakfast. Two excellent breakfast locations within walking distance were Lori's Diner and Sears' Fine Food.

As several other reviewers mentioned, there is free bottled water and fruits available in the 3rd floor Fitness Center.

One local feature not to be missed is the lounge located on the 52nd floor of the Bank of America building, located across the street from the Omni. The nighttime view of the city through the lounge's wall of windows was spectacular.