Hotel St. Francis Santa Fe

Want to stay near the Plaza? Forget the LaFonda and stay here

This is a wonderfully restored 1920s hotel with all the ambience one would expect. Decor is traditional rather than southwestern--a nice change of pace in oh-so-southwerestern Santa Fe. Rooms are small because that's how hotel rooms were when this place was built. I've stayed twice at the St Francis during different times of the year and have been totally satisfied. Both times I was with a traveling companion, so I've seen a total of four rooms--all were decorated with a theme, all were totally comfortable. A nice touch for a hotel this old were the in-room safes and bar refrigerators. The bathrooms were probably added later in the life of the hotel, and were a bit dark, but quite pleasant.

The public areas of the hotel are a time trip back to the 1920s. Bring your Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanen costumes for the Saturday night dance. The details go beyond the lobby--upstairs hallways have easy chairs and lounge areas, making a great place to meet a friend for a cozy chat or even a BYOB drink. There's no ice machine, (and consequently no noise from it) but the barman happily gave me a bucket of ice, without even concerning himself whether I was a guest. This courtesy was typical of all the staff I encountered.

We didn't eat at the St Francis--there are more exotic places in Santa Fe. For breakfast I recommend Tia Sophias, a few blocks walk away. The La Fonda's domed restaurant is nice if you eat at an off hour and avoid the crowd. The Shed is a good place for dinner--crowded, but very efficient and very private. Make a reservation.

The St Francis has off street parking--a precious commodity near the plaza, and is a block and a half walk from the plaza. Its also an incredibly quiet place, unlike the noisy La Fonda.

If you think hotels should all be run by chains and have 97 cable channels in every room, please don't come to the St Francis--leave room for those who appreciate grand old hotels.

Nice place to stay

We stayed at the St. Francis two nights over Labor Day weekend. The room was on the small side, but very nice. It does have a European atmosphere, not Southwestern, but has many pluses. For $112 a night, we felt it was a great bargain, especially because of the location. We parked ($5 a night) and walked everywhere. The breakfasts and service were excellent. The hotel was clean, quiet and very comfortable. For the price, we'd definitely stay here again.

Small room but nice atmosphere

We stayed here about two years ago when we were considering moving to Santa Fe (we have sinced made the move), and while I don't remember the actual cost of a standard room, we paid only $110 on a discount booking Website. That's cheap for downtown Santa Fe. The room was quite small, but nicely furnished. It is extremely convenient, right in the heart of downtown. There's a very pleasant outdoor seating area where you can have a drink and they also have live music in the bar on certain nights. The concierge at this hotel was also wonderful--I don't know if she is still there and unfortunately I don't remember her name, but she was so helpful, giving us maps and recommending places to eat and shop.

On the down side, we had breakfast there one day, and both the food and the coffee were tasteless (the garden was lovely, though). Breakfast is pretty hard to mess up, but they managed. Since there are so many places to eat in the area, there's no need to eat in the hotel.

Great locatiion and good service

Stayed their in early March Nice European style hotel in the center of Santa Fe. Though the rooms are on the small side, the staff was friendly and the service was good. Don't expect to receive service on the level of the Peninsula and you won't be disappointed. The food is good, the bar is hopping and the staff always seems to try their best to take care of you. Great concierge named Inga

The Club Restaurant

Having just arrived in Santa Fe, we had lunch at the restaurant as it was the first place we saw. Normally I wouldn't eat in a hotel unless I was staying there but we didn't realize it 'cuz they had a separate entrance from the street. We were ushered into the pub because the restaurant was closed at 2pm but was told the service and menu would be the same. Well, sitting in a bar with my wife and teenage daughter listening to a bunch of male tetosterone wasn't very pleasant. The worst part was the fact they were talking with our waitress and we hardly got any service except when I would get up to flag her our way. Food was okay and reasonably priced but bad on service.

Great historic hotel with amenities

This charming historic hotel was just what we needed! We reserved the Pueblo Bonito, but it was too far away for us - we wanted to be right near the Plaza. (see the review "not as close as they make it look")

This hotel has rooms decorated in themes - it is old fashioned appropriate to its period - it is not a fake pueblo, but a real Victorian. Santa Fe has a long history, and the adobe days are but one part of it! But of course, if you want the whole adobe experience, there are lots of other hotels offering that.

As opposed to Pueblo Bonito, the rooms have a safe, fridge, coffeemaker, bathrobes, iron, hairdryer, nice bathrooms, good lighting, storage for luggage, a normal sized TV (the one at PB was tiny!)... AND there is wireless internet access!!

I don't know what those other reviewers were complaining about! The rooms were clean and well-maintained, the staff friendly, the service great - and right across from Cafe Pasqual's near the Plaza.

This place is compares favorably to nice older hotels I have stayed at in downtown San Francisco, but with better views.

If you have a disability, be sure to reserve a first floor room, as there is a small flight of stairs ~before~ the elevator for the other floors.

Expensive for what you get

We had a two night stay, booked directly through their on-line website. The room was rather small, but compared to the room we had in Sedona, for $40.00 cheaper, there was no comparison. I like staying in hotels, within the city. However, since a lot of Santa Fe is overpriced, I would imagine that is why all the hotels are overpriced. It was in a good location with overflow parking across the street. I thought the staff were really friendly and my room as very clean. My only complaint was that Santa Fe is expensive and I thought rather dirty and overated. It appears that you either have money or do not. There is really not much choice for mid-range restaurants. $12.95 for a plate of enchiladas for lunch, appears a little high, and frankly for places that were rated people's choice awards in the city, I was not impressed. In fact, the bar which right around the corner from the St. Francis (not affiliated with the hotel, a Spanish type name), the bartender on my first drink there tried to cheat me out of $10.00, when I gave him a $20.00 for our drinks. He apologized and said since I insisted I handed him a $20.00 (I had no $10.00 bills) he would give me the change. Santa Fe is expensive enough that I have to worry about being cheated, and at my age (in my 50's, and have frequented enough bars), never have I had to correct a bartender on change.

Indian pottery and artifacts were much cheaper in Sedona and the Grand Canyon souvenir gift shores were about $50.00 cheaper than the stores in Santa Fe. If I were to stay again, I would stay at Garretts for about $50.00 a night cheaper, since I spend so little time in the room. However, I do not think this is a vacation spot in which I will return. However, we did like the Cowgirl Club and the music they provided.

Santa Fe's #1 Cesspool

This place is a complete joke. They took my hard earn cash and return to me grief. The rooms were filthy, and the staff lazy. I called for room service and the telephone rang constantly for 25 minutes. When I complained, the staff said they were on a mandatory break. I should have complained in Spanish, I would have achieve better results. Beware of this pig stye, and go elsewhere, we did. We went to the Motel 6 --it was a better stay.

Not what we hoped.

While this hotel has a number of pleasant aspects.... our room had a nice balcony that overlooked a small square just off the plaza, it "misses" on a number of fronts. We had an issue with our credit card, which turned out to be the fault of the hotel, (and was rectified in the morning) but the desk staff was extremely rude to my husband, an incident which we both felt sure had racist underpinnings. (My husband is Chinese-American.) We went out of our way to meet with the manager to express our concerns and she did absolutely nothing! In addition, if you're looking for the "real" Santa Fe experience, I think you would be disappointed here, as we were. The lobby is done in "Victorian Grand Ballroom" and our room was "Montana Hunting Lodge." Go figure. The toiletries were nice though. We will stay elsewhere on our next trip to Santa Fe.

Great Hotel and Location

Stayed at the Hotel St. Francis in October 2003. We had reservations for another area hotel that did not meet our expectations. Fortunately we were able to get a room at the Hotel St. Francis. It is in a great location on the Plaza and has a European feel. The lively bar made for fun evenings and we also enjoyed afternoon tea in the lobby and breakfast in the dining room. The concierge was great. Very knowledgeable about the area, restaurants and hiking. The only negative, perhaps in part due to our late arrival, was that our room was VERY small.