This pared-back hotel is located at the intersection of Union Square and the warehouses of SoMa – a playground of minimalist art galleries and high-energy nightclubs – which means guests can roll out of bed and straight onto the Powell-Hyde cable car which slices through the city centre. Rooms are decorated sparingly but feel luxe: they’re lined with art deco-style plastering, speckled with no-frills furniture and lit by low-hanging lampshades. It’s San Fran, so naturally this place has a foosball table and an app-based concierge service.

It might date back to 1908, but this high-end yet pocket-friendly hotel on Union Square feels unquestionably contemporary – and not in a zingy, oppressive way. Interiors are a patchwork of leather, marble and dark wood fragmented by the odd flash of tropical, pot-planted greenery and hung with the work of local artists. Burgeoning collectors will be in their element here: all of the pieces are for sale with profits going directly to a local charity. We recommend sinking a few cocktails in the speakeasy-style bar – after eating your way through the Pacific Ocean’s finest at the in-house seafood restaurant, of course.

Yet another art-deco diamond in a rough sprinkled with spiky skyscrapers. The palatial foyer of Galleria Park sets the tone. It’s a sparkling-white, split-level lounge, fenced in by elaborately contorted cast-iron balustrades and surveilled by a titanic, gaping fireplace large enough to sleep two. Bedrooms are no less grandiose, dressed with plushy furnishings in a comforting (if a little boring) palette of greige and enlivened by flecked antique mirrors. We’re clinking sundowners on the garden terrace which looks out over the glistening Bay Area.

This hotel is bursting with amenities you might expect from one of its five-star siblings, including a 24-hour gym, a co-working space for freelancers on the move and even a morning car service that ferries you straight into the financial district. It’s also big on eco-credentials: guests can claim a five-dollar voucher to be spent at the Americana-style restaurant for each day they opt out of routine room cleaning. Nope, it’s not a glitch. You really can nab yourself a room here for less than £150 a night.

We’re not mad on Fisherman’s Wharf – too many over-priced clam and crab chowder stalls for our liking – but we can’t deny it’s a stellar spot for newcomers who want to make tracks all over the city, be that by tram, road or bicycle. In fact, those who bed down at Hotel Zoe get free access to its fleet of pastel-blue bicycles: within the hour you can be in the sun-dappled forests of Muir Woods or skirting the edge of Lake Merced. As for the hotel itself? Rooms are outfitted in an inoffensive palette of powdery creams, while the restaurant downstairs takes cues from Parisian bistros with rattan chairs and dusty chalkboard menus. It’s not the most avant-garde place to rest your head but we’re taking it anyway.

If it’s good enough for Bowie, it’s good enough for us. A legendary roster of guests have bedded down for the night at this motel-turned-boutique-hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. It radiates grungy, rock’n’roll glamour – think neon strip lighting, walls plastered with stickers and candy-striped canopies overlooking a pool which looks like it’s been plucked from a Hockney painting. It’s not decadent but it’s teeming with character and will earn you major respect from San Francisco locals.