Mark Twain Hotel (Closed)

★★★★☆

Located in downtown San Francisco, just a few blocks from Moscone Center (about a 10–15 minute walk), which was ideal for WonderCon 2008. It’s a classic hotel, and on my sister’s recommendation we paid extra for the “deluxe” rooms. Everything was comfortable, if small, and again the staff was friendly. Never got a chance to try out the Internet access.

The one thing I was really disappointed with was the room service. It’s hard to eat a mostly-done pork chop with a plastic knife and fork out of a 4-inch-high cardboard box. There was also a loud party in the room next to us Saturday night, but we were up late anyway.

On the plus side, there’s a coffee shop two doors away that was always packed, though we never had to wait for a table. The rate of people arriving and finishing was perfectly balanced.

One caveat: The hotel is located at the edge of the financial district, so you want to leave going uphill on Taylor or east on O’Farrell. If you go downhill on Taylor, you end up walking through the Tenderloin.

After we got back, my sister informed me that the Internet access “stinks,” adding that she “could only get a consistent connection by going to the Starbucks down the road…” I agree that it has “character,” though!

Never the Twain

In 2016, the Mark Twain was renovated and reopened as the Tilden Hotel. It closed “temporarily” in March 2020 and was used as a homeless shelter during the pandemic lockdowns. Three years later it still hadn’t reopened, and the owners had won a settlement from the city to pay for damages. I haven’t been able to determine if it’s closed permanently. The website’s gone, but it might have been folded into something. It’s still listed on travel sites, but they don’t have any availability. Yelp and Tripadvisor don’t say it’s closed, but there aren’t any reviews since Covid-19 reached California.