If you’re coming to San Francisco for the holidays, you might end up crossing a picket line — or at least being subjected to loud protesters.
Since September, around 2,000 staffers from various Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott branded hotels have been striking for higher wages, more affordable healthcare, and improved working conditions. The unions — which represent housekeepers, servers, bartenders, cooks, dishwashers, bellhops, and doormen — indicate that negotiations are not likely to wrap up soon, meaning visitors to SF’s hotel district will continue to be forced to navigate the sounds and complexities of the labor action.
Visitors to downtown hotels, where the action is concentrated, have been caught off guard by the volume of the protests, which include steel drums and bullhorns. “[I] felt sorry for those who had been here for several nights,” one Redditor who stayed at the Palace Hotel wrote in October. “The noise starts before 7am.” Others left bad reviews for hotels whose workers were picketing, noting subpar service due to the lack of employees and general discomfort caused by the strikes. “No notice was given at the time of our booking that the entrance was a gauntlet to get through to enter the hotel. Very uncomfortable,” a visitor to a Union Square Hilton wrote in early December.
Beyond the noise and other complaints, a stay at a hotel whose workers are striking for fair wages and treatment can feel, to some guests, uncomfortably amoral. One Tripadvisor reviewer wrote that she canceled her stay at a Hilton downtown because she “hated the idea of crossing the picket line.”
If you’re planning to stay at a hotel in the city and want to avoid crossing a picket line or bursting your eardrums, check FairHotel.org. This guide has a search tool for San Francisco that lists 64 union-approved hotels; 28 are marked as “please patronize,” which means they do not have known labor complaints.
The list doesn’t detail noise conditions, however. Standard reporters covering the labor dispute suggest that accommodations west of Hyde Street are generally picket-free. For visitors who need to stay closer to the action, the map below details which hotels’ workers are part of the strike. Note that any hotels in a one-block radius of protests will likely have noise issues.
Using FairHotel’s filter, and our knowledge of where the pickets are loudest, we’ve selected the best places to stay during the strike.
