A Google employee works at the firm’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, Calif., in June 2022. A hotel on the campus is reportedly available at $99 a night for staff until Sept. 30, 2023.
NOAH BERGER/AFP via Getty Images
Google reportedly wants its Bay Area staff to pay to sleep where they work.
The tech giant is offering a $99-a-night “Summer Special” deal for an on-campus hotel to “make it easier for Googlers to transition to the hybrid workplace,” according to CNBC, which viewed promotional materials and internal forums. Employees must pay out of their own pockets for the special, which is open until Sept. 30, the outlet found.
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Though the Alphabet subsidiary has cut some Bay Area offices this year, the firm still has a massive local footprint and huge numbers of employees need to find housing in the expensive, office-heavy area. Real estate rental site Zumper recently declared Mountain View, where Google is headquartered, the most expensive city in the Bay Area after the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment rose by more than 22% year-over-year.
Enter the $99-a-night hotel rooms. They’re reportedly located on Google’s recently opened Bay View campus, which sits next to NASA’s Ames Research Center. “Just imagine no commute to the office in the morning and instead, you could have an extra hour of sleep and less friction,” the offer description said, according to CNBC.
“We regularly run accommodation specials for local or traveling Googlers to take advantage of our spaces and amenities,” Google spokesperson Ryan Lamont told SFGATE, adding that the company advertises the specials in a “Perks” email alongside discounts for services and entertainment. The firm did not comment on the hotel’s pricing or booking rates.
Google’s new Bay View campus in Mountain View, pictured on Jan. 20, 2023, reportedly has a hotel that workers can, until Sept. 30, stay in for $99 a night.
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Though Google did cut some amenities this year, the tech giant’s offices famously offer free food and laundry service. Employee reactions to the offer were mixed in company forums, CNBC reported, as they weighed the woes of living at work versus paying an all-inclusive rent. But a highly rated post, the outlet said, featured Lindsay Lohan’s “No, thank you” quote from Mean Girls.
The company’s corporate hotel may act as a type of precedent for its newly approved neighborhood in Mountain View, just south of its headquarters. Google has a three-decade plan to erect 3 million square feet of office space, up to 288,990 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 7,000 residential units.
Hear of anything happening at Google? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.