Need advice on San Fran hotels

[Anonymous]

We are flying to Australia and will be stopping over in SF on the way home. I am going solo with 2 small kids and decided we should stay in a hotel in SF for 24 hrs to break the journey and get some sleep before we come back to DC.
I have booked in some hotel airport (Marriott San Mateo) that is 4-star but turns out to be 20 minutes from the airport and 30 minutes from the city.

I am looking to change the reservation and stay in a diff hotel.

1) a 4 or 5 star hotel that is right at the airport
OR
2) a 4 or 5 star hotel in SF itself. We do have a long layover so maybe we should just go into the city?

Any advice on either? We are willing to splurge on this because i know it will be a miserable flight for mama!!

Thanks

[Anonymous]

If you decide to stay in the city, try Le Meriedien near Embarcadero Ctr. We just returned from a trip to SF and its a great hotel and has a fantastic location. There are playgrounds about 4-5 blocks away from the hotel (a lot of the walking is uphill, but it seems it all is in SF). But you do have Embarcadero Ctr right there and the Wharf building with a great market a few blocks away.