Creekside Inn — Hotel in Palo Alto

Expensive for the area. Air conditioning is very noisy. Booking online is cheaper than booking directly from the hotel. They don’t tell you this. Toilet clogged. Maintenance guy came in the middle of the night. Moved to a new room and it took from 3 AM to 4 AM to do the transition.

Asked for a late check out after staying for five nights at high price and they refused. 12:30. Ended up leaving.

Wrote the following to the Creekside in, but no response:

Talked to manager Mary a few days ago and asked for late check out. Denied even though the hotel was quite empty. Not past 12:30.

I ended up anyways extending my stay as I told Mary that I would probably do. Not friendly.

I asked again for late checkout this Sunday later today and was also denied it. Just to 12:30. Not friendly after staying for five days.

Some additional issues with the hotel.

My room originally 305 was flushing slowly from the time I moved in, eventually had a clogged toilet. I had to move at 3 to 4 in the morning to a new room. The flushing mechanism seemed defective since I first booked the room. A technician came up at two in the morning and verified the problem.

I was then moved to 401. That took me a long time and hassle to make this transition because I was unpacked.

Although Creekside Inn claims on its website that every room has a microwave, my room had no microwave. This has been quite problematic since I expected one in the room and one of the reasons that I booked the Creekside Inn.

Issues:

defective toilet

no microwave in room although Creekside Inn claims on its website one in every room

zero flexibility on late check out even when hotel is mostly empty

… has cost me a lot of disturbance to what I thought for top dollar would leave me with a peaceful experience.

Due to exorbitant rate doubling, I am forced to move. No response from Creekside Inn and no adjustment made for the problems I had.

Excellent deli right next-door with convenience store. Sandwiches really wonderful, ice cream, beverages, and a place to sit. Or bring it back to your...

Decent inn a close 10min drive to Stanford / Stanford Medical.

Positives: really nice grounds, rooms have large outdoor patios (love I can open balcony door for fresh air), friendly front desk staff, small refrigerator in room, pastries and coffee in lobby for breakfast. Also a 10min from both a Starbucks and excellent Mexican restaurant called Cecilia’s

Watch-outs / Areas for improvement: Rooms are dated (felt like some furniture and decor 1990’s ish, bed was pretty lumpy - mattress definitely needs a refresh!!, carpet kinda old and dingy (I felt compelled to wear my socks which I normally don’t always do in hotels, although hmm.. maybe I should). They charged me a $17.50 amenity fee on top of whatever rate you pay as the “total all taxes and fees included” from aggregator website (I used HotelsTonight). It feels like a dishonest pricing game as a way to make more money. I don’t consider a few breakfast pastries and coffee worth an additional $17.50, really? Pool is smaller and in the very back of property, not the easiest access to a lot of the rooms so I wouldn’t consider this a chargeable amenity either - this hotel is decent but NOT a resort, so disappointed they are copying the “resort fee” strategy. Greedy and sneaky, even if disclosed in small print somewhere that I missed. Large creek bed running through property, normally very lovely. I would be cautious NOT to stay here if predicted heavy rain / “atmospheric river” conditions that Bay Area sometimes gets in the winter. This looks like it could be flood easily. Request a top floor if you don’t want to hear the people walking above you

Despite negative items mentioned above, I would stay here again as long as it was value / competitive price (vs. other available similar market options at...

I have stayed in this hotel several times and have appreciated the convenient location. The rooms have a 1960's retro-feel to them and are generally dark. The beds are comfortable. They have (it seems) moved to a flexible rate. I stayed for a weekend. Saturday night I was charged $419 for the room, and Sunday $189. They've now added "resort fees" that pop up later after you've booked the room. |My recent stay was a bit of a disaster. I requested a quiet room back on the Creekside part of the property and they put me in a ground level room on a busy corner of the property. Unfortunately, the guest above my room was stomping around like a herd of elephants, (the front desk did nothing about this), perhaps exercising, dancing, or was just inconsiderate. This went on until 1 in the morning and started up again at 5:30 in the morning. I literally got 3 hours of sleep. |I was able to move to a new room the next day, but the front desk was supposed to move me the night before as I explained that the room was too noisy for me. The front desk person just blew off my request and left me to be stuck in that noisy room.|It was better the second night thankfully. The front desk reception people are efficient and get things done in general, but are usually a bit cool, and not welcoming. They have to go through this "you will not have a party in the room" "you will not play loud music in the room" "you will not smoke in the room" even though I've stayed there several times and have never, ever been a problem. |Will I stay there again. I'm...