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San Francisco is a city that has long had a hold on my heart. I used to be in the city 2x monthly and have stayed at many hotels across the City by the Bay with the Palace Hotel, A Luxury Collection Hotel being one of my favorites. Tourism and business travel are both hard hit in San Francisco and this iconic hotel has been struggling for cash. It’s housed in a historic building with a well-known sign on its rooftop. This costs tons to keep running (to the tune of $500,000 annually) and the hotel seems like it has found a solution to save money.
The Palace Hotel opened in 1909 and is part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This means that any changes that the property wants to make are subject to approval based on keeping the original structure intact and as close to its original form as possible. SF Gate reports that at a June 5th meeting between the hotel and the organization a potential solution was discussed. The hotel would like to change the neon sign on the building’s roof to an LED-powered one. The sign has been off for some time and this would allow it to be relit along with saving the hotel much of the $500,000 it assessed as the cost to restore the neon lighting and its maintenance for five years.
Another organization, known as San Francisco Neon, has opposed this change. The not-for-profit organization was founded in 2018 and is dedicated to preserving the city’s neon signs. It says that the sign was built in the 1950s and holds historical significance.
San Francisco Neon founder, Randall Ann Homan, said:
We could be destroying those beautiful vintage letters, which are very, very, valuable to the Palace Hotel.”
A seven-year permit to switch to LED was approved with the stipulations that the original neon patterns be kept and the adhesive used for the LEDs be tested before use as to not cause permanent damage to the sign.
I love this grand dame of a hotel and my dozens of stays here are always wonderful. I wrote a review last year (which was my last visit to the property) and was amazed at what a relative bargain the property is these days. Rates used to be as much as double pre-pandemic.
Anthony’s Take: It will be great to see this sign illuminated again. This is an amazing hotel and I hope it continues to be around for another 100 years.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
