Hyatt House Hotel In 1957,
Jay Pritzker purchased the first
Hyatt hotel, which was sited near
Los Angeles International Airport. Pritzker and his
brothers then founded the Hyatt company with the intention of creating a chain of first-class
hotels near airports; the first hotel they built was the
Hyatt House Hotel, Burlingame. It opened in 1959 at 1333 Bayshore Highway in
Burlingame, two miles from
San Francisco International Airport. Hyatt moved its headquarters to the Burlingame hotel before 1961, where it was still located in 1976. It was expanded in 1965; the new complex was "a ring of buildings with a pool at the center." The pool was Olympic-sized, and the hotel had 300 rooms and suites as well as conference facilities. It was promoted as the "World's First Fly-In Hotel."
Hyatt Regency Shortly after its 1988 rebuild, the hotel suffered structural damage in the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It managed to stay open during the quake, though without main power, but had to evacuate staff and guests early the following morning for a safety inspection. The hotel was then closed until July 1990 for structural repairs to its foundation, at an estimated cost of $5million. Following the
September 11 attacks in 2001, the
Transportation Security Administration opened a security training and assessment center in the hotel, due to its proximity to the airport. In October 2016 a man was shot dead on the hotel's driveway. In 2020, it began pilot testing a
Google Assistant-based concierge translation device and, along with many Hyatt hotels worldwide, became
Global Biorisk Advisory Council certified.
Republican conventions In 1996, the
California Republican Party Convention was held at the hotel. In 2008, Vice-presidential candidate
Sarah Palin held a fundraiser at the hotel during the presidential debates period, where she gave a speech criticizing
Barack Obama. The event drew crowds of supporters and protesters outside the hotel; the groups were peaceful and mixed together. The 2016 California Republican Party Convention was held in the hotel in April and May 2016, with then-presidential candidate
Donald Trump opening the convention on April 29 with a campaign speech. Trump supporters showed up at the hotel, as did protesters, with the groups clashing in what became rioting when Trump's motorcade arrived; a flag and an effigy of Trump were burned in front of the hotel and arrests were made. As riot police struggled to subdue up to 10,000 protesters, Trump had to enter the hotel through a side door off the freeway. A Trump lookalike was attacked outside the hotel and escorted inside. At the time Trump was due to make his speech, protesters attempted to disrupt it, throwing objects at the hotel and damaging its glass panels. They broke through barricades and some protesters tried to enter the building, causing enough alarm to delay the speech. Some protesters did make it into the hotel, several having booked rooms in advance to be permitted inside, with one being removed from the convention floor and others hanging large banners (which could be seen outside through windows) inside the lobby. Protesters included
Burlingame High School students in matching
tie-dye, topless
Free the Nipple activists, and brothers dressed as Mexican-American versions of
Captain America and the
Winter Soldier. No protesters showed up on April 30 when candidate
Ted Cruz was attending the convention. ==Notes==