If you want to be the heart of the action, this is where you stay. My family and I were there for 5 nights. Every day we had breakfast in one of the very many lovely places near by. The concierge service was brilliant. They were on top of things and made relevant and interesting suggestions. All the shops are at your door step. Many had said the hotel would be noisy but we never found this a problem. Highly recommend.

This property was the book end to a week-long business trip to California, with less than 12 hours on the grounds. Here are the highlights:

- Valet parking is $49. Don't say no one told you. According to other reviewers, there are other, cheaper alternatives in the Union Square area.

- There is no sundries shop at this property. Go out the main entrance, left turn, left turn, then a half a block straight ahead to the CVS. Say hi to the Drake hotel as you pass by.

- Apparently the Hyatt reservations system has a problem when a customer reserves two rooms, then changes the name of the second room to a second party with a second credit card. The 2nd room retains the mailng address of the first customer. It gets even more complexicated when the 2nd customer has a Hyatt Gold Passport number. When the Hyatt Passport number is assigned, then, the orignial reservation reverts to the address of the Gold Passport holder. (Kind of like a Lucy episode, isn't it?)

- The room was an outstanding contemporary design, very Euro. Of all of the hotels I've stayed at that have used energy saving lighting, this one was the brightest by far, probably because they use a combination of high-output and LED lights. The Baby Boomers and Generation X thank you.

- I struggled with operation of the electric shades, mostly because there were no instructions; I almost ripped them off the top of the mount thinking they were roller shades. Country comes to town, I guess

- The bathroom was well-lit, appointed with nice towels and tolietries. The sink was PERFECT for bathing a baby; the other guy I was traveling with found it so funny he e-mailed a pic back to his wife! The unecessairly large baby bath made for a cluttered sink area--no room to put my own shaving kit down over the tolietries and glasses.

- The shower was good until the adjustable head came apart in my hand. Engineering was quickly dispatched, but the man making the repair struggled with the spring loaded thing-a-ma-bob that held tension on the main pole. I had to go to the hotel bar to go to the bathroom. Good call. . .

- The bar was superb. Generous pour. SUPER view of SF and the Bay. Got to see the fog roll in over a bourbon.

- Hotel is in the middle of the Union Square scene--you can't beat it's location or the pick of restaurants within a block--get out of the hotel and find yourself a great place to eat--it isn't hard.

- The bed was excellent--not a lick of noise, and the blackout shade I almost trashed worked great.

-If you plan a trip to the San Francisco area and want to be in the middle of the action, this property should be on your short list--especially if you're traveling with a significant other and no little ones--looks like it would make a nice getaway hotel. Like another hotel I rated recently, do not pay rack rate--aggressively search for a lower rate and beware the packages with breakfasts included

My family recently stayed here for 3 nights. It was a great location, which is why we chose it. We were happy enough with the renovated room and amenities that the hotel had to offer. The staff were also very helpful.

This isn't top notch luxury, it's not a huge room, and the lobby is still undergoing renos, but overall it was a good stay. As my title says, the location is great, close to Chinatown and Union Square. For us, this was key to our weekend.

I stayed at this hotel with family back in early December. We rented two rooms which were connecting. This was really nice as we were able to freely move between the two rooms. There was an initial hiccup with the automatic blind as it wouldn't lower properly. The guy that came to fix it was not very friendly but did manage to fix it. Then we had to call again to have them fix the drain in the bathroom sink as it was draining quite slow. They came and fixed the sink while we were gone for dinner. But when we returned the sink was not draining so I called again and the same guy came and he seemed rather put out that he had to come up again. Being that it was a modern fancy sink I did not realize that you had to push the stopper to open it (what a disgusting design and why didn't the guy leave it open when he came the first time?)

Anyway, after all the maintenance was taken care of we really enjoyed our stay. The room is very clean. The bathroom is really nice too. The hotel is just about a block from Union Square which was really nice to not have to take your car out of the garage.

I would recommend this hotel to others and infact I will be staying here again next month - hopefully without the maintenance issues.