Hampton Inn & Suites San Mateo-San Francisco Airport — Hotel in San Mateo

I’m just back from a two night stay at this property. I will generally concur with the mostly positive reviews on this board and will give the Hampton a “thumbs up.” It’s absolutely one of the better places to stay in San Mateo. ||All things being equal, there's an obvious bias on the part of most travelers to stay at a newer hotel property. The place is fresh, clean and in good shape overall. Guest rooms and common areas are nice and the place is well maintained. I found the hotel quiet, despite close proximity to 101 and I slept well. The room darkening blinds were effective. The breakfast offering was above average in selection and food taste. The staff working the dining area kept food well stocked and tables tidy. ||No nitpick there were a few minor issues. As others have bemoaned, the sliding barn door style door to the bathroom is a silly thing. It affords less privacy and it’s a noisy thing to open and close during overnight hours. The towels provided by the Hampton are substandard, (a bit rough and flimsy). Bath towels, in particular, seemed a little undersized. Also, the provided toiletry products that Hilton offers these days are marginal in quality in my personal opinion. The hotel had an Internet based television offering that I personally found less user-friendly. There are no numerical channel numbers and the interface has a learning curve. On several occasions, my viewing transmission went “down,” so to speak, disrupting the continuity of the show I was viewing.| |Lastly, here's a brief word about the hotel’s setting and neighborhood. As a former resident of the Bay Area for a number of years, I have a good feel for the pros/cons of various local communities. The Hampton’s setting should be acceptable to most business & leisure travelers. It commands a reasonable proximity to the airport without being too close. Many hotel properties closer to the airport will impose a fee for parking. Here at the Hampton, parking is free. (It should be free for suburban style locations)!| |With respect to the hotel’s immediate walk-able “neighborhood,” it’s less than stellar. No, it’s not crime infested or unsafe by any means. There is simply nothing overtly pleasant about it. It’s not an interesting area. Adjacent to the hotel is a dated Denny’s restaurant, an Asian themed shopping plaza, an industrial warehouse, a low level office building and some dated 1960’s garden style apartments. As most travelers will come here by car, the good news is that there are certainly places to go that are not too far away. Across 101 to the west, there’s a mixed-use development that includes a Whole Foods along with a few fast-casual eateries. Further west, about a mile away, you'll find the nice Hillsdale Mall on El Camino that offers good shopping and dining options.||Bottom line, the Hampton is a good lodging choice overall. I’ll...

Highly recommend! |This is a newly built hotel from ground up and opened in August 2023. |Nothing negative to say about this hotel and full of positives. |What I like about it:|1. Super clean and organized in the lobby and room|2. Comfortable bed|3. The room design is well thought out and functional - it makes good use of space and thought of everything and how guests would use it and make them easy to use. I particularly appreciate the cloth hangers (removable or fixed) within reachable height for shorter people like me. They also have "accessibility" rooms with doorbell specifically designed.|4. Plenty of USB and electrical outlets throughout the room, with a good balance on both sides of walls above/near the desk and the nightstand areas. Some older hotels have it only on one side. |5. Great lighting throughout the room with good recessive lights|6. Extra bright bathroom|7. Practice recycling|8. Hallway length is adequate|9. Plenty of parking|10. Excellent location: centrally located in relation to the entire bay area, about midpoint to San Francisco, San Jose, and east bay. It's inside of a shopping plaza with a supermarket and multinational cuisines.|11. Quiet - even though it's right next to a busy highway, but the soundproof is really good that you would not hear any car noises.|12. The breakfast is excellent with good variety, selection, fresh, tasty, and hot foods.|13. Has EV charging stations|14. The service is good: all are professional and courteous. There was a minor hair found on back of the toilet cover, I raised the issue, and they came to fix it right away. ||Additional comments:|1. The bed is high/tall bed, so if you are short, it may be a bit harder to climb but still manageable. Would be good to have a bed height that fits people of all heights.|2. The window screen has two layers with two pulls, they could tangle up when you first try it. Once you learn how to do it, it becomes easy. |3. The bathroom has an auto sensor light where it would automatically turn on when you enter the bathroom and shutoff after a minute or so after your leave. There are pros and cons on this design, depending on your preference.|4. The shower head is fixed with no portable handheld showerhead, would be great to have handheld shower hand.|5. Pricing is competitive, not the cheapest but not the most expensive.|6. They offer complimentary newspapers which I personally appreciate.||Overall, this hotel presents a very cozy ambiance, and I would consider stay there again if the price is reasonable. The stay was very enjoyable which made it hard to leave the hotel to do what I needed to do. ||For the past three years, I have done extensive travels in North America, Asia, and Europe, this hotel is among the top 1% in terms of hotel's...

Good location just off a highway (sort of just off two) with good restaurants nearby and an entire shopping district/mall just across the highway. Friendly & helpful staff, excellent (if a little small) luggage carts, plenty of parking.

The rooms are fine. Typical hotel size, typical hotel amenities. Beds are adequate, pillows tend towards the soft/flat side of the spectrum. The minifridge is hidden in a cabinet, and depending on your room's layout the cabinet door and fridge door may open in opposite directions. Outlets and USB-A charge ports are available around the room. The barn door style restroom-closet combo door has very nice buffer latches at both ends of its travel. The bathroom vent fan seems to run on its own but is very quiet while also having excellent pull — no fog on the mirror after a hot shower. The shower head is rather low-flow, but only to the point that wetting and rinsing may take an extra fifteen seconds or so. I don't care much for the ZERO/o brand shampoo, body wash, or handsoap (iffy scent, strange texture/feel, mediocre suds), but they do seem to leave you clean and I can appreciate that the hotel is decreasing waste by gluing big bottles of them to the walls. The AC/heat is effective and quiet. It is also hidden in a closet and uses a ceiling-level vent, rather than being a below-window unit.

Breakfast was excellent, including hot options such as eggs (cheese omelets, though the egg texture was just okay), meat (bacon), and potatoes (tater tots). Other offerings included a variety of bagels, breads, & English muffins, oat meal, make-your-own-waffles, and a few cereals, among others. The coffee was good, and included all the usual condiments.

My one annoyance was the motion sensitive light in my room's bathroom. Within seconds of setting foot in the bathroom it turns on the overhead light. This is a minor annoyance during the day when it merely casts shadows in front of you at the sink (which the conventionally-switched mirror light is not quite strong enough to dispell), but in the middle of the night it is as if someone turns on the sun. You can press the switch to turn it off briefly, but within fifteen seconds it always senses movement and again switches on the light.

Unike many other hotels the default here is to make up the rooms every day, only skipping if you leave the DND sign on your door. Make note of this if you value your privacy of have simply become accustomed to hotels only doing that every third day as is fairly typical now.

There is also a slight chance the hotel is haunted. The main doors opened twice with no one present while I was across the parking lot unloading my vehicle and spooky rustling and thumping noises came from my...