The Good Hotel

I get a lot of email from people asking or offering a lot of different things. I’ve been: asked on dates; offered a free haircut;, invited to speak at various functions, the recipient of hate mail, love letters, tips, suggestions, and absolute babbling nonsense. Truthfully I love ALL the mail I get, even the hate mail, because it lets me know motherf***ers are paying attention.

But out of all the emails I receive, the kind I love the most are the kind offering me free crap. With that in mind, when the people over at The Good Hotel wrote and offered me a free meal to come and check out their place, I of course said “Yes” (duh).  I figured that just because they were feeding me, didn’t mean that I had to write about them.  But as it turns out, I was so thoroughly impressed with what they had going on that I felt I’d be remiss in my duties to you, fair reader, if I didn’t.

Located in the heart of downtown San Francisco, The Good Hotel is unique because of its emphasis on being green, incredibly affordable, and being a place you'd actually want to stay.

The bed frames are made of local reclaimed wood, the wallpaper is recycled, and the chandeliers are made from previously used bottles. It even has this cool thing where, when you wash your hands, the water is reused for toilet water!

I learned all of this during recent a tour of the property given to me by Sales Manager Emily Oestreicher. It was also during this tour that I learned that Oestreicher literally translates to “Austrian” (I bet you were wondering too).  But of course, I refused to learn or tour anything before being fed the promised meal. I am a man of principles after all.

Officially opened during the waning months of 2008, The Good Hotel is part of the Joie de Vivre chain of hip California boutique destinations. Each property owned by the company has a different theme.

When I asked Oestreicher to explain the motivation behind her place of employment, she said, “We’re happy about the fact that the hotel is affordable enough for anyone to stay here, and that they don’t have to spend a ton of money in order to have a guilt free conscience.”

She’s not lying. For a boutique hotel in San Francisco, this place is surprisingly affordable. Rates start around $55 per room in the low season and around $80 in the high season. You can also get special deals by following the hotel on Twitter.

Oestreicher works closely with General Manager Herve Blondel on creative ideas like the Twitter page, and green initiatives like a bike borrowing program (through a partnership with the excellent local nonprofit, Pedal Revolution) for the hotel.

Who's responsible for all the good green ideas? Oestreicher said, “The green initiatives are something that the GM and I are both particularly interested in.  The bicycle borrowing was something that I saw a hotel in Palm Springs and in Portland (Oregon) and the general manager, Herve, was able to see enough of my enthusiasm to want to move forward with that.  So he gave me the leeway to sort of figure out and coordinate it and we made it happen.”

The kicker is that The Good Hotel isn’t some crunchy hippie hostel in Humboldt (which have their own merits of course) it’s actually a sleek and hip hotel in the center of San Francisco. The lobby features colorful local art, the rooms all have iPod docks and flat screen TVs, and the entire property has free wireless internet.

It even has a hip way of hooking up hotel guests interested in doing volunteer work with local organizations. Guests can pick up a phone in the hotel lobby and be connected with One Brick, which will inform them about different volunteer opportunities happening during their stay.

“There is an endless supply of ideas we can come up with,” says Oestreicher. I don’t doubt her. Hell, I was impressed by endless supply of topping combinations at their restaurant Good Pizza, and that was before the tour even started.

I’ve stayed in a lot of places in the world, both amazing (The Ritz in Philly) and shitty (the weird hostel in Bantry, Ireland where a Polish family was drying their socks on the radiator) and I’ve gotta say that the Good Hotel is easily one of the best deals in The City by the Bay. It’s the only place I know that’s hip and eco-conscious without being pretentious and over priced.

Next time you’re staying in San Francisco, make sure to crash with the hotel. In fact, try telling them that I sent you. It probably won’t do anything for you, but it might get me another free meal.

For more information, contact the good folks at The Good Hotel.