Motel 6 San Jose, CA - South — Hotel in San Jose

I have to say that the ratings on here are a little surprising and a bit unjustified. I flew into San Jose for a job interview over the weekend and stayed at this location due to everybody else being overbooked. As such, I almost didn't show up because I checked out the reviews and was a little concerned. Still, I was low on options and figured I would take a look. After all, how bad could it be?

I arrived at the front desk and the girl, Rita, was very kind. Initial impressions were very good. I talked to here about the negative reviews and she said that they understood and were working hard to clear up the image. She also said that she felt that they were unjustified because they were probably left by clients that they had to evict. I shared her sentiment and said that generally, when people have only a good experience they tend to move on and not share it, and people only tend to speak up when they have a bad experience.

She allowed me to take a look at my room before I paid and I found the room to be clean and comfortable, if not a little spartan, minimilistic, and, err, small compared to hotels in Texas. However, it suited my needs as I was there for business, not to live there. I stayed for a total of three nights.

I found the stay to be very pleasant, I had no issues sleeping, didn't find any privacy issues and for the most part felt very safe. In fact, I was able to study for my interview and knock out a four page paper on my laptop for my online course. I was able to leave my window shade open and didn't have any problems from people. I stayed over Cinco De Mayo on Supermoon night which fell on a Saturday. If I didn't have people trying to disrupt me on that night, then I never will.

As for the room itself, it was very small as I would estimate maybe 250-300 square foot total, essentially a small bedroom with attached bathroom. The room itself had a table with no chairs, a small desk with a chair, an old school CRT television (flat screen pretty much the norm anywhere else), a standard issue hotel A/C / heater, and a bed that seemed clean enough. I was able to sleep in it and I didn't feel anything crawling on me so that was a plus. The bathroom and shower were surprisingly clean, stocked, and spacious to where I could move around, do my stuff and not worry about accidentally putting my elbows or knees through the wall.

As for the facility itself, the cleaning staff would get started around 10 AM and pretty much hustle through the place and they did a VERY good job. The pool area was clean and most surprisingly, security seemed to be a big issue with the hotel staff. More often then not, I would hear a gestapo like voice over a loudspeaker telling a occasional vagrant and cart pusher to GTFO the property because they were loitering and it WOULD NOT be tolerated. Nothing ruins your cool like having some old dude with dragon breath asking you for spare change when your trying to make the run half naked, barefoot in a bathrobe at 11PM to the vending area to get some ice so major props to the staff for staying on top of it. High resolution video cameras were everywhere,

I've traveled extensively and I've seen some very deplorable hotels. I've had the high honor of staying in some rooms that were part time meth labs, I've stayed in others where I had to to keep my shoes and gloves on because I wanted to minimize bare skin contact with the bed, and I stayed in a one that sub-letted to hooker and I would walk into a supposably vacant room only to see discarded clothes on the bed. Based on these reviews I was expecting all that, and then some.

Instead, what I found is pretty much what I expected out of a hotel chain. A clean, safe place to stay with a dedicated staff that care about the property. I would definitely recommend this to anybody and I am looking forward to staying here again when I go to...

I did enjoy the flooring, particularly having pets (and that pets were allowed.) However, despite reserving for 2 nights, I could barely stay for one. The wifi is ridiculously bad. What's worse, you actually have to pay for it. I understand getting a fantastic quality high speed internet and paying a small surcharge for it, but this was often not connected at all, and if it was, it was barely one bar. It would take 25 minutes to open up a simple webpage. Perhaps some people are fine watching tv all day during their downtime, but I don't care about television. The net, however, I actually do need. I was disappointed that there were no microwaves and mini fridges in the room either. To be fair, I can't recall if the site mentioned it or not, but it's basically standard for most motels. Also, my room's shower was so dirty/stained that I didn't even take one. I could handle it if it were on the walls where I would just avoid it, but it was the entire floor of the shower. It either needs a serious scrubbing or to be replaced altogether. I understand that housekeepers can only do so much with the time and resources given, and I doubt it was a housekeeping issue, but more of an upkeep/maintenance issue. The front desk experience could have been better. It wasn't bad though, so for the most part, I'm neutral. I would have griped about it more, but the lady at the front desk when I checked out saved the rest of them with her kind and professional (but not forcibly ingenuine and fake) manner. Also, my phone in the room did not work. While I had no intention to actually use the phone, front desk claimed they were sending someone out to fix it but no one ever showed. It basically told me more about the lack of communication/guest priority. I've worked in hospitality for 6 years as a night auditor. I've worked at places on par with Motel 6 and in higher end hotels. I generally know what to expect at a budget motel, but some of these things could have been easily fixed or need to be reviewed by management. Also, management needs to seriously re-evaluate their ISP and their audacity to charge for such a ridiculously inept wifi. I could have tolerated everything else fine, but that was the deal breaker. I ended up going to La Quinta instead and for a better price, I got a much better experience, room, internet,...

Bed bugs. It wasn't so much the bed bug we found crawling on the bed next to us, it was the obvious disbelief and rudeness of the manager that made things so bad. At one point she asked me a question and I asked my guest the same question for confirmation, and in an obvious attempt to retaliate she jumped all over the possibility I had an unregistered guest. I didn't even mention the two baby cockroaches. All I wanted was a different room without bugs in it, but we ended up leaving. I STILL--three weeks later--am fighting for my refund. Bed bugs happen, I get that; and there are probably times when a lone bed bug appears without infestation. Who knows, maybe the bed bug we saw came from one of our bags. It was the attitude, retaliation, and now, unwillingness to refund my money for a night I didn't even stay, are the reasons this infested hotel gets 1 star.

UPDATE: I finally went into the motel in person to get my refund. At first I was told no and shown a terminex report indicating there was no infestation. A new person begins helping me and offers a $50 coupon for my next stay at motel six. I show this individual the photos of a bed bug I took and explained, "look, I can see the report and understand the room is not infested. That doesn't change the fact that my girl found herself laying on that bed next to this. I wasn't trying to be rude or profit from the whole thing and just called to be put into a different room. The manager I spoke to on the phone that night was so rude I ended up leaving instead. But would you and your partner want to sleep in a foreign bed after finding one of these crawling in the sheet next to you?" And so he gave me a voucher to stay at one night at any motel 6 anytime." And I was happy with that compromise. Thank you sir, you did your hotel a solid by giving me a...