Stanford Court Hotel Now Offers Google Glass to Guests

While some San Francisco business have banned Google’s polarizing wearable technology, Google Glass, Nob Hill’s Stanford Court Hotel is embracing it with a new package that supplies guests with the Web-enhanced glasses.

Starting today, the hotel is offering a Google Glass Explorer Package to all guests. Starting at $199 a night, guests will be given Google Glass upon check-in with instructions on how to avoid being “Glasshole”—the Google-acknowledged term for users who push privacy and etiquette limits.

Guests are free to use Google Glass during their stay and are encouraged to participate in a social media contest that could result in a free appetizer at the hotel’s cafe.

“Stanford Court developed the experience as part of its ongoing cultural transformation under new, independent management,” according to a release announcing the program. “The hotel encourages its patrons to experience authentic San Francisco, which includes embracing the latest gadgets to hit the Bay Area’s ever-evolving digital marketplace.”

The program arrives after several recent controversies, most notably an incident at Molotov’s bar in the Lower Haight involving an alleged assault of a patron’s Google Glass. The murky situation initially began with the patron’s assertion that she had been attacked for merely wearing Google Glass, which were then stolen right off her face. But it soon emerged—and footage from her recovered Google Glass confirmed—that she was filming other patrons without their permission.

From there,  many bars—most with a dive atmosphere similar to Molotov’s, including Zeitgeist, The Willows, Uptown, and Lucky 13 among others —banned the device, viewing it a nuisance.

Stanford Court obviously views that as an isolated incident and seems intent on educating guests on how to enjoy Google Glass without coming off as a tourist, or worse for some, a techie “Glasshole.”