Econo Lodge Castro Valley I-580 — Hotel in Castro Valley

This stay was okay - rooms were clean enough and comfortable - although the what looked like it was either an ancient portable TV or a video camera in the bathroom was a little creepy (and stayed covered with a grocery bag the entire time just in case!).

I generally stay at the other end of CV Blvd. when in town, but a last minute trip monkey wrench had me needing someplace a little less expensive. I figured the big differences between these two Choice Hotel properties, besides location, would be breakfast and decor. I was definitely right - huge difference in breakfast. I expected basic continental fare, but I didn't expect this to be nothing but donuts and coffee. The first day of our stay there was an empty juice container on the counter at 9am. I asked if there was more juice and was told no, so I just assumed I got there too late for the daily juice allotment. Alas, there was not even an empty container the next two mornings when I got to the lobby shortly after the stated 7am start time. A bit of a disappointment for sure, although not a deal breaker.

The staff was friendly enough, but I must say it's been a long time since a hotel asked to make a copy of my driver's license. Okay, it's their policy so I went with it.

We were originally booked for two nights, but another travel plan monkey wrench appeared and I needed to add a night. I found this out the first day of our stay so went to the office and asked the young woman working at the front desk to please extend our check out by one day. She said okay and made a paper note on our paper reservation tag. I was checking the app the next morning and my check out date still showed 1/1. I went to the office and another person was working. He was unaware of our request to extend our stay and said he needed my credit card again before 11am in order for us to keep our room. I'm glad I double checked! We were in town to see family and typically were out of the room from mid morning to early evening - would not have been nice to come back and not have a room or our belongings!

He ran my card and we had no problems, other than our keys continually needing to be reset when we returned at night. We were told this is because we keep them near our phones. I travel quite a bit and have never had this many key issues, and I never keep my key by my phone for this reason. Again, minor annoyance but not deal breaking.

So, meh. The place was clean enough and the bed comfortable. The towels were surprisingly fluffy. The smell of whatever air freshener is used that made me sneeze horribly the first day aired itself out (and we requested no housekeeping during our stay to keep the room aired out!). I'm not saying I'll never stay here again, but it wouldn't be my first choice due to the little annoyances that added up to make the experience more...

I am a native of the Bay Area, moved away 25 years ago. I needed a place to stay for 5 nights while in town for my 40th high school reunion. I thought Castro Valley was a safe choice and was centrally located for the family and friends I wished to connect with during my visit. Flew in to Oakland, drove to Castro Valley at night (much had changed) and immediately noticed you couldn't legally turn left into the Econo Lodge while traveling east bound up Castro Valley Blvd. I passed the hotel and had to u-turn quite a way up the hill to be traveling west to enter the narrow parking lot/driveway. As I approached my turn-in, I noticed a large man on a cell phone standing in the driveway of the adjacent uphill Castro Valley Inn. I parked in front of the Econo office and no sooner had I shut the car door, I was confronted by the same large individual, calling me Papa-Bear and offering me something that was definitely not on the menu, thus far my experience with this hotel was less than stellar. I proceed into the office and check in. I had paid in advance for the five nights, so paperwork was minimal. Re-parked the car in the tight single lane parking lot and headed to the 2nd floor room. It was a non-smoking room next to a smoking one, I feared the air quality would be poor, but surprisingly was fine. It had been a long day, it was late, I was tired and just wanted to sleep. I turned down the bed and saw that the blanket was stained with something resembling chocolate sauce and notice the rest of the room was just kind of grimy, I guess econo means dirty. In the bathroom the sink leaked badly, not a drip, but a small stream, that couldn't be stopped by tightening the handle, I thought they were in drought? I slept in my clothes, used the bath towels as my pillow, and was awoken several times throughout the night by slamming doors. I contacted friends to bunk with for the remainder of the trip. I paid for five nights, stayed one and will never, ever, used econo lodge, in any city again, the experience was that bad. My only regret in writing this review, that I "had" to give it...

My company was going to do business with them but we decided to switch hotels after receiving poor customer service and no communication at all. We frequently travel in this area and when one of our employees needed a place to stay for an extended period of time, I thought I would give them a call. The front desk was rude and unwilling to help when I called them with my request and when I asked for the manager to call me back to discuss a solution, she didn't.

I proceeded to book the reservation through a third party website and called the day before to make sure everything was in order since no one had bothered to call me. I was told that what we booked through the website wasn't possible. When I asked what solution we could come up with she (Nima?) suggested our employee stay for a few weeks and then leave the hotel for one night and then come back? I didn't want my employee jumping from hotel to hotel so I asked about having him just check out and back in same day, as I understand they may need a new contract. She said absolutely not, and told me how rude I was to call and ask that of them. Surprised by her behavior, I requested to speak to someone higher up and she say they (Jay?) weren't in, but she would have them call me and then hung up on me. No one has called me and that was last week.

Rather then worrying about how they would treat our employee, I decided that I would switch his hotel. I do hope that Econo Lodge realizes that these people cost them my business and invests a little more in teaching people proper manners. Working in customer service myself, I know people are human have bad days, but hanging up on people and name calling as a manager especially; there is no excuse for how I...