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San Francisco · Hotel shortlist

The best hotels near Moscone Center

Stefan Bauer

Stefan Bauer The American west

Updated 1 September 2026 · 102 San Francisco hotels assessed

These are my five favourites in San Francisco, out of the 102 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.6 down to 4.5.

All five are inside 1.0 km of Moscone Center, so you can walk it.

The St. Regis San Francisco

Highest rated of the five

The St. Regis San Francisco

★★★★★4.6 from 1,414 reviews

The St. Regis San Francisco comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.6 from 1,414 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.

It is a 5 star property, found under poi and around $26569 a night on the dates we checked.

102 hotels in San Francisco qualified for this list and five made it. Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco is the one I would book if the first is full.

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All five, ranked

  1. The St. Regis San Francisco1

    The St. Regis San Francisco

    ★★★★★4.6 from 1,414 reviews

    200 m from Moscone Center, about a 2 minute walk

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    • Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco2

      Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco

      ★★★★★4.6 from 1,903 reviews

      400 m from Moscone Center, about a 5 minute walk

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      • Palace Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, San Francisco3

        Palace Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, San Francisco

        ★★★★★4.5 from 5,564 reviews

        400 m from Moscone Center, about a 5 minute walk

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        • The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco4

          The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

          ★★★★★4.6 from 2,200 reviews

          1.0 km from Moscone Center, about a 12 minute walk

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          • Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco at Embarcadero5

            Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco at Embarcadero

            ★★★★★4.7 from 457 reviews

            900 m from Moscone Center, about a 11 minute walk

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            How this list was put together

            102 San Francisco hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating first and on how close they are to Moscone Center second, then took the top five.

            Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.

            The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.

            What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.

            Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.

            Stefan Bauer

            Stefan Bauer The American west

            Chases total solar eclipses. Seven of them on four continents, from Wyoming to a fishing town in Chile. Banks days off through the on-call rota and books the trips years ahead, because eclipse dates do not move.

            Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.