A few things to consider:
Radio coverage can be expensive. Tower space, antenna systems, etc, all cost a lot of money. An agency is really only interested in providing sufficient radio coverage for its jurisdiction, nothing else. Sending RF energy outside the area of intended coverage is a waste, putting that power into the right areas helps with building penetration, something that is much more important to the radio users.
FCC licenses also define the area of operation, usually shown as xx kilometers radius around point y. Exceeding that can cause interference to other users on the same frequency, so the FCC can sometimes reject a license application if the transmitter power/ERP and antenna height don't add up to something that makes sense from an interference prevention standpoint. In the case of Daly City, the mobiles are licensed for 40km around the transmitter sites, which does cover Burlingame, but that 40km isn't a requirement.
Radio operation outside the jurisdiction for mutual aid purposes often happens on other channels that are specifically designed for wider area coverage. Spending money on providing radio coverage outside the normal area of operation isn't a good investment.
Radio systems are designed to cover their licensed area, there is no requirement that they provide entertainment to scanner listeners, no offense intended.
Being in a hotel doesn't mean much, which direction your room pointed does. A 10 story hotel is going to be concrete and steel, with lots of wire, pipes and energy efficient glass, all things that are not conducive to RF.
San Jose has to cover a much larger area than Daly City, and their location puts them at an advantage, too. They have several sites high up that look up the bay. Looking down the bay at San Jose from a 10 story hotel in Burlingame isn't much of an issue. Some of the mountain top sites above San Jose have a clean shot up past San Francisco. On a clear day I can be up there and see the bridges and well up past Mt. Tamalpais.
They do have a site on San Bruno Mountain. If you plot the location using the coordinates on the FCC license, you will see that they appear to be just west of the crest, and their antenna is only shown as being 15 meters off the ground, so that doesn't really put them in a really good place to shoot down into Burlingame, although I bet they do.
I'd really suspect the building you were in as a big part of the issue. Penetrating concrete, steel and low-e glass can be problematic.