The Presidio, 1,500-acre national park 10 minutes from downtown San Francisco, is home to two boutique hotel properties: Inn at the Presidio and Lodge at the Presidio. These properties recently made a strategic move to enhance their meetings business, offering full buyouts of the two properties for groups to capture the entire conference experience in one place.
“If you look at a map of San Francisco, you have the Pacific Ocean on the left-hand side, and you have the bay on the top, and the Golden Gate Bridge, it comes across from the Pacific Ocean to the bay,” said Terry Haney, managing director of Presidio Lodging. “That whole corner of San Francisco is a national park. It's the Presidio...It’s the best spot in the city.”
Between the two properties, there are 68 guest rooms and a capacity for 200 attendees. The Lodge at the Presidio has 42 traditional guest rooms, while 17 of the 26 rooms at the Inn are one-bedroom suites each with its own fireplace and pull-out sofa.
Across the street from the Inn, the Funston House is a historic home with a living room, dining room, two queen rooms, a king room and a suite. Haney suggested this asset of Presidio Lodging would be a great fit for a small executive retreat, board meetings or an executive suite for the CEO.
For groups that want to avoid using third-party vendors, buying out the two boutique properties at Presidio Lodging keeps everything in house.
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So far, Presidio Lodging has found success with meetings hosting a general session and breakouts throughout the hotel and outdoor spaces, and with an incentive group that hosted a three-day retreat.
A corporate law firm’s employee and their spouses—a group of 16—played golf, visited the marina and brought a pizza truck to the back of the hotel. The group ate pizza around the fire pit and enjoyed views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Another advantage of booking a meeting with Presidio Lodging is the low cost of other elements in the surrounding area.
Presidio GO is a free bus that takes guests all around the national park. Overnight parking at the hotels is $12.50 per day. Guests can enjoy the proximity to San Francisco without having to pay downtown costs.
“We've got the view, you can enjoy being outside on the lawn, you can go hiking, and it's all right here in a boutique hotel that you take over for a fraction of the [typical event] price,” Haney said.
