- San Francisco hotel occupancy reached 80.4% in September, up 4.6% year over year, with RevPAR up 17.9% to $224.45 and average daily rate up 12.6% to $279.05.
- Convention demand drives the rebound, with Moscone Center attendance up 70% in 2025, yet San Francisco is still only 85% recovered against 2019 RevPAR and the least recovered of 174 markets.
- Pebblebrook is planning three hotel refreshes, and tech events are filling the calendar, but weak international travel keeps 2027 occupancy near 72%, below 2019’s 82%.
The San Francisco hotel market is recovering fast, with September occupancy at 80.4%, CoStar reports, though it still trails 2019.
Occupancy rose 4.6% from a year earlier but is still short of the 86.4% reached in 2019. Daily rates rose 12.6% to $279.05, and RevPAR gained 17.9% to $224.45.
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Conventions Lead the Rebound
Group business and weekday travel drove the gains, said Michael Stathokostopoulos, CoStar’s senior director of hospitality analytics. Attendance at the Moscone Center rose 70% in 2025.
RevPAR in San Francisco is up nearly 20% year to date through September, second only to Chicago, which got a boost from World Cup demand.
Still the Laggard
The growth comes off a low base. San Francisco has regained 85% of its 2019 RevPAR, the weakest showing of the 25 largest markets and of all 174 CoStar tracks, Stathokostopoulos told CoStar.
Supply is tight. The market has 54,894 rooms, down 373 from a year earlier, and with high barriers to entry, buying is the way in.
Investors Lean In
Jon Bortz, chairman and CEO of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, said the company never believed the “doom loop” talk. It owns seven San Francisco hotels and plans three refreshes in the next 12 months.
Bortz credited Mayor Daniel Lurie and a more moderate board of supervisors for cleaner, safer streets, and described the swing as a move from doom loop to boom loop.
Zoom Out
Hotel owners elsewhere are seeing demand return too. Sunstone lifted guidance after Q3 RevPAR climbed 11.4%, per our earlier coverage, and hotel REIT activity has picked up as fundamentals improve.
Why It Matters
Tech is anchoring the calendar. Anna Marie Presutti, president and CEO of SF Travel, told CoStar the city has embraced its role as the hub of AI and is courting events like Dreamforce, Databricks and Snowflake. Microsoft Ignite returns later this month.
A fresh convention center helps too. Moscone’s $551M renovation reopened in 2019 and sat largely unused during the pandemic, so wear is limited.
What’s Next
SF Travel expects the 2027 convention calendar to beat 2026, with groups spreading to venues like Fort Mason. International travel is the missing piece, and the city projects around 72% occupancy in 2027, against about 82% in 2019.
