Stepping into the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco, it’s evident from the jump that the property is on its game. It’s a Four Seasons, after all, a brand synonymous with luxury precision. The physical space is obsessively maintained and has such accoutrements as a gleaming chef-driven restaurant called MKT Restaurant & Bar, under the culinary direction of Executive Chef Kevin Tanaka, and new guest-pleasing technology, including a high-tech key card provided on arrival.
Inside, the hotel provides haven from a city that, outside, has had its share of lumps.
The new spirit and sparkle here are due, at least in part, to a recent changing of the guard and the alighting on these shores of General Manager Stéphane Gras: a dapper, ebullient native of France with a hospitality career that has already spanned several continents.
The job of GM is to lead and Gras, with boyish good looks that belie a longish career in hospitality (he began his career at Four Seasons Hotel New York in 1999), has the role down pat, understanding the job and the challenge. “Not unlike how my team and I have approached the challenge at urban properties in Europe, we strive here in San Francisco to create both an oasis within the city, and a complement to the same city’s bustle and energy,” he said.
In the “complementary to the city” category, the MKT Restaurant & Bar has emerged as a player in San Francisco’s thriving mixology scene with a program of spirited and spirit-free cocktails, including the aptly named and seasonally available Fog City, the hotel’s stylish twist on a classic whiskey sour.
Also in the community-oriented column is the way the property connects to the tech and business communities, in which it is set. As long as there is daylight, there is the ubiquity of a private dining room just off of the main restaurant floor set up for, booked and used as an executive conference room and space for internal presentations, with the particular advantage of attentive Four Seasons service and peerless 180-degree views.
“With work-from-home being so big, we’ve become favored as a picturesque setting for the in-person meetings that still are called for by the executives in our community,” Gras said—the hotel is located at the convergence of Union Square, SoMa (South Market) and the Financial District. The hotel also has more than 15,000 square feet of traditional space dedicated to meetings and events.
A city defined by its steep climbs has a five-person concierge team with dizzying street-by-street encyclopedic knowledge: three of the five have achieved status within the storied Clefs d’Or (Golden Keys). A technical innovation at Four Seasons is these concierges’ availability via messaging as well as in person—and that messaging functionality is available in more than 100 languages via the magic of real-time, two-way, AI-powered translation.
Burnishing the Bay
One doesn’t need AI to to interpret the challenges San Francisco has gone through and, to some extent, remains mired in. “Certainly, this is the first or second question I get asked, at least by the press: Is San Francisco on an upswing or not yet?” Gras said. “My answer is—and this is without reservation—in the positive.”
Turnarounds, he said, are rarely instant, and this one is ongoing. What the city has been doing, Gras alluded to, can be seen all around: innovative community-based efforts, including from the police force, resulting in getting unhoused people off the streets and into the care they need.
There are also several forces working in the city’s favor, and, by extension, the hotel’s favor. “The comeback of the international traveler is very strong,” Gras said, both from Europe and even more so from Asia. A stronger European traveler aside, it’s the comeback of the Asian traveler that has Gras and the hotel most excited: San Francisco is a huge travel destination for Asians. Always has been.
The return of events is gradually contributing to the upswing as well, Gras said, basing that on the number events now confirmed to be coming back at their regular cadence. “Finally,” he said, “there’s an ongoing tech rebound, including in biotech and, of course, AI, and nowhere is more central for and essential to the tech industry than the Bay Area.”
Gras’ impression would appear to align with other, less anecdotal, data. In a recent article titled “With U.S. cities struggling, San Francisco has actually become a shining model of recovery,” The Hill pointed out: “The negative narrative about San Francisco is out of date, at least nine months behind the reality.”
The report went on to say, “In the San Francisco of spring 2024 [as opposed to how it was three quarters of a year ago], you [now] find commuters grabbing coffees and heading into their offices; tourists admiring the streets comprised of unique Edwardian and Victorian architecture; friends enjoying the fresh fish at outdoor restaurants; and families playing in the beautiful parks. There is less crime and greater presence of police and city ambassadors.”
It hasn’t been all gravy. Hotels likes the Four Seasons have not been immune to the strains of the city that began with COVID and spread from there. In fact, Four Seasons’ other hotel in the city, Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco at Embarcadero, is going through a rough patch of its own. In March, it was reported that the hotel’s owner, Westbrook Partners, was delinquent on its debt service and had been served a notice of default. Bad timing and a worsening economic climate just two of the culprits. Westbrook bought the property in May 2019, just months before the COVID-19 outbreak. However, it closed the hotel down for a renovation toward the end of 2019, with the idea of reopening on May 1, 2020, but the pandemic squashed that. The hotel did reopen on October 1, 2020, only to close again as the pandemic raged on. It finally reopened for good on June 16, 2021.
Rare Air
The Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco has so far sidestepped any financial distress. Maybe it’s the rarified air it consumes, elevated from the city, comprising floors five to 17 of what is a 42-story building, with Four Seasons residences at the top. “We have the advantage of literally being up in the air, with the hotel well above the bustle of ground level,” Gras said.
Its vertiginous heights are only surpassed by the hotel’s attention to detail—meticulous, unblemished. It’s a level of upkeep and attention to detail that is rare, even in the ultra-luxury category; not a paint nick or scratch to be found. (The level of obsession about the physical plant at Four Seasons is such that they even have a standard for how solid the click should sound when a guestroom door closes on the way out; it should be a reassuringly solid sound without being overly intrusive.)
For Four Seasons, incomparable hard goods are table stakes. It’s the soft touches that keep guests coming back. “We have an obsession on providing each guest with recognition,” said Gras. “Truly individualized recognition, beyond ‘How was your travel in today, Mr. fill in the blank?’ We put a lot of emphasis on preparing for each guest’s stay, gathering information from them for the reason of enhancing their stay—their personal preferences, even their personal style.”
This recognition and personal engagement come from a single source: Four Seasons founder and now chairman Isadore Sharp, a hospitality industry icon. Gras said one of Sharp’s directives was for Four Seasons properties to not be behemoths, “for the express reason that it is a size that affords us the opportunity to engage with every guest.”
On the flip side, not all guests want or crave solicitousness, as Gras pointed out. “We have celebrities, CEOs and other VIPs who visit us who want privacy and security above all else. We don’t want anyone, whether celebrity or entourage member, to feel impinged on in the ways that, unfortunately, they tell us they’ve experienced elsewhere. We know how to respect their wishes and keep the lower profile with them that they typically prefer.”
Story contributed by Micah Solomon, a bestselling customer service and hospitality author, trainer and consultant. He can be reached at micah@micahsolomon.com.