San Francisco hotels expect big boost from Fleet Week, Dreamforce conference

By CBS Bay Area

For San Francisco hotels, the next two weeks might as well be their Super Bowl.

Fleet Week is underway, and next week, Dreamforce arrives bringing thousands of visitors and leaving almost no rooms available across the city.

For Marriott Marquis General Manager John Anderson, busy time is all the time but this stretch takes it up a notch.

“South of Market is going to be hopping for the next 7 to 10 days,” Anderson said. “We are a 1,500-room hotel, we have 130,000 square feet of space, and just about every bit of that will be used up for Dreamforce next week.”

And it’s not just his hotel. Alex Bastian with the San Francisco Hotel Council says occupancy rates citywide are pushing 90 to 95 percent.

“And it’s so great for our city,” Bastian said. “For every $100 spent inside the hotels, another $250 is spent outside. So that’s great for the restaurants and coffee shops.”

Fleet Week is slightly scaled back this year due to the ongoing federal government shutdown impacting military participation. Still, Bastian says travelers are filling restaurants, shops, and hotel rooms.

Next week’s Dreamforce conference is expected to bring more than 40,000 attendees to downtown San Francisco.

“We’re going to keep the party going here in San Francisco,” Bastian said. “This city has so much to offer.”

With so many visitors, hotels near Moscone Center have become prime real estate. A quick check on Expedia shows many nearby rooms going for at least $1,000 a night.

Bastian says that’s not typical just a classic case of supply and demand. “When tens of thousands of people come to San Francisco, the hotels get booked up, so there is a scarcity,” he said.

For Anderson and his team, the rush is welcome, a sign of progress after years of pandemic recovery.

“Customers are definitely talking about the improvements in San Francisco,” he said. “I was actually at a conference this past weekend in Vegas, and even customers there were talking about it with us.”

After two weeks of check-ins, conferences, and cocktail hours, hotel leaders hope the momentum continues long after the final guest checks out.

“Things are on the up and up right now,” Anderson said. “We’re looking good.”

According to Bastian, Fleet Week and Dreamforce could inject tens of millions of dollars into San Francisco’s economy.