The Huntington Hotel, the red-brick landmark perched atop Nob Hill, is back in business after a six-year shutdown, reopening in March with refreshed guest rooms, a revived Big Four, and a three-level Nob Hill Spa. The return brings back the hotel’s glowing rooftop sign and old-school dining rooms, even as crews finish work on the building’s top floor this month. For Nob Hill, the house-style revival feels like a homecoming: familiar fixtures paired with newly detailed interiors and a renewed push toward high-end comfort.
Greg Flynn, who led the group that bought the shuttered property in 2023, and general manager Matthew de Quillien hosted a soft reopening and ribbon-cutting earlier this spring. As reported by The San Francisco Standard, construction on the hotel’s top floor is set to wrap up this month, and the outlet notes that high-profile guests, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, checked in shortly after the March reopening. The report places the Huntington’s comeback within a broader wave of investment in San Francisco’s hotel sector.
The Big Four Returns
The Big Four, the wood-paneled clubhouse long tied to Nob Hill power players, swung its doors back open on March 17 with a menu that splits the difference between classics and updated takes. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that chef David Intonato has reworked staples like the chicken pot pie and crab Louie, while designer Ken Fulk kept original touches such as brass fixtures and carved columns. Tableside service has returned, and nightly piano music is back on the schedule, according to the Chronicle.
Old Bones, New Details
Designer Ken Fulk reimagined nearly every interior surface while leaving the building’s brick exterior intact, and the hotel added Arabella’s, a cocktail salon that highlights decades-old spirits and a vintage French bar cart, per reporting in The San Francisco Standard. The Huntington Hotel’s press and media page lists 71 guest rooms and 72 suites, for a total of 143 units, and describes a Nob Hill Spa spread across three levels with a pool, sauna, and treatment rooms. The updated public spaces mix restored woodwork, new textiles, and commissioned art to create a residence-like atmosphere.
A Civic Bet on Hospitality
Owners and city leaders are treating the relaunch as a civic moment as much as a business play for San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle covered Greg Flynn’s remarks at the reopening and Mayor Daniel Lurie’s appearance at the sign lighting, noting the symbolic weight of the hotel’s return for Nob Hill and the broader downtown hotel market. Nearby merchants say a reopened Huntington, along with an active Big Four and an operating spa, could help pull more evening and weekend foot traffic back into the neighborhood.
Bookings, Rates and What to Expect
The Huntington’s address is 1075 California Street, and the hotel is taking reservations while promoting spring suite packages on its offers page. The hotel’s offers page lays out opening packages and credits, and third-party booking sites show opening-period rates often in the high hundreds to around $1,000 a night, depending on dates and room type. Sample listings during opening weekends appeared near those figures on sites such as Orbitz. For locals who remember the Huntington as a kind of neighborhood clubhouse, the lingering question is whether the Big Four and the spa settle into a daily-life status or mostly stay a magnet for out-of-town guests.
For now, the Huntington is back on the skyline, its neon sign relit, the piano playing, and the pool open above the city. Crews are scheduled to finish the last of the top-floor work this month, and the hotel’s full lineup of public spaces is expected to come online in the weeks ahead.
