Darkened by COVID-19, SF Hotels light up the night with love and hope

The Intercontinental San Francisco has lit up its windows on the front exterior of the building, in the shape of a heart. The Intercontinental San Francisco has lit up its windows on the front exterior of the building, in the shape of a heart. Photo: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate Photo: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Darkened by COVID-19, SF Hotels light up the night with love and hope 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

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As a message of hope in tough times, several empty, or nearly empty, San Francisco hotels decided to turn on the lights again, at least symbolically in the past several days.

"We decided to light up our windows in the shape of a heart to show solidarity and continuous support for our employees and the local community as a symbol of love and hope," explained Michael Pace, the General Manager of the Mark Hopkins.

With the COVID-19 pandemic depressing travel demand, many hotels in San Francisco have few customers — or have closed. One of the closed hotels, the Mark Hopkins, decided to turned on its room lights in the shape of a heart on its front facade last Saturday. Since then, several other city hotels, including the Fairmont, St. Francis, and Intercontiental, have also started lighting up its windows in a heart shape as well.

Raymond Vermolen, General Manager of the Intercontinental San Francisco, which is still open, said the hotel started lighting up the windows on Monday night as an initiative from their staff, after Intercontinental hotels in Europe started the practice there.

"We have some empty floors, as you can imagine, and they felt it would be nice to show we care," he said. Easily visible from Highway 101, Vermolen noted that he received a lot of positive reactions from the public for their gesture.

The Westin Saint Francis in Union Square also started lighting its windows facing Union Square as of Tuesday night. "We saw [other hotels] doing it online and decided to do it as well," noted Camila Frederico, the hotel manager for the St. Francis, which is also still open. "We wanted to spread love and support for the community and the hospitality industry."

MORE: How hotels are scrambling to fill rooms during the coronavirus crisis

Hotels in San Francisco are struggling to stay open and fill rooms due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some hotels in the city have temporarily closed down to the public or might be used to house people needing to quarantine, or as a shelter for first responders or health care workers needing a place to stay between shifts.

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Online Photo Editor Douglas Zimmerman oversees SFGATE's Instagram and covers the Bay Area soccer scene on SFGATE's Beautiful Blog. View his latest stories and send him news tips at dzimmerman@sfgate.com.