Pitched squarely at San Francisco's technology corridor, where SoMa's Victorian commercial streetscape gives way to the glass towers of the startup economy, Hotel Zetta opened in 2013 inside a handsomely proportioned early twentieth-century building whose arched ground-floor facade — white-painted pilasters framing tall glazed arches, a rhythm both formal and welcoming — gives little away about what interior designer Dawna Cahill of Pedersen Associates has assembled within. The brief was essentially to build a hotel for people who find hotel lobbies tedious, and the response was to make the ground floor feel closer to a creative studio than a reception hall. The lobby, called the Playroom, mixes a pool table, a wall-mounted bullseye game constructed from bottle caps, and a bar whose back panel is stacked floor-to-ceiling with wine bottles — an installation that functions simultaneously as sculpture and stock. Whitewashed shiplap paneling anchors the bar wall alongside a gallery of black-and-white music photography, while a sculptural metal chandelier hovers above the white Corian counter. Guest rooms carry a more restrained palette — dark-stained oak floors, leather-upholstered headboards backed by illuminated walnut panels that give rooms their warmest feature, kilim-style rugs grounding the otherwise cool grey interiors, and wire-frame task chairs nods to midcentury office culture. The 116-room property manages the trick of feeling both deliberately playful and genuinely composed.

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Connect, celebrate, cozy up: Hotel Zetta is San Francisco's creative retreat, infusing every day and every stay with joy and color. Zetta's fresh energy and uplifting spirit will quench your thirst for inspiration and satisfy your wanderlust with San Francisco's arts and culture scene steps from your door. Shopping, dining, and entertainment await. But if you feel like staying in, we totally get it.