Nest Hotel, Palo Alto — Hotel in Palo Alto

Positives:|* Easy parking - outside looks like a upgraded motel with improved and modern amenities.|* Convenient location|* Quiet, off major street and highway, and off from downtown Palo Alto. |* The front desk staff who checked me in on Day 1 was good. She listened to my needs (needed a quieter room) and assigned me to a room with less neighbors/foot traffic. Gave good instructions from lobby to the room. |* Excellent hot shower pressure and temperature|* Clean lobby and parking area. | |Negatives:|* This hotel can't fulfill basic tasks nor have active listening skills: Asked for a box of Kleenex around 11pm and the front desk Philip declined to deliver and asked me to walk to the lobby to get it instead. It did not apologize nor provided explanation why. I asked him to drop it off at the front door and placed it on the ground and he also declined. He said they would bring over first thing in the morning after 8am. I asked them not to do so until I called the next morning. They did not listen. They had someone knocked on my door acting like a rude indirect wakeup call (which I did not ask for) around 8am. For a simple Kleenex, they couldn't solve.|The next morning during breakfast, I spoke with the front desk staff, and she too was clueless and tried to find out which room and how long I plan to stay as if an outsider trying to fish information. They did not want to bring it until I return to the room and pretended it as if they did not hear. It's not until I had to act upset for them do finally take out a box of Kleenex for me to use. They even argued that why did not raise this issue at check-in when I first arrived the room. There were some Kleenex and I did not know the level was low. I asked them, "why didn't you place an extra one in the room, then this issue would not have been an issue to begin with?" They were silent. |This place is located in Palo Alto, CA; a highly educated, affluent city, with many famous people living in here. And held a high expectation truly believing that it would be a wonderful stay with superb service. I was looking forward to staying here. I was surprised by low caliber of some staff here. Philip during night shift of Day 1 and the front desk staff of Day 2 before 9am PST. |* There were long hairs on the shower wall upon arrival, raised it to the front desk and they fixed it right away. This should not have been ignored, obvious. ||Additional info:|* No elevator, has two floors|* Very simple breakfast with bagels and muffins (pre-packaged), yogurt, juices, coffee, and tea in the lobby. You can ask them to toast it for you, fairly fast. You will be full, but you won't get eggs, sausages, or potatoes, hot breakfast basically. There are also McDonald's or Starbucks or Peets Coffee or other breakfast/coffee places nearby. |* The room was prepared clean except issues above.|* If you have a car and want to find a low to mid-range accommodation in Palo Alto, this can be a choice. But there are more options with better amenities down the street along El Camino Real, but likely you will need to pay a bit more. |* The bed was not that comfortable compared to other hotels', but OK with 1-2 nights. ||I expected more from this hotel, and it did not deliver on the service and attitude side stated above, otherwise, it would have earned a higher rating. |Seems like they do good enough to sustain their business but...

ABSOLUTELY AVOID THIS "BOUTIQUE" MOTEL AT ALL COSTS – A Complete Rip-Off and Disgraceful Service

Let me be unequivocally clear: this establishment, laughably advertised as a "modern boutique hotel," is nothing short of a run-down, overpriced motel that preys on unsuspecting guests. My recent stay was a litany of failures, from arrival to an ongoing billing nightmare, and I feel it is my duty to warn others before they waste their money on this abysmal experience.

Upon arrival, the facade of a "boutique hotel" crumbled instantly. What greeted us was a decrepit motel-like property. My husband and I, laden with a significant amount of luggage, were left to fend for ourselves. Despite their supposed "luxury getaway" hold music on the phone, the property boasted a single, tiny luggage cart – naturally, it was unavailable, and no staff member had the courtesy to offer assistance. This immediate lack of basic hospitality set a grim precedent.

The room itself was a study in neglect. The advertised "hardwood floors" were, in reality, cheap laminate that was visibly peeling in multiple areas, posing a tripping hazard and looking utterly disgraceful. The ventilation was nonexistent, leaving the room with a persistent, stagnant odor. To add insult to injury, we discovered bugs in the room – an utterly unacceptable hygiene failure for any establishment, let alone one charging over $300 a night. The bathroom was an engineering disaster; every single shower resulted in the entire bathroom floor being flooded, rendering it unusable and unsanitary.

Their "free breakfast" was the most pathetic offering I have ever witnessed in a hotel, regardless of price point. It was so substandard, they couldn't even manage to provide milk for the coffee. This isn't just an inconvenience; it's a testament to their utter disregard for guest comfort and basic provisions.

However, the true horror began at check-out. I was left waiting for over ten minutes at the front desk while the only staff worker was nonchalantly washing dishes in the back. Not a single apology was offered for the delay. This level of unprofessionalism is astounding. The ordeal escalated further when I discovered a mysterious $400 charge on my account post-departure. Multiple phone calls yielded nothing but confusion from the front desk; they had no idea what the charge was for and could not provide an invoice. It took over a week and countless calls for them to begrudgingly send an "unofficial screenshot" of the charge – something I could have pulled from my own bank statement in two seconds – which still offered zero explanation. I was promised management would contact me, but after two weeks of silence, another call to their utterly useless front desk confirmed what I already knew: this hotel does not care.

Charging over $300 per night for this level of service and a property in such disrepair is not just unacceptable, it's fraudulent. I would have been furious even if this stay cost a mere $100. Save yourself the frustration, the money, and the absolute headache. This...

I was not recommend this hotel to business travelers because of the walls are as thin as paper, and the windows do not block sound. The windows look out onto a walkway and a parking lot, in true motel style. This feels like a building that was given a cosmetic facelift, but has the functionality of a motel. I can hear everything that happens in a neighboring room. Every time my neighbor turned on the tap, the plumbing sounds would be pretty obvious in my room. I can hear every conversation that happens on the walkways right outside the room. I can hear a door opening and closing 10 rooms down. I will say that I am more sensitive to noise than the average traveler, but I think noise is a common complaint about this hotel if you read the reviews. On this note, I’ve noticed that a lot of the five star reviews come from travelers with only posted one review, something that I should’ve paid attention to before booking this hotel.||||Although the staff is very friendly, you should not expect the service levels to be equivalent to four or five star hotels in the area. For example, I have a laptop with a foreign power cord. There was no travel adapter available anywhere in the hotel, and there was no outlet that could service my laptop. It was not until the next day that one of the lovely housekeeping staff found a converter that a guest had left in their rooms. I had to follow up with the service staff, rather than somebody following up with me. I was pretty frustrated by this incident - I think any hotel that charges over three hundred dollars a night per room should have the foresight to have adapters available for guests to use. ||||I will say the hotel has a lovely lobby area, and the free wine happy hour is a nice touch. I think despite the best efforts of the staff, the Nest really is a mediocre experience. I would not stay again just based on the noise levels in the rooms alone. Also, the location is only ok. Not super far to Sand Hill, downtown PA, or STANFORD, but how much time you spend on the road really depends on the traffic, which can get a little gnarly on this stretch of El Camino. ||||If you have no other choices in the area and must stay at this hotel, I would recommend getting a room on the far side of the hotel, so that not as many guests walk by, because you can hear their footsteps...