The Westin San Francisco Airport — Hotel in Millbrae

Having a very early meeting to attend, We decided to forgo the angst of commuter traffic and checking traffic info for accidents, and book a hotel room along the route. Along Hwy 101 there are many. I quickly ruled out San Francisco as parking of my car as a lot of hotels just say parking. Do not fall for that one...call and pin them down to where and above all safety once the vehicle is parked. All things considered Burlingame and Millbrae were good choices. I picked the area I knew best and that was near the airport. I chose The Westin, but many along 1 Bayshore Ave in Millbrae are all great choices. THE WESTIN has been there for awhile but is newer and very well maintained. As you enter the circular drive you can see 3 of the wings around a more central hub. To the right is a gated entry to the parking lot. You get in by key card you get at check-in. 3 stars for that! The parking is distributed around the entire building. With handicap parking in front on the rear side. Due to the design of the building, the entrances are not far from parking and the front desk. I had completed my reservation on-line so the time it took to check-in was relatively short. Have your ID ready! We checked in and made our way to the elevator area. 3 adjacent elevators carry all guests to all floors. Again have your Newly Programmed key card ready as the elevator will not let you pick a floor without it! Thank you Marriott hotels! We found our room easily with the numbered plaques on each wing. Our room was toasty brown. A minus was that the bathroom and entry lights were the only lights on switches. Cell phone flashlight to the rescue. Im going to use the excuse we were tired to explain why two highly educated and physically active people...one raised in a rural area and one in a city took 15 minutes to find the switch on 4 electric lamps!! Hi tech flew out the window here! Waving of the magic key card fell at the feet of the push button on base of the light bulb holder the opposite direction like we all did growing up.! The desk light by twisting the knob on the stand. Other than that test, the room was very clean, the king bed very comfortable, and all the pillows were there we requested. The bathroom was well appointed and also sparkling clean. Plenty of towels for our stay. Very nice large containers of body wash, hair shampoo and conditioner all attached to the shower wall. A heavenly rain shower with hand spray gave plenty of water. The large vanity was also well stocked. We dropped our bags as it was getting late and headed back to the main floor restaurant/bar/lounge. The menu had a large variety of items. My partner had the sea bass with veggies over in a nice wine reduction. I opted for a salad and the Westin burger with my choices of sauted onions and provolone cheese. Both were great! As we didnt order drinks or appetizers we shared a lava cake for dessert. It was delicious. The layout if this Hotel, the cleanliness, great staff, security features and proximity to the airport and anywhere in the bay area make it an ideal place for us. We noticed more than one flight crew checking in. To be honest, hotels along this Avenue are on the bay and ON the landing path. You can see the passengers in their seats as they come in so there will be noise in those rooms facing the bay. Our room faced the valley and mountains to the West and we didn't hear but a little noise. And all air noise stops a bit after midnight when the last flight comes in. In the morning you will not hear flights taking off as they take off south to north 98% Of the time. To tell you the very truth the bay area is on a peninsula that has international commerce, a huge amount of business and vacation seekers, and large airports in San Jose, and Oakland, with regional and city airports sprinkled in sharing the air space. You will see and hear some degree of plane noise no matter where you stay no matter where you live. Just learn to embrace it or go to Death Valley it's very...

I don’t know why Starwood includes a “personal preferences” section in reservations if nobody bothers to read it. In addition to expected check-in/out times, I selected the following checkboxes, thinking that it would make things quicker upon arrival: “I have a reservation for 1 bed but would prefer 2 beds” and “Green Choice” and “Gear Lending.” None of these were confirmed at check-in.

I got pushback for the 3pm check-out request (eventually granted), even though Westin Weekends offers Sunday 3pm check-out for everyone. And my upgraded Deluxe room became a Traditional room with a view of the roof.

These issues aside, I appreciated that the rooms were equipped with plastic wrapped glassware (clean) and a mini refrigerator. Inexplicably, there was a “minibar” menu card, but the only item in the room was an overpriced bottle of water (which, by the way, is free in the gym). They might as well remove the menu card and price tag.

One thing to be aware of is the difference in food and beverage pricing within the hotel. Every item on the in-room dining/room service menu is priced higher than the restaurant. Since there’s already a mandatory 20% service charge and $3.50 delivery fee, it seems rather cheap of them. Note that the doorknob breakfast menu is worse - 24% service charge and $10 delivery fee. Absolutely ridiculous, so I chose to dine in the restaurant instead. Both food and service were acceptable, but staff seemed flustered and disorganized.

My biggest peeve was the noise factor. Airport noise was expected and a non-issue, but there were apparently two weddings on Saturday, with music and bass blasting until midnight. Service Express just said, "sorry," but it wasn't like they could do much anyway. Noise from a one-off event can be excused to some degree, but what was inexcusable was the fact that every conversation in corridors and rooms above, below, and adjacent were audible. You could CLEARLY hear bathroom “business,” right down to the tinkling stream of toilet use, not to mention intimate room activities.

For an airport hotel that probably gets a lot of business travelers, the room setup is not ideal. I do give the Westin credit for the multiple plugs, but they’re just not easily accessible when you have to crawl to get to them. Internet wasn’t high speed, but it was fast enough for video calls and streaming. There’s a limit of 3 devices, so I can only imagine how hard it would be if there were more than 2 people in the room.

All in all, there was nothing outstanding about this Westin. If they could figure out a way to provide better sound insulation within the hotel, I wouldn’t mind...

I am not impressed with our stay for a number of reasons.

First, I called to let them know that one of my sons has a broken foot and to please put us in a room near an elevator. That did not happen. We were in room 360 - down a long hallway.

Second, We tried calling the restaurant to order food - no one answered! So I called "Guests Services" again and the woman who answered just told me to keep calling. So every time I called the same lady answered and had to transfer me. After about 20 minutes she just said - "Well, they must be busy." I ordered Round Table pizza to be delivered instead of spending my money at your busy restaurant bc I was worried that if they can't answer the phone the food would take too long to arrive!

Third, and this is why I think I would never tell anyone to stay here or why I will never go back, when I made the room reservation - I called to not only tell them about my son's broken foot and request a room close to the elevator, but also that we would need a shuttle around 3:30am. The Customer Service rep said - that is not a problem they are 24/7 here and just notify the desk again when I arrive. When we checked into the hotel, the Front desk clerk explained the first shuttle picked up at 4:05am. A little annoyed I said, "that is not what I was told, and that will be cutting it close for me as I am traveling with 3 kids (1 on a knee scooter.) He did not have a solution - so I said - Can I make the reservation and can you please make sure the driver is not late. THe front desk person said, "no reservations were needed" and he would not be late. So the morning of - we got downstairs at 3:55am --- there was one other family outside and one gentleman. So we stood near them. By 4:05am there was over 30 people outside when the shuttle arrived! It was a mess --- everyone rushing to get on the shuttle etc. I had my broken foot son, and my 8 year old get on the shuttle, while my daughter and I handed our bags to the driver. I gave him my 2 bags first (before everyone else) but my daughter who did not want to push anyone to stay next to me was in the back of the line of handing bags to the driver. So when we tried giving him her 2 bags - he stopped and said, "We would have to wait for the next shuttle." I very calmly explained that he had 2 of my bags on the bottom of the pile already, and 2 of my sons already on the shuttle. I said we would just hold out bags and stand for the 5 minute ride. He...