Villa Montes Hotel — Hotel in San Bruno

Summary: Pros: friendly/helpful staff, great maid service, cheap in comparison, good location to airport/30 minutes from San Francisco, free parking

Cons: older style aesthetics (only a con if you're expecting everything to be modern), a bit out of the way from San Francisco (only a problem if you have no vehicle to drive), many of the amenities (breakfast, jacuzzi, exercise room) unavailable for use did to covid. That last one is something you'll likely experience across any hotel in San Francisco as well though.

Overall our 4 night stay was great. The price comparison to hotels in San Francisco was much cheaper; that being the primary reason my wife and I chose this hotel for our San Francisco visit. We had a rental car so parking was an important factor to us as well when choosing a hotel. This hotel has a small underground parking lot that has an elevator/stairs connecting to the hotel. We were able to find a spot to park here 3 out of our 4 nights. The only night we couldn't was the first night and the hotel receptionist let us park in the check in area so no problem there.

Our first night was a little worrisome as our room smelled a bit musty and off. After our maid service went through the next day (side note: the maid service here was excellent), the smell was gone and our room looked (and smelled) perfectly clean.

The overall aesthetic and feel of the hotel is best described as "antique" in my opinion. It has a unique charm to it that you won't find in chain hotels in downtown San Francisco. My wife admittedly found it a bit creepy; the hotel is always quiet as a mouse and the older style lighting and decor reminded me a bit of The Stanley Hotel from The Shining when I made a late night walk to the vending machines on the second floor. I don't mean that to scare anyone away, as the staff here were incredibly friendly and helpful every interaction we had with them.

The bed was comfortable and the shower worked and felt great. The sink was slow to drain but wasn't really an issue. The room as a whole fits in with the rest of the hotel in a way that things like the lamps and TV is older. The room gets a little warm, but with the window open and the AC unit inside it isn't too bad at all.

We couldn't use the jacuzzi, exercise room, or breakfast due to covid so I can't comment on the quality of those. It was about a 30 minute drive from most San Francisco attractions, but is close to major roadways and easy to travel to and from.

Overall we enjoyed our stay and we saved a few hundred dollars when comparing a stay in...

We booked the hotel for $154 for the first two nights and $124 for the last night.

The IHOP next to the hotel is very convenient and pretty nice, and it was obvious some of the room had been recently renovated. The bathroom was extremely nice and I had no complaints about the furniture or the general condition of the hotel. The two interactions I had with the front desk were polite and the parking garage underground was very easy to access with their centrally located elevator.

For these rates, we received a hotel room with a bathroom door which was damaged/warped from water damage at the bottom, two square foot section of the ceiling which had not been finished painting, ripped curtains, and the carpet was bunching up on the side of the bed.

We decided to request a refund through our booking website on the first night of our stay, which was granted. However, the next morning at the early checkout, the hotel stated we would still be charged full price until they heard from the booking website and the front desk was unwilling to discuss the refund with me.

My stay was very disappointing for what I was being charged and the inflexibility about my refund was my tipping point.

Update: after one week of back and forth with the hotel and my booking website, my refund was approved albeit only for one night. I was charged $359 for staying one night due to the hotel's 48hr cancellation policy. The manager granted me one night refund ($145) because of the hoops I was jumping through for a refund but I still had to pay $359 (for two nights) . The hotel's cancellation policy makes zero sense for a guest that stays one night and checks out early, but it was my fault for not...

The hotels actual website, Booking.com, and google all SAY this hotel provides breakfast. Choice’s site shows photos of said breakfast (that’s four different sites, two of which are supposedly this hotels sites). The front desk clerk waited until after checking me in to let me know there was no breakfast AND all of their other amenities were not being offered at this time aside from the exercise room. I was not happy, she was rude and dismissive. Fast forward to after our stay, I get an email to do a survey about our stay. I do and include that I was unhappy with the lack of amenities and would have booked elsewhere if informed prior to being checked in as opposed to after. I get an email from the manager (I assume) who tells me that it is not listed ANYWHERE that they have breakfast. I sent screenshots of their site, choice’s site and google. I’m told it doesn’t say it on “popular booking sites and most people head straight to those sites so sorry for the misunderstanding.” So I send a screenshot of Booking.com where it says breakfast included. Then I’m told I need to call ahead and check and I didn’t so it’s my own fault basically. Mind you, I didn’t email them asking for anything. I never asked for a discount or refund and this person was speaking to me as if I was just trying to get a free stay out of this. THEY EMAILED ME. I simply did an honest survey that was sent to me. The hotel itself is cute. Dated, but cute. The elevator is CREEPY and the room smelled bad. Staff was rude including management who emailed me after the fact, for what reason I still don’t understand. I do not...