Beacon Grand Reviews

My wife and I spent many months looking for the perfect venue in San Francisco. After months of receiving quotes and speaking to many hotels. The Sir Francis Drake was our choice for many reasons. To begin, the location of the hotel is perfect. The hotel itself is stunning from the lobby to the ballroom and finally the Starlight Room. We couldn't have asked for a better coordinator, Bernadette Alejo was a joy to work with from the pre-planning months in advance, food tasting, week of and lastly, day of. Our experience from the moment we checked into our suites to checking out was absolutely amazing! The entire staff from valet, bellhop, front desk, to the banquet individuals that helped put our wedding reception together. I will say that having our cocktail hour in the Starlight room was also very memorable for not only our guests but for my wife and I. All the management and staff in the Starlight room were absolutely great and very nice! The Empire Ballroom was where our reception was held and was the perfect empty canvas. That room dresses up so well which can work for any type of style of wedding. I will say that every penny spend with the Sir Francis Drake was worth it! After a month since the wedding, we still get compliments on our wedding particularly on the venue. If you are looking for the perfect venue to hold your wedding, I would look at the Sir Francis Drake for professionalism, elegance, and great service.

Our wedding was absolutely beautiful and exactly what we wanted. Bernadette and her team went above and beyond to make sure we were happy and things were running smoothly. Down to the staff in other areas of the hotel, very attentive and friendly.

I love the Sir Francis Drake Hotel and thoroughly enjoyed our experience hosting a wedding there. We worked with
Bernadette Alejo,
Catering Sales Manager, and she was awesome in managing our event from start to finish. She worked extremely well with all of our wedding vendors including our wedding coordinator who was hired outside of the venue. All of the food was amazing and the wait staff was very friendly and professional. The hotel pastry chef baked a fabulous wedding cake (exactly like the picture we gave her) that was both beautiful and delicious.
The room block was well managed and the rates were extremely reasonable. Everyone seemed happy with their rooms.
We love Kimpton hotels and the Sir Francis Drake is no exception. I would highly recommend the hotel and the staff for any event you plan to host there.

Selected a non-traditional wedding reception with SFD using their mezzanine and attached Windsor and Franciscan Rooms. Very accommodating to all the ideas that we had and the execution on their behalf was flawless. All SFD staff breathes hospitality and it showed throughout the whole process. Would highly recommend their expertise if you plan to have your wedding at SFD.

We just had our wedding in Aug 2012 at the Sir Francis Drake. We can honestly say that we had one of the best experience with the staff at the hotel...The Sir Francis Drake really ranks at the top! From the flexibility they showed during the process of signing the contract, to the attention to details during the planning process, and to the absolute flawless execution on the day of the wedding, the SFD was absolutely outstanding as a venue. The food was incredible, and Tim Nugent made us a beautiful wedding cake in addition to making fantastic desserts for our guests!!! From the catering staff to our on-site wedding coordinator, service was impeccable!!!
Now for the brides: The on-site wedding coordinator, Diana Spina, is absolutely the best in the world at what she does. Diana did not miss a single thing we asked of her, and went above and beyond numerous times for both us and our families. When our florist delivered the wrong flowers, Diana took control of the situation, helped calm me, and knew exactly where to send my husband and his groomsmen to find replacement flowers. (that review will be posted later...) Any issue or concern we had, we were very honest with her and if she can fix it, boy did she fix it! When we were having a bit of an issue making Starlight Room reservations for our guests after the reception, Diana took control and absolutely fixed a slightly-broken situation. And finally, whenever we needed someone to bounce ideas off of, or an opinion, she was there to help. We cannot recommend her highly enough.
Brides: If you book your venue at the SFD, take advantage of having a kick-@ss wedding coordinator! She is a joy to work with, and a great resource to lean on during all of your wedding planning--especially if you are doing it on your own. Don't hesitate to ask for her help!

We really had a great wedding and weekend at SFD!!!!

Robin Lewis was a wonderful coordinator and made our experience at our wedding sensational. We had a beautiful wedding and ceremony at the drake. Every detail was taken care of to my perfection. I could not have asked for a better day.

The hotel was beautiful! All the guests (half were from out of town) was incredibly impressed with the beauty of the ballrooms. The staff was really amazing, our wedding coordinator, Robin, was incredibly helpful, flexible, professional and extremely friendly!
The food was pretty good for a large venue.

The hotel was absolutely fabulous. Daniela was great and had the event very well organized. I don't have any complaints about the hotel. It is beautiful and embodies old San Francisco. The ball room is gorgeous and equipped with everything you need for a perfect wedding. The location is very convenient and anyone staying will get a good rate for downtown San Francisco. The hotel takes care of almost all of the event planning, so it takes most of the stress off of you. And, the Starlight Room is even right there for your guests to go to after the wedding if they don't want the night to end.

We had our reception in the empire ballroom and it was very beautiful. The food was great and the cake was out of this world - they even created a personalized flavor we requested with passion fruit filling and hazelnut cake. Super good. There were a few hiccups in the planning and service, but overall went very well and definitely a lot smoother than other weddings I have been to. Everyone worked really hard to make our day go well.

We had a fantastic experience with the Drake. They did our reception location and did our catering. The food was absolutely amazing--our guests are still talking how it was the best wedding food they've ever had. Jamie, their event coordinator, was responsive and very nice. The reception hall we were in was so stunning it didn't need much decoration from us at all. I would highly recommend them to anyone who is looking to have their reception there. And it's a steal compared to other hotels in the city!

Just wanted to leave a note here since our wedding date got caught up in the COVID shuffle, and it might be helpful for anyone else looking to book a date here

We had a great time here for our wedding reception. We paid good money and the services was good. I thought the service might be slightly better and our needs met at a slightly higher level, but over all, everything was well above average. The food was good and was presented well.

We recently hosted our rehearsal dinner in their large, private dining room.

Positives: the space was gorgeous, the food delicious (and good sized portions), the set-up and flow of the evening went seamlessly, they were flexible in allowing us to bring our own wine and a few other schedule/flow aspects, and we felt like we got GREAT value for what we paid.

Negatives: the team was extremely slow to respond until about 1-2 weeks before our event (at which point they were fairly quick) - which was baffling and frustrating.

Also, I had to be fairly hands-on - even for the first chunk of the actual event, mostly due to a few oversights and lack of attention to detail on their end.

In all, however, it was worth the stress of working with them - a beautiful night and perfect venue for us - which is why I would still recommend it.