On Bush Street since 1913

Where we are

The Golden Gate Hotel sits in the heart of San Francisco, up the hill from Union Square, between Nob Hill and a few blocks from Chinatown. The Powell/Mason and Powell/Hyde cable-car stop is steps from the door — you can hear it from some of the rooms, which most guests come to like.

The building

It was built in 1913 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as a Contributing Building in the Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District. That listing is the reason for a good deal of what you will find here — and for one thing you will not.

The rooms are dressed with antiques, decorative artwork and wicker. Many bathrooms still have their original claw-foot tubs and antique pillbox commodes. Some rooms have a bathroom of their own; others are European in the older sense, with a wash-stand in the room and a full bathroom down the hall. Both kinds are listed plainly on this site, because it is the one thing a guest should never have to guess about.

The listing is also why there is no lift to the front door and no way to remove the front steps. We set that out in full on our accessibility page, and we would rather you read it before booking than discover it on arrival.

Breakfast, and our sister hotel

A minute along Bush Street is Cornell Hotel de France, our sister property. Breakfast is served there each morning, the Jeanne d'Arc event space is there, and if you arrive after the front desk closes at 11pm, that is where your key will be waiting.

How we run it

There is a fire in the lobby, tea and coffee on all day, and a front desk that knows the neighbourhood. Dogs are welcome. It is a small hotel and it is run like one — which is, for most of the people who stay here, the entire point.