The Donatello

We had a spacious and clean room with a king bed. The bathroom was spacious too. The key positive aspect of our room was a small and separate dressing area near the door, which also came with a shoe cabinet with a seat for putting on shoes (this was pretty useful for extra storage and an unusual find in a hotel room). The reception staff were friendly. The room was serviced every two days during our four-night stay, which was nice. There is a kitchenette with a sink, a microwave and a small dishwasher, as well as a coffee maker, but no stovetop, kettle or knives. It was nice to have hot coffee and tea all day on the top floor. There were a number of lamps in the room but they needed to be turned on by hand individually. It has an excellent location (within a block of Union Square and Powell Street and within walking distance to Chinatown). There are plenty of eating options within easy walking distance and it is quite a convenient walk from the BART station on Powell Street, which is on a direct route from San Francisco International Airport. It was a little noisy from the street but this did not bother us too much.

Great experience on our family vacation, Restaurants at the resort and around the area was awesome 😎

Staff is friendly and helpful. Location is good and bad, could be a little too close to street noise from daily morning cleaning crew and those who like to sing and yell at night depending on where your room is as the windows don't seem to be double pained or help with any noise reduction. Location is pretty convenient though. Rooms are spacious and looks like it was renovated not long ago. But a few issues are though to get over.

The doors to each room is super heavy, if you are elderly or having difficulty with heavy items, you will have issues managing the doors. The biggest issue is that every time a door closes on your floor, you will hear it and feel it. It's that loud. There are ice machines on alternative floors and the door there is also heavy but they have a soft close feature to it, not sure why they don't do that with the room doors. It is so loud that when the door closes from one end of the hall, you can hear it all the way on the other end. The doors are frequently opened and closed and all hours of the day and night.

We were there for a few nights in Nov and the heater/AC unit was not working properly. The staff is very nice and will send engineering quickly, but after 2+ nights of the same issue and resetting the system didn't fix it, they didn't do more to address this, like getting external people to fix the real problem. So we are left with either very hot room during the day and very cold room at night. Which in Nov is very uncomfortable. This issue continued for the 7+ night we stayed.

The room cleaning is a little iffy as well, there is a 3 day cleaning policy which was not noted prior to reservation. We are fine with not having service every day but like most hotels now a days, assumed that if there is a need for earlier service, there will be. But that's not the case here. The 3 day room cleaning is set and can't be changed. Even though front desk sent someone to replace dirty towels and service the bathroom, it wasn't really cleaned as hair was still in the shower and floor and the cleaning staff seemed put out that they had to do it prior to the 3 day set time.

Since they don't service the rooms daily, there is no extra bags for ice and none of the cleaning staff has those bags except for dining staff. I would suggest just having the small bags in the ice machine room to make it easier for people to get it on the way to their rooms instead of having to chase down the bags.

All in all, the size of the room and location is a plus but for the price, some things need to be address to make the cost really worth the stay.

I feel compelled to share what has been one of the most distressing and surreal experiences I have ever had with a hotel. I stayed at Club Donatello for a single night on November 2025, fully expecting the same excellent service I had previously enjoyed. I had actually recommended this hotel many times over the years — something I never thought I would regret.

Sadly, what happened after this stay has been nothing short of traumatic.

Shortly after checking out, I was notified — not asked, not consulted, simply notified — that the hotel was charging my credit card $895 for a supposedly “broken mirror” discovered in the room after I left. The charge included the alleged replacement of an entire closet door plus a night of “out-of-order” fees.

I was shocked, because I did not damage anything in that room.

What has followed has only made the situation worse.
The hotel has been insistent on holding me responsible without providing proper evidence, documentation, or a clear chain of events.

Instead, they rely on a simplistic “key entry log” and use it to place blame — ignoring the many procedural gaps, the logical inconsistencies, and the possibility of staff involvement or mishandling. The implication that I somehow shattered a mirror with enough force to break it, yet simultaneously cleaned every particle of debris without tools, in a matter of minutes, and then somehow removed the debris from the hotel myself, is completely absurd and disconnected from reality.

I spent very little time in the room during my stay — which makes their accusation even more illogical.

What has traumatized me the most is not only the false accusation, but the way the situation has been managed:

No due process
No fair investigation
No proper documentation
No opportunity for me to be heard before charging me
No acknowledgment of the flaws in their own procedures

I have never experienced anything this unprofessional or emotionally exhausting in the hospitality industry. Even after presenting all the inconsistencies and asking for a proper review, the hotel continues to insist on the charge, without addressing the fundamental issues in their process.

As someone who genuinely liked this hotel — and once recommended it enthusiastically — it pains me to say that I can no longer trust it. A place where a guest can be charged nearly $900 based on assumptions, incomplete evidence, and procedural failures is not a place where I feel safe or protected.

I am sharing this review to warn others:
If something goes wrong at this hotel, you may find yourself blamed, dismissed, and charged without real proof — even when the facts simply do not support their conclusions.

I sincerely hope no other guest has to go through what I have endured.

Our room was nicely appointed, comfortable, clean and had a great HVAC system to keep the room climate as we wanted it. The hotel has some nice amenities, however, we did not use them. Parking is available on site and runs about $70/day, with in and out available and these fees are cheaper than many other hotels.
While the hotel is close to Union Square and several nice food venues close by one side can be noisy due to street noise. I recommend requesting a room on an upper floor in an odd number room--that is the quieter, non-street side of the building.
There is an on site restaurant called Zingari. Read the reviews, most are not good and for a reason. We ate there. It is a disorganized disaster. Walk up the streets and find something better.

Love it, so clean .. im be coming back again

Overall great experience! Book here

Very Nice but rather sterile. Good service, clean, well maintained, fairly spacious rooms with appropriate art work. Appropriate price. It was nice to see that the area around Union Square has been cleaned up and feels totally safe. The weather was gorgeous.

Great

The Donatello Hotel is centrally located. The hotel restaurant is really yummy (Italian) and there are also some other places within walking distance. My husband walked to Jack in the Box and got breakfast for us a few times. The lobby area is really pretty, and the hosts are friendly and helpful. The hotel is in a safe area, and although there are lots of homeless people in San Franciso, we never saw any near the hotel. The valet parking is pricey, but we paid it so that we didn't have to worry about our car. The valet attendants were helpful and quick about bringing the car. There is a public parking structure nearby that is cheaper if you would rather not valet. One thing to note, there is quite a bit of street noise at night. I use sleep buds since my husband snores and it didn't bother me, but he mentioned that he could hear it. Also, the fire alarm went off one night and scared us, but I guess it was due to some maintenance they were doing, and it was shut off fairly quickly. We checked with the front desk and did not evacuate. Like most hotels post-COVID, the rooms are cleaned every other day, but you can request towels if you need them. I would stay here again and I would recommend it to others.

Very spacious rooms. Staff was excellent.

1. Hair in bed upon check in
2. Clogged shower drain
3. Dirty towels: big chunk of ear wax easily visible on replacement towels brought to room. Brown spot in bath towel, hair in 2 out of 5 towels
4. Requested towels because they didn’t provide a room refresh when they said they would, every other day.
5. Pillows tired and need to be replaced.

I only stayed for a weekend but I would definitely return for a longer stay.

Room was clean, quiet and conveniently Iocated. Excellent all around.

Really enjoyed our stay. The surrounding area was disappointing after traveling a few blocks over.

Thr ammenities were fabulous and thr staff was very nice!

We loved the club lounge. Coffee and tea was available all day and until 10:30 pm. We would meet our friends there in the AM and plan our day. Some evenings they have a happy hour and that was nice too. The staff was wonderful, the place clean. Our only complaint was that they were having wifi problems so we were without it for a day or two. I would stay there again.

Very disappointing hotel to stay at. Their internet was shut down the entire two days we stayed and you could only text them. Their phones didn't work and still don't so you could not talk to them. And the bathroom had no fan so the small bathroom steamed up quickly. Also, we left a feather pillow on the bed and they could not find it the same day we checked out. It was an expensive pillow so it is obvious someone kept it.

We are very pleased with the hotels. The renovation is very clean and beautiful. The room is quiet, clean and has everything you need and even more. Thank you very much to the hotel management! The SPA is very small.

Modern, friendly hotel in a brilliant location. Perfect for couples or families. We are a family of 4 with older teenagers. This hotel was perfect for us, we stayed 5 nights. The rooms are really spacious with a useless little kitchenette. They provide coffee and cleaning products.
Bathroom is a decent size, nice toiletries and soft towels.
The dressing area is a nice bonus as a family.
Hotel is modern with a games room, restaurant & brilliant terrance on the top floor.
We loved the location it was safe (just walk towards Union square), close to shops and restaurants. We walked everywhere from here the pier, wharf, ferry to Alcatraz, china town.
Staff were really friendly and helpful. Would 100% recommend.