What happens when the major convention venue in a major city is being used to capacity and can’t accommodate increased demand? The hospitality industry gets creative.
With San Francisco’s Moscone Center in the midst of a $500 million expansion necessitating partial closures through 2018, hotels and other venues around the city are partnering in unprecedented ways to share resources and provide alternatives for meetings and events.
On storied Nob Hill, five luxury hotels and a popular entertainment/special event venue have banded together to function as a miniconvention center, branding themselves collectively as the Nob Hill Connection. Between them, they offer 72 meeting rooms, 170,000 square feet of function space, 1,837 guest rooms, 250 suites, and a 2,560-seat concert hall that can also be configured for meetings and exhibitions. A meeting planner can now go through one source to arrange multifaceted events that spill over to multiple properties.
Nowhere in San Francisco are views of the sprawling waterfront metropolis any finer than from the summit of the 376-foot hill or the windows of the hotel towers rising from its crest.
“Nob Hill is not the kind of place where you have a lot of people coming and going,” says Susanna Flores, a director of convention sales for San Francisco Travel, the city’s official destination marketing organization. “It’s pristine and iconic, and it’s also flat. Once you get up here, there’s a campus kind of feel and a sense of everything been close and connected.”
Here’s a look at Nob Hill Connection venues:
Fairmont San Francisco
The AAA Four-Diamond property’s 55,000 square feet of meeting space include a rooftop garden; the French Provincial-style Gold Room; the equally ornate Venetian Room (a former supper club where Tony Bennett first sang his version of “I left my heart in San Francisco”); and the intimate Cirque Room, housing the first bar to open in the city following Prohibition. The recently renovated Laurel Court Restaurant & Bar is a signature space that doubles as a lounge and formal restaurant serving locally sourced, seasonal cuisine.
The Fairmont’s 592 recently renovated guest rooms are divided between two towers, the older of which houses the 6,000 squarefoot, Moorish-themed Penthouse Suite, considered one of the top hotel suites in the world (it’s served by private elevator and can be yours for a mere $18,000 a day).
On a more earthy level, the street-level Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is the epitome of South Seas kitsch, replete with Polynesian décor, cocktails served in pineapples and an indoor swimming pool converted into a “lagoon” with an island that serves as a livemusic stage. A fixture since 1945, the Tonga Room is the city’s highest expression of “tiki culture” introduced after World War II by military personnel returning from the Pacific.
InterContinental Mark Hopkins
The 383-room Mark Hopkins made its debut in 1926 and has been flagged an InterContinental property since 1973. Its historic ambiance, set off by French Chateau/Spanish Renaissance architectural details, has been meticulously maintained over the decades, and its rich history is recounted in a minimuseum on the lobby level.
Locals and visitors who have never spent the night or attended an event at this iconic, AAA Four-Diamond hostelry know it nevertheless for its signature space, the Top of the Mark, a 19th-floor “sky lounge.” The venue boasts 360-degree city views and can be reserved for private events. An additional 13 breakout rooms, two ballrooms, two junior ballrooms and 32 suites round out the group offerings. Almost all the hotel’s 19,000 square feet of flexible meeting space have the advantage of natural lighting, with the Room of the Dons and Peacock Court Ballroom ranking as the Mark’s most extravagant spaces.
New at the hotel is the Nob Hill Club farmto-table dining experience, staged in a cosmopolitan space, where special menus can be created for groups of up to 14 reserving the chef’s table, which is situated in a semiprivate nook.
Scarlet Huntington Hotel
Strolling into the Scarlet Huntington Hotel’s Big 4 Restaurant and lounge (named after the railroad tycoons who built their mansions on Nob Hill) is like walking into a private, 19thcentury men’s club: all green leather, dark wood paneling, historic photos and engravings, uberintimate atmosphere. Elsewhere in the AAA Four-Diamond, circa-1924 hotel, décor has undergone a significant change since Singapore-based hospitality group Grace International bought the 134-room property and invested in a $15 million renovation completed in 2014. While the contemporary, Asian-flavored design showcases vibrant colors and sleek lines, many older, traditional touches, from the original chandeliers to a deck overlooking the city and a lighted sign atop the building, have been preserved.
Highly popular with VIP and incentive travelers due to its boutique nature and largerthan-average rooms and suites (the 34 onebedroom and three specialty suites measure a roomy 800 square feet and more), the Scarlet Huntington houses three meeting rooms sharing 2,000 square feet between them. It’s also home to the full-service Nob Hill Spa, with 10 treatment rooms, a Zen relaxation room, a eucalyptus steam room, an infinity pool and a spa cuisine menu.
Stanford Court
While Nob Hill hotels are known for a brand of luxury and tradition that appeals to well heeled corporate and association meeting groups, the AAA Four-Diamond Stanford Court distinguishes itself with contemporary décor and a carefully cultivated reach-out to a young, tech-savvy clientele. “Our mission is to tell a local story, to make the lobby and the guest rooms appeal, for example, to a 30-year-old who works for Facebook or Twitter,” says Michael Baier, general manager of the 393-room hotel. The “locals” element is layered on everywhere, he notes, pointing to elements such as the interactive digital art gallery installation in the lobby, music from San Francisco bands piped into elevators, free loaner bikes and local craft beers on tap.
One thing the Stanford Court doesn’t have: meeting space (although there is room in the lobby for semiprivate receptions). “That’s been discontinued,” Baier says, noting that many guests attend conferences and events staged at other Nob Hill Connection venues.
Ritz-Carlton San Francisco
Grand occasions require grand event space, and The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, the city’s only AAA Five-Diamond property, offers more than 24,000 square feet of elegant options in a historic building recently refurbished in a restful palette of steely blue and gray.
For groups, property highlights include a dedicated conference concierge, a 9,360- square-foot ballroom with pre- and postfunction galleries; two levels of conference and boardroom space, and access to a manicured courtyard garden. The hotel’s recently refreshed 336 guest rooms measure a generous 400 square feet and up and boast 46-inch highdefinition TVs.
Parallel 37, the hotel’s signature fine-dining venue, offers both a private dining room and a chef’s table experience for up to 20 guests. Chef Michael Rotondo, who hails from the legendary Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, crafts menus featuring hyperseasonal, locally sourced ingredients.
The Ritz also offers several unique teambuilding opportunities. “We take groups to Alcatraz to work in gardens. We also can arrange foodie tours and tours focusing on things made in San Francisco,” says Mgeni Mpolo, director of sales.
The Masonic
A landmark on Nob Hill since 1958, The Masonic underwent a major transformation, completed in 2014, that included a new concert stage, state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems and 41,000 square feet of open floor space adaptable for general admission and seated shows as well as for private receptions, exhibitions, trade shows, meetings, classroom-style events and private dinners with entertainment on stage.
Since its unveiling, The Masonic has become a hugely popular venue for touring concert acts booked by Live Nation California, which leases the venue from the Masons, and for events staged by groups utilizing lodging offered through Nob Hill Connection.
Groups can reserve space in a 300-capacity VIP room with bar and catering service, or luxury VIP boxes with wait service and private restrooms.
OTHER NEIGHBORHOOD CONNECTIONS
The Nob Hill Connection isn’t the only collaborative corporate-event venture in town. Other neighborhood partnerships formed to provide more accommodation and meeting space.
Downtown Connection
The Clift, Handlery Union Square, Hilton Union Square, Hotel Nikko and Parc 55 hotels collaborate on meetings and events, offering a combined 127 function rooms, 203,500 square feet of meeting space and 2,400 guest rooms.
Moscone Connection
The InterContinental San Francisco and San Francisco Marriott Marquis, within a block and a half of each other, share 85 meeting rooms, 160,000 square feet of function space and 1,400 guest rooms.
SOMA One Connection
Three hotels near the newly reopened SFMOMA museum and Yerba Buena park and pedestrian zone have joined forces to create an “all-in-one meeting” destination concept. The venture includes the Four Seasons, Park Central and Marriott Marquis, which between them feature 81 meeting rooms, 155,000 square feet of function space and 1,500 guest rooms.
Union Square Alliance
Neighboring hotels Grand Hyatt San Francisco and Westin St. Francis have partnered to offer 55 meeting rooms, 86,000 square feet of meeting space and 1,200 guest rooms for group gatherings in the vicinity of Union Square.
