Crowne Plaza Foster City-San Mateo — Hotel in Foster City

We are locals and needed a place to stay during a quick home renovation project at our house. We considered many places in the San Mateo/Foster City area and the Crowne Plaza met our needs, great location, right price, safe, clean, and comfortable. Out of town visitors might find it helpful to know that this hotel is within walking distance of Bridgepoint Mall, restaurants, and Costco. The hotel is right off the 92 freeway between the San Mateo Bridge and 101, about 10 minutes away from SFO airport.

The hotel lobby has a cafe/bar and a restaurant set amidst a large waterfall and fountain display with glass elevators. One can access the indoor pool area which is well lit with natural lighting and glass panels. Nice business center, gift shop, Japanese restaurant, and a bar/nightclub around the corner. We ate at the Japanese restaurant, Tokyo Village, a few times because it's so convenient and because we know the owner and staff from another local restaurant. Plenty of free parking. There is a gym on the skybridge that connects the main part of the hotel to the executive tower, where we stayed.

We booked an executive level room and it was quiet even though the room faced the freeway because there were two sets of windows. The furniture and features of the room were modern and updated with a large desk, plugs everywhere. The room included a drawer safe and a mini-fridge that works. The black out curtains and drape clip (I usually leave a clothes pin in my luggage for this purpose) were very helpful to allow us to sleep in and take naps as needed.

The executive level rooms include Crowne Club breakfast on weekdays. It's an upgraded continental breakfast with typical pastries, toast, cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, Starbucks coffee, Tazo tea, and juice as well as scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. The lady did a great job of keeping the food stocked, tables cleared, and it was a lovely start for each day. We didn't have a chance to try the breakfast during the weekend.

I was very impressed with the attention to details. The hotel had a local food bank come pick up their donations. Every morning a maintenance worker swept the parking lot instead of using a noisy leaf blower. We happened to stay over the Easter weekend and they put on a fabulous brunch that is quite popular.

The only caveats or areas of improvement is that the toilet seat shifts and will need to be replaced soon and the maid left 3 bath towels for our family of four everyday. The tiles on the bathrooms are older styled which doesn't affect the functionality of the room, but doesn't match the overall upgraded appearance. I left some jewelry (including my wedding band) in my suitcase (total failure to use the safe) and now the pieces are missing. Lesson learned, USE THE SAFE! I'm disappointed to lose my wedding band due to the sentimental value, but we were safe, happy, and healthy and that's all that really matters. We would stay at this...

We checked into this hotel on August 2, 2024. This incident happened in the morning of Sunday, August 4.

On that morning, My daughter and I went for breakfast around 9:40 AM but the waiter told us that breakfast time was over. The restaurant manager Mr. Raff told me that breakfast voucher show the breakfast is available until 10:00 AM. Then he told me, the restaurant was preparing for brunch buffet from 9:30 so they could not serve the breakfast. The manager seemed to provide another option to us that we can come to restaurant with breakfast voucher after 10:00 during brunch buffet service hours. He did not state that my daughter can only take the leftover breakfast, not brunch.

My daughter came back to restaurant after 10:00 AM. Then waiter told my daughter she could only take leftovers which have been served at breakfast, with reduced options. The brunch items are placed directly next to the breakfast items with no clear indicated border. My daughter was confused. She took both breakfast items and lunch/brunch items.

My daughter complained to me about the breakfast experience. We returned to the dining area at 10:30 AM, asking why we couldn’t have lunch/brunch. At that time, the dining manager sternly warned us that we could only eat the leftover breakfast items. They refused to admit their mistake.

We purchased breakfast vouchers, which entitle us to dine during the designated breakfast hours, written as 6 am to 10 am. The breakfast vouchers should be the final CONTRACT between the customer and the hotel’s restaurant, which both the hotel and the customer should follow. The staff at the restaurant VIOLATED THE CONTRACT by not serving us full breakfast at the designated time or notify us DIRECTLY that the breakfast time is DIFFERENT from what is written on the voucher.

This is the worst incident we have encountered as an IHG customer in the last 20 years. We haven’t run into such a horrible experience at any hotel before. We have suffered losses from this incident, and we wish this problem would be fixed soon. OR, SIMILAR INCIDENTS WOULD HAPPEN TO OTHER CUSTOMERS. THIS WOULD BE A LOSS OF REVENUE AND TRUST FOR THIS HOTEL AND THE...

Attended a 40th birthday party in the hotel bar/lounge and stayed the night.

Front desk was decent, as in they got me a room. But no help whatsoever in trying to accommodate location. We were part of a group with a block of rooms and it would have been nice if we were somewhat near each other. We were all over the hotel and on different floors. When I attempted to find a room close to any relative, I was immediately just told "NO." Not welcoming at all, so I just stopped trying. The front desk service at check in was pretty disappointing.

Room was better than expected. I stayed in a standard 2 queen room. Clean and fresh smelling - big plus. No musty scents that often come with hotel rooms. Beds were comfy and pillows fluffy. Sheets were nice and crisp. I slept very soundly. The bathroom was big, but I do prefer the sink to be outside the toilet/shower. Loved that they had a hairdryer already in the room and they had a fantastic light up swivel makeup mirror in the bathroom. No views, except for the freeways or costco parking lot. The lobby is nice with palm trees and sitting area. Pool was tiny and only 5.5 feet deep, but ok for kids just splashing around. Hot tub was as big as the pool. Not crowded on a Friday, so that was nice.

The bar/lounge was pretty happening for Foster City. Seems like a lot of the local peninsula folks come here to party. Older crowd, fun DJ playing all the old school hip-hop music. Going back to high school dance days. The private lounge area we reserved was very nice to sit relax and drink and eat. They set up food along one end of the room. Lots of seating options in the private area. Only think I would suggest is getting rid of all the TVs in there. Very distracting. One is enough. They had them all over the room and even in the fireplace. That really took away from the feel of the lounge. Good for a sports bar, I guess, but not for a semi formal 40th birthday party. Depends on the ambiance you are going for.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised in the hotel and...