When luggage-toting tourists started showing up at The Grove Inn in Hayes Valley who didn’t show up in the hotel’s reservation system, employees initially suspected a glitch in the booking software, general manager Josh Zimmermann said.
But they quickly realized that the situation was a recurring case of mistaken identity. Would-be guests arriving at Zimmerman’s hotel at 890 Grove St. had actually booked a stay four blocks down the road at the Inn on Grove. What started as a mild disruption has only escalated from there. So far, the front desk staff has tallied nearly 100 cases of confusion.
Particularly galling to Zimmerman were prior Grove Inn guests who meant to book a repeat stay, accidentally selecting the competitor 10 minutes away.
“That was a new kind of conflict for us,” he said, using those examples as evidence that he was actively losing business because of the mix-up. “It’s like they’re profiting from our name and reputation.”
After about 20 incidents, Zimmermann emailed the Inn on Grove to explain the situation and request that it change its name. The response from management? They’d make the switch for $75,000, Zimmermann claims.
Instead of paying up, The Grove Inn filed a lawsuit over control of the brand. The trademark infringement suit, filed in May in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks a court order to rename the Inn on Grove, as well as financial compensation for damages and attorney fees.
The issue highlights the plight that small businesses with similar names can face when customers aren’t attentive in online searches. In the case of the two hotels, each appears on the first page of Google search results for its competitor.
The conflict arose after the Inn on Grove rebranded, having operating for decades at 465 Grove St. as a Days Inn. The hotel registered its new name with the city in 2021, though the website with that name doesn’t appear to have been active until mid-2024. The first Yelp reviews under the new name came in August.
The owners of the Inn on Grove — named in the lawsuit as Prakash and Subash Patel and their investment firm Chirag Investment Group — have kicked around plans to raze the building and develop a higher-end boutique hotel, though the project remains in a preliminary stage.
The Grove Inn, meanwhile, has been part of Zimmermann’s life since his parents purchased and renovated the hotel four decades ago. Some of his early memories include puttering around the property, making beds and prepping breakfast. He took over in 2014.
The situation makes Zimmermann feel like his family’s long-built brand is at stake. “We don’t like someone confusing our name and our reputation with someone that I don’t think is offering the same type of accommodations,” he said.
The Grove Inn, located just one block from the picturesque Painted Ladies, traces its roots back to 1865, when it operated as a boarding house during the Gold Rush. Its 15 rooms are tucked into a wood-shingled Victorian building with bay windows. In contrast, the Inn on Grove is a 1960s-era 40-room motel, with free parking for guests, closer to the hustle and bustle of Civic Center. Both offer rooms at similar price points, though the former has an average rating of 4.4 on TripAdvisor, versus the latter’s 3.7 rating.
Staffers at The Grove Inn have continued to record examples of name confusion in a file that has reached nearly 100 entries, Zimmerman said, noting that the total is higher, since documentation didn’t start until several months into the situation.
“It’s just like a second of utter confusion,” Mark Slater, a front-desk employee at The Grove Inn, said of incoming guests who find themselves at the wrong hotel. “Sometimes there’s anger, but it’s not directed at us. They’re usually coming off a plane — maybe a 10-hour flight from wherever — and they just want to get into their room.”
Zimmerman said he won’t speculate on why his competitor chose its name. “They can call themselves whatever they want — just not something that confuses guests,” he said.
Managers of the Inn on Grove didn’t respond to requests for comment. One front-desk employee said they didn’t know about the situation; another said they weren’t authorized to comment.
At a time when the city’s tourism industry is struggling with the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, rhetoric, and crackdown on immigration, the risk of taking a reputational hit and losing business weighs heavily on Zimmermann. While 2025 was off to a good start, he’s seeing signs of a decline ahead. “Demand is down for June, July, and August,” he said. “So, I don’t know. We just gotta hang on tight.”