Long Live Hotel Carlton San Francisco

[edtraveller]

First, the fact that I have named the hotel is in itself bad news.. it is one of the businesses that has been devastated by the Covid-19 economic fallout.

It sat on the edge of the Tenderloin district. Just out of reach of the homeless encampments and near some interesting club venues. When other hotels charged $300+ USD per night; you could get a room there in the mid $100's. It appealed partly to tourists, but mostly to young couples either traveling on a budget or wanting a place to make out after the clubs started closing down for the night.

It had 9 floors, old San Francisco architecture and interiors, a rickety elevator, a grand staircase through all floors, and at the back an old steel spiral staircase. The floors were an "I" configuration, with the long part staggered, so there were plenty of nooks and escapes for me to disappear when I could hear people approaching - or provide a vantage to scope newcomers arriving in the wee hours of the morning walking from the elevator to their rooms.

The owners kept it old school weird. HUGE door gaps at the bottom, no security guards and no cameras. There were so many complaints online about 'noise' which made me go there in the first place. Not once in two years did I ever witness any employee knocking on the door of a loud couple. Maintenance would disappear at night except for restocking the linen closets at 1AM, which they did fairly quickly. Two old men at the front would check everyone in - I think they were 40+ years at the hotel.

This was my go-to for sounds from 2018 until Valentines Weekend this year - the week before 'safer at home' went into effect.

I was hoping the lull in Covid would last and the city would reopen this fall. I had in mind flying there for New Year's eve. Would check from time to time, but then finally it disappeared from Orbitz; the site is down and the phone number just says 'out of service.' I called the restaurant owner who had his place inside the hotel, who became a friend over my time there and he confirmed the worst. The property sold for bottom dollar to an unknown owner and all employees were let go, and the restaurant had to leave.

It is not just this hotel; others have closed and even the ones still open are scarcely populated. The low rates should attract travelers, but the lockdowns, restrictions and lack of dining or nightlife, along with the exodus of people moving out of the city have left it empty and sad. I am devastated; I really wanted to reacquaint myself this coming year even if I had to wait until summer. God knows what kind of pretentious, camera-laden idiocy will take it's place.

So in memoriam, I have posted this as a tribute and uploaded several good files that might or might not be in the archives. Good spread of clear under door and corridor type recordings. Also some photos that I think tell the story of this place. By the way, I found sex complaint reviews going all the way back to the 1980s! What a hot little place!!

Even if I find another place after the city reopens, I will always dearly miss this wonderful venue..

SFDec-Friday-E1.mp3

SF-2019Oct-CplA1-Jazz Romance.mp3

2018Jan6-CplB1.mp3

[edtraveller]

SFDec-Friday-F1.mp3

SF-2019Oct-CplB1-TallBldEveGown-UDSD.mp3

2018Jan6-CplB1UDHD.mp3

[edtraveller]

photo0jpg.jpg

img-20190105-070115-largejpg.jpg

The last time I went here before the Covid shutdown, they had just finished renovating the floors - using a dark motif and black paint on the door jams - perfect concealment for my black USBs with sticky tape. Was looking forward to exploiting that feature more.. alas.

SF-2019Oct-CplC1-LoudClrBJSex-FullRemix.mp3

[edtraveller]

restaurante-saha-a-noite.jpg

hotel-carlton-a-joie (1).jpg

One of my favorite spots. On the other side of that door is a King bed. 3AM, I could just lay the recorder down and sit in comfort through the entire time. If anyone got out of the elevator, three steps up or down would take me out of sight..

hotel-carlton-a-joie.jpg

[reggind]

But wait! They should get their $600 bail out check sometime around the new year, surely that will save them.

It is really sad, sad places are closing, sad people are losing their jobs, sad places that can not be replicated will be gone forever. And sad for all the people who have succumbed to this petulance.

The world is going to look different when it wakes back up.

Thank you for the memories.

[thomas]

Thanks gekko for the tribute to this place. Maybe we should put some money together here and buy the place?

I can understand your feelings quite well: the student dorm that I lived in during my studies (and from where I posted quite a number of recordings here) has been blasted in February this year (not because of Covid, by the way ) which made me also a bit sentimental. It could not be restored because the building was from the 60s.

To be honest, I am also not in favor of the measures taken to "Protect" people from Covid. I would much more focus on protecting the risk groups rather than knocking down everything. At least in Germany, the median age of affected people is 82. Assuming that it`s similar in the US it will be qute unlikely that those risk groups benefit much from closing and destroying the economic basis of this hotel (or other favourite places like cinemas, theaters, bakeries etc.). But thats just my opinion, obviously the majority of people thinks different.

[emmpet8]

A very sad story, very well told and the pictures add a real touch of poignancy to the description. Thanks a lot for all the files gekko. I'm looking forward to listening to them.

[nightstalker99]

Superbe catch.

[spirou]

Well, despite the sad story and this corona nonsense (sorry for my honest opinion), you did a beautiful homage in honor of the Carlton SF and all the nice moments it gave you; and us I may add Thanks for sharing! My favorite is recording F1.

[sorrownaut]

this corona nonsense (sorry for my honest opinion)

Everyone is entitled to his / her own opinion, and I respect yours... but nevertheless I think you might change that opinion when you saw someone in the intensive care unit breathing through a machine, slowly dying, with your own eyes. I work in health system, believe me, it's no fun, and I sure as hell haven't seen the worst of it.

However, this is off-topic! Thanks gekko for the postings.

[Million1]

It seems like a perfect hotel, both from your description and the photos. I feel your disappointment. Hopefully the new owner will keep the hotel more or less as it is.

[Joebuck]

Thank you for the captures, Gekko. Always love hearing American ladies having a lot of fun.

[yeppie]

Thank you for the captures, Gekko. Always love hearing American ladies having a lot of fun.

Hey Joebuck, why don´t you use quadrophenia anymore? Still the same kind of messages as it seems

[thomas]

Taken from guest reviews at Tripadvisor about the hotel:

"Room was clean but walls were very thin and you can hear everything." That`s great to know

"The lobby is welcoming and the wine happy hour with love music was just delightful." Excellent!

"The problem with this hotel is that the walls are so paper thin that you can hear every word of the conversations people are having in adjacent rooms. (And you can hear everything else they are doing too!)" This is what we are here for...

"The only complain I have is that the walls are so thin that you could hear everything outside. I could even hear my neighbors having sex." Brilliant!

"As other travelers mentioned, we were woken up in the morning to the neighbors having sex - so the rooms are not very well soundproofed."

"The walls are paper thin. So much so that we could hear the conversation of the couple in the room to our left and the had to listen to the couple in the room to our right having sex. Fortunately it was a short session." What a pity..

"Generally met all my usually low expectations, though the walls were too thin, which meant that I could hear everything that happens in the hallways and next door."

"On my last night, I had to walk by several hookers on the corner."

https://www.tripadvisor.de/Hotel_Review ... ml#REVIEWS

[Gimplover]

Damn shame. How did you find noise complaints going back to the 80s?
Don't despair. Maybe the new management won't soundproof the walls.