My husband and I stayed for two nights this time and cut our stay short because we were so disgusted with the shoddy treatment we'd gotten. To add insult to injury, they charged a early departure penalty of $50. We've stayed here at least a dozen times in the past for business and pleasure while visiting family and friends in SF, but we couldn't wait to get out of there and will never stay again.
The last straw was the programmed wake-up call at 4:30AM (!!) that we did not request. The wake-up call had the feel of “spit in soup” because we knew immediately that it was set by “Christina” at the front desk, who had refused to get us a FEDEX box for shipping materials home the night before. Rather than following up, she had us call several times, kept us waiting for almost an hour, and even evaded calls. Ultimately when she refused to get us a box from the business center, we expressed our dissatisfaction. The wake-up call was no coincidence. An incorrect wake-up call is very rare if hotel staff is well-trained. The reason is that 2 guests will be very upset if the wake-up call is wrong--the one who could miss his/her flight and the one who didn’t want to be wakened.
In general, if you're looking for service of any kind, you can forget it. You'll be lucky if anyone picks up the phone when you call. On the first night, we tried calling the receptionist, concierge, housekeeping, bellmen, and the operator (letting the phone ring easily 10 times or more each try) before my husband had to go downstairs to find someone to help us out--we needed towels and a luggage rack. (We'd hate to think of how this plays out if there's a real emergency.) An hour later, we got them. As a result, when we arrived upstairs at the famous Top of The Mark bar and restaurant to get a bite to eat, the kitchen had closed 15 minutes earlier.
Other annoyances—we heard lots of noise from the room next to us and from in the halls, the toilets don't flush properly, the coffee machine takes 45 minutes to brew, no bellman at the door in the morning when we wanted to catch a taxi, and an outrageous $51 to park a car and $13 for the internet.
While the hotel has been renovated in recent years, without good service, the hotel has lost it's classiness. We will not stay here again, and we're telling our friends, family, and colleagues to stay away. The Mark Hopkins staff's poor treatment of guests is inexcusable.