Maxwell Hotel - San Francisco, USA 

My husband and I wanted to have a romantic night in the city. We booked through Hotwire because we didn't want to spend too much money and we've had luck with "blind" booking before. When we were notified that our hotel would be the Maxwell, I immediately came to this site to read the reviews. Honestly, I was a bit concerned because the reviews weren't great. However, when I saw the room I was relieved and excited! We got upgraded to one of their remodeled suites. They are upgrading and changing their name to Hotel Frank in the fall of 2008. The new room was exactly that, brand new. It even smelled a bit of paint. We had a large, comfortable bed, new carpets, modern-looking lamps and fantastic toiletries in the bathroom. We also had a decent view (street and King George Hotel). The TV was a brand new, flat screen that was much larger that what we have at home. Yes, the hallways are still narrow, the elevator is painfully slow and the water pressure in the shower is lousy. But, we still enjoyed our stay and would come back when the hotel is fully upgraded.

My girlfriends and I had an event in the city and booked a night at Maxwell. The price was excellent - especially for the location. The hotel is right in the heart of shopping and site seeing. The room was old and small. We were not as fortunate as some of the other viewers to be upgraded to one of the new rooms. But it was fine for the night. The one thing that I must warn you all on though is the noise at night!!!! We were in bed by 1am, but the rest of the city was still out partying until about 4am. The street noise was SO LOUD that none of us fell asleep much before the sun came up.