The Row San Jose, BW Signature Collection — Hotel in San Jose

This hotel was good but it wasn't great.

Pros: Check-in and check-out were easy and contactless. The bed and linens were good quality. Side sleepers, the beds here will suit you. They're medium firm and dense and the pillows provided are full and good quality. They are incredibly generous with their coffee and tea. Their bath products are from Public Goods, a direct to consumer online brand. I found the soap and lotion to be decent and not overwhelmingly scented as what other hotels use. The place was pretty clean and the price to stay here was lower than many hotels near Mineta Airport and Santana Row.

Cons: Echoing other reviewers, there isn't much attention to the detail from the management. My room, room 209, had lots of wear and tear and some shoddy workmanship. The caulk around the sink and shower were cracking and worn. The furniture had lots of scratches and chips everywhere. There were bleach or detergent stains on the bed skirt and some dryer burns on the sheets. Overall, the place is somewhat run-down and needs some repair and upkeep. I understand that they need to keep costs down to stay competitive, but I thought that they did that by having no in-house staff, offshoring their customer support to SE Asia and Latin America (call the customer service number), and being located in a residential suburban area of San Jose. While I don't expect furniture from Restoration Hardware or MillerKnoll, I do expect a hotel to at least maintain its furniture and fixtures. And they need to be more explicit about the high deposit ($250 to $500) that they charge for incidentals and security at the time of booking. When you book the hotel, they mention that they will pre-authorize your card up to $500, but they don't make it clear that it's a separate charge from your reservation fee. Deposit holds are normal, but this is a higher than average amount and if a guest doesn't have a high limit credit card or uses a debit card, they might run into issues.

I would still stay here again, but I do feel like they need to step up their game to stay relevant and attract...

First time here and the check in was very confusing. No signs, no humans to greet you downstairs. I kept expecting someone to pop in and help us. I called the hotel from the lobby and the person on the phone instructed me to go to the second floor so we headed up to the second floor where there was again, no humans. We did hear a voice calling to us from a kiosk. Johnny was our attendant on a kiosk. I believe he was in Columbia. He was very kind and helpful. He did not seem to be aware that the marketplace had zero food or beverages or amenities in it as he directed us to use it. If we needed to purchase anything. The only amenities here was K-Cup coffee pods and hot water. There was zero beverages. We couldn't get toothpaste. There was no one to talk to. It was not expected at a three-star hotel. Once we got signed in at the kiosk we were given a code for our door to our room and the room was very clean. We did see house keepers cleaning the rooms but that was the only stafg we saw. I asked the kiosk guy Johnny if there was anyone on site for safety since anyone can walk in off the street and he said there should be management. There was a gym and an ice machine, a washer and a dryer. No vending machine again lacking in amenities. I was grateful for the coffee but expected more for the price we paid. The bed was comfortable and the room was clean. The amenities listed on the website were beverages and alcoholic beverages (the little martini glass suggeats this)so I was expecting a bar on site or at least beer or wine in the marketplace. Again, no beverages on site other than two bottles of water. We went to the third floor to a place called the executive lounge which consisted of chairs and USB plugins. No computer, no printer. Nothing that was listed on the site. There's LED lighting in the ceiling in the room and half of the cord kept flashing on and off so we just turned it off. All in all, if you're just looking to fall asleep, it's great. And clean. Absolutely zero else to offer. I would not have paid what I did if I knew this...

Our stay at The Row San Jose had quite a few issues that made it hard to enjoy. For starters, the location is advertised as right next to Santana Row and Westfield Valley Fair Mall, but it’s actually on the other side of the interstate, so getting there means a trek down busy roads and crossing major intersections.

The setup of the hotel was odd, too. The front desk isn’t always staffed in person, just a kiosk with a remote employee on a screen. It felt a bit impersonal, and without someone physically there, it didn’t create the best first impression.

The room had some quirks that added up. For one, noise was a problem. The hotel faces a busy road on one side and backs up to a neighborhood on the other. My room was closer to the neighborhood, which meant I was kept up by barking dogs through the night. Definitely bring earplugs or a noise machine if you’re a light sleeper.

The room had no headboard, so if you wanted to sit up in bed, there was an awkward gap between the bed and the wall. And to top it off, the bed was on wheels and moved even with the smallest adjustment – like just sitting on it to put on shoes.

The Wi-Fi was also disappointing; it barely worked for basic browsing, which was frustrating if you needed to check anything online or get a bit of work done.

But the biggest issue was the lack of hot water. I didn’t manage to get a proper hot shower until my last day at 10 am, after most people had probably checked out. One morning, I turned the shower on at 6 am and waited over 20 minutes, only to end up with lukewarm water. Other guests had the same problem and were resorting to evening showers to get hot water. Definitely not something you expect to work around in a hotel stay.

Some of my colleagues had even more issues, and we all agreed this is not a place we’d return to. In this case, “you get what you pay for” turned out to be true – but this felt closer to a budget motel than the “boutique”...