We stayed at St. Francis Place through a company called Executive Suites for our recent 3-day stay in San Francisco and were very pleased overall. However, as the facility is a true apartment complex rather than an actual hotel, making for some downsides for tourists like us.

The upsides first: The location couldn't have been better. St. Francis Place is located South of Market, which is like the Soho of San Francisco. It was a safe and convenient location, within walking distance of the Metreon, art museum and other attractions. We had a car, and although St. Francis Place is not central to San Francisco proper, we found the location of the property to be particularly convenient to all the city's sites.

We rented a 2-bedroom unit to accommodate us and our 2 children and loved having lots of room to spread out and relax, unlike a conventional hotel room. Having 2 bathrooms was wonderful and we especially enjoyed using the kitchen to save $$ on meals (Whole Foods is just a couple blocks away). There's a parking garage under the complex (more on that below), a lovely heated swimming pool, comprehensive workout room, and terrific laundry facilities (washer/dryers on each floor, plus a large, central laundry facility if those are in use).

The downsides: Unfortunately, because St. Francis Place was designed as a place for living, not for visiting, there are no helpful services for tourists. While there is an official front desk for apartment renters, the staff wasn't particularly helpful with directions, maps, and restaurant suggestions the way the concierge or front desk of an ordinary hotel might be. Plus, the front desk is only open certain hours of the day. When we arrived at St. Francis Place we were instructed to go to the leasing office to retrieve our keys and apparently these folks aren't used to seeing short-term renters either: I gave my name and they looked at me like I was nuts! It took some time before they realized why I was there and what I was asking for (our room keys were in an envelope in some closet, apparently). They were useless in providing any information at all.

The apartment, while clean and spacious, frankly could have used a little updating -- although it's possible that each unit looks different. If you require maid service, this isn't the place for you: housekeeping is provided only one day a week and we had no idea which day that would be -- we simply returned to the room and found it had been cleaned that day.

Parking was another issue. Because we had a rental car, we required parking and were told it could be had for $9/day. That was true, but there was a complicated system for getting that $9/day rate. We had to return to the lot before the original 24 hours expired, or some such crazy scheme. It was absurd. At night, the only way to return to the lot was to call in on a special phone so that the gate to the garage could be lifted. How annoying!

I think most of our troubles were caused by the fact that, unlike a hotel, the company renting us the apartment was not the company managing the property, who in turn was not the company owning or managing the parking garage. It was not a customer-friendly arrangement.