Technological advances are often crucial for event planners to have a marketing edge. Here are new and recently renovated San Francisco venues that have stayed on top of upgrades and improved offerings for tech-savvy guests. The hotels, conference centers, restaurants, private rooms, and other spaces can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
In a partnership with Hello Scout's concierge service, Hotel Zeppelin in San Francisco's Union Square neighborhood allows guests to contact the concierge team from anywhere at any time via a downloadable app or via SMS text. In addition, the hotel’s 196 rooms are equipped with a Jambox speaker. Hotel Zeppelin has over 3,000 square feet available for meetings and events, including the 1,300-square-foot Peace room for games such as skeeball, shuffleboard, and quick shot basketball. The Peace room opens to the adjoining Love and Soul Rooms, which are known as the Den when combined. The Peace, Love, and Soul rooms can each hold 300 for receptions. The 1,094-square-foot Zeppelin Cafe is also available as a private event space. Dawson Design imagined the hotel’s decor as playfully psychedelic, drawing on San Francisco's counterculture history. Hotel Zeppelin opened in March, and a new 100-seat American-Italian restaurant called Rambler opened at the hotel in October.
In August, Aloft Santa Clara became one of the first two Aloft hotels in the United States to offer the new Aloft Voice-Activated Hotel Room. Each room comes equipped with an iPad running a custom Aloft app that controls the room’s temperature, lighting, and iTunes, and offers a virtual concierge—all via Siri. A personalized welcome screen will advise guests on how to set up their room and use their own voice with “Hey, Siri.” Aloft guests can also use the SPG Keyless app to open their room doors via a mobile device. The hotel offers 2,715 square feet of space for meeting and events, spanning four rooms. A boardroom can seat 12, the 1,348-square-foot Tactic 1 can hold 90 for receptions, the 722-square-foot Tactic 2 can seat 60 guests theater-style, and the 355-square-foot Tactic 3 can hold 12 for receptions. Tactic 2 and Tactic 3 can be combined.
A seven-story, 210-room Marriott-brand AC Hotel is slated to open in November in downtown San Jose. AC Hotel San Jose Downtown will have three fully equipped meeting rooms: the 570-square-foot AC Meeting Room, which can hold 40 guests for receptions; and 168-square-foot AC Salon 1 and the 128-square-foot AC Salon 2, which can each accommodate six guests for receptions. The hotel's meeting rooms, bar, and lounge will include AC Kallpods, which provide on-demand customer service with the push of a button. The hotel is part of the Marriott Mobile App program, which allows guests to check in and out on their mobile devices.
Specializing in salads and grain bowls, the Sweetgreen chain opened in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood in October. Diners can place and pay for food and drink orders online via Sweetgreen’s online ordering system or mobile app. Sweetgreen prioritizes sourcing ingredients locally. The 2,478-square-foot, fast-casual restaurant includes a mural by local artist Jenny Sharaf and bleacher seating for guests. The restaurant’s seating capacity is 64.
Electric car drivers can recharge at the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay’s two universal chargers and two Tesla chargers. The hotel's Tesla Wall Connector, installed in March, includes a recently upgraded charger, supplies power at 20 kilowatts, with the ability to charge a Tesla from empty to full in less than four hours. The 261-room destination spa and golf coastal resort has 17,000-square-foot of indoor function space, including nine individually designed meeting rooms. The largest indoor space is the 7,100-square-foot Ritz-Carlton ballroom, which has 17-foot vaulted ceilings and can hold 700 for receptions or seat 420 banquet-style, 320 classroom-style, or 120 boardroom-style. The hotel also offers five outdoor function areas; the largest is the 7,500-square-foot Mar Vista Lawn, which can hold 300 for receptions.
The 132-room boutique Hotel Via is slated to open in March 2017 in San Francisco’s South Beach neighborhood. In addition to having a 750-square foot meeting space that can accommodate 40 people for receptions, the hotel has a 3,000-square-foot rooftop bar/lounge that can hold 200 for receptions and has views of the downtown skyline, the Bay Bridge, Oakland, and the AT&T Ballpark. The Hotel Via is building a GPON network throughout the hotel for fast internet, and is looking at implementing tools in its meeting space, such as the Kapp IQ digital whiteboard, which allows meeting users to connect with colleagues all over the world and collaborate in real time.
There are no cashiers at Eatsa because customers place orders for customized quinoa bowls via an in-store iPad or mobile app. In August, the San Francisco-based fast-casual chain added a Berkeley location, an 800-square-foot venue with standing capacity of 12 guests.
Set to open in November, Courtyard by Marriott Redwood City is located off the Bayshore Freeway between South San Francisco and Palo Alto. The 177-room hotel has six electric car charging stations and is part of the Marriott Mobile App program, which allows check in and check out via app. This Courtyard hotel has a 1,226-square-foot space for meetings and events that can hold 100 guests for receptions.
In November, Oakland International Airport is opening Escape, its first high-end lounge, with separate zones for dining, relaxing, and work. For an entry fee (which is discounted if booked online), Escape will offer unlimited food and drinks from Oakland chef Chris Pastena. The 55-seat lounge will offer complimentary tablet computers, free Wi-Fi (separate from the airport), and several charging points for mobile devices. The public area is 1,900 square feet.
By the end of this year, all 1,000 of Parc 55 San Francisco’s hotel rooms will be equipped with an HCN Navigator Tablet that acts as a virtual concierge. With the tablet, guests can contact room service or order an extra pillow from the front desk, or explore sights in San Francisco or connect to their email. Event planners can also use the tablet to broadcast vital information or frequently asked questions about meetings and events at the hotel, as well as upload branding for the event or the event’s sponsors. Parc 55 San Francisco, located in the Union Square neighborhood, offers 30,000 square feet of meetings and event space, including the 5,670-square-foot Cyril Magnin Ballroom, which can hold as many as 800 for receptions. Hilton HHonors guests can check in and check out of the hotel via the Hilton HHonors app.
