Days Inn Palo Alto – Stanford Area

You are better off sleeping in your car than to stay here. Staff was unfriendly, room smelt moldy and the «free breakfast» was a joke. Would have given a zero rating but didn’t have the option.

The carpet was sticky and filthy. The pillows were super uncomfortable. The free breakfast was prepackaged junk food. I will never stay here again.

I cannot for the life of me ever get a hotel bill from this place. They say they email it never get it. I have to call back and call back and call back because whoever does the folios only is there some times. It’s such a pain. I have to have hotel bills for expenses duh. I have driven down there and had them print me one I was so desperate. I will never have any of my managers or those I book travel for stay here. It’s smells sooo bad. Horrible. Horrible place, do not stay here.

The best way I can describe this is that is a very functional hotel. For a bargain price, you get a bargain hotel with the minimum needed for a good nights sleep. You get a clean sheets, a bed, a small room, and no frills really. The location is very convenient to Stanford.
Be prepared with your money up front. In an interesting twist, unlike other hotels, the owners require guests to pre-​pay their entire stay. It appears the owners are worried about people skipping out at these bargain prices.
The rooms are small, but clean. The bathrooms are modern. My room smelled very musty, but opening a window for an hour fixed that quickly, and let in the lovely California air.
The provided «continental breakfast» is a decent tray of packaged cookies, pastries, granola bars, juice boxes, and the like, with a coffee machine. There is no «hot breakfast», but there are plenty of restaurants nearby.

Front desk was almost non existent. I kept ringing the bell, waiting for 10 minutes until an Indian man rudely walked out in his pajamas. Apparently, there is a backroom which also serves as his residence. Our room was filthy and infested with bedbugs. Luckily there was a 24 hour CVS minute clinic nearby. Doctor prescribed creams forthe itching.

So this one is 1.5 stars. 1 for the room, but extra credit for the location and staff.
I stayed here with a friend in order to attend a conference at Stanford. I arrived several hours before my friend who made the reservations. My friend had called that morning to inform them that I would be checking in first. When I arrived that evening to check in, the girl already knew my name and I had no problem getting the room key. I had quite a shock when I opened the door to our room and was punched in the face with the overwhelming smell of Pine-​Sol. I don’t know if a hooker was murdered there last week, or if that is the usual protocol, but it was sickeningly strong. I had to keep my door and windows open with the fan going full blast for a couple of hours to air it out. This was awkward, given the group of dirty bearded men drinking beers outside the next door room.
Also, the carpet was torn up near the tiny bathroom, and the first thing to greet me during my much-​needed trip inside was a large spider. I was able to overcome a murderous panic and let him live, he disappeared and and I never saw him again. I kept my shoes on the rest of the evening.
The good part were the free refreshments in the room, nice girl at the check in desk, and good location. I slept pretty well because it was quiet, and the bed didn’t suck too much, for a motel bed.
But the smell, the condition, and the size of the room and bathroom were not up to par– even by my non-​picky (*cough*CHEAP) standards.

In no alternate universe would this ever have been my first choice of hotels/​motels to book. But when booking a last minute trip to Palo Alto the first 7 hotels I called were sold out for the night I needed. This was the only hotel in the area that I could find with a vacancy that wasn’t $ 300+ a night. I looked at their photos online and determined it was about the level of a Motel 6, but figured I could deal with it for one night…
It was 10pm by the time I was done with work for the day and able to head to the hotel. I hadn’t called to inform them I’d be checking in late which apparently was my downfall. But you have to understand that I travel for business and almost always check in late and never before has it ever been a problem. That being said, i pull up to the motel, which by the way I thought was a hotel… whatever. The office looks old and creepy like the bates motel IMO. The door is locked and there’s a sign on the window that says no vacancy. I thought to myself, «good thing I got my reservation when I did.» There’s a phone outside that says to dial 0 for service, so I call.
After several rings a woman answers, I tell her I’m here to check in so she says she’ll be up in a minute. She buzzes me in the door (Is this a bad side of town? Who knew?) She proceeds to tell me in a very thick accent that she has given my reservation away. I’m arguing with her about «why didn’t you call me?» She claims she didn’t have my phone number, which she did — but that’s beside the point. She curtly tells me that check in is at 3pm and since I hadn’t checked in by 6pm she gave my room away because they had «so many people who wanted it». WOW. I kept arguing with her about how she can’t do that, I had a reservation. But she just blankly stares at me as if telling me that my words are futile. I finally give up and storm out telling her I’m going to give her a bad Unilocal review. Her response? «I understand.» Seems to be the only thing I said that she was understanding about.
I ended up finding a hotel room 30 minutes away using my Hotels Tonight App. Beware when booking here if you’re unable to check in at 3pm. Or rather, just do your best to stay away all together.

I booked two rooms through
. When I arrived I had to wait forever in the front office for someone to come out of the back room. Then they only had one room for us and no more vacancies. No excuses, no apologies. I let my coworkers use the one room and I crashed at a friend’s place in a nearby town.
I wouldn’t bother trying to stay here again.

Warning to all travelers. These people are theives! I made a reservation for 2÷20÷13 with the manager“Kumar”. I called back 5 mins later and apologized to Kumar but I needed to cancel the reservation. Kumar said no problem. He stated that he would take care of everything. I asked him in I needed to take any further action. He said no and he would take care of everything. Well he took care of me alright. He charged $ 133.00 to my credit card. I have placed over twenty calls to try to resolve the situation and I am told only Kumar can reverse the charges and he refuses to return my calls. This place is highway robbery and a scam. I certainly would not trust them with my credit card info even if they were the last room in town.
GREGKB

If you need Internet connection during your stay, do not come here. Extremely frustrating, it doesn’t work about 80% of the time. Customer service is AWFUL. The woman at counter pretty much said ‘too bad, you suck’ when I told her I needed to work. Hot water doesn’t work for shower unless you wait literally 15 mins. Heater is extremely loud and woke me up every 2 hours through the night until i learned just to turn it off before going to bed. Worst insult was they charged $ 10 more per night than reservation for pet fee. Reservation said $ 10 per night for a dog. When I checked in, they said it was $ 20 which adds up over a week. I asked then to honor the reservation agreement and they said it was the website’s fault and to take it up with them.

1. Front desk was not friendly and seemed like I was a bother for checking in
2. Heater/​AC is as loud as the tv
3. Construction upstairs and outside starting at 8am for 3 out of the 5 days I stayed. Hammering, drilling, slamming, sawing.
4. WIFI is TERRIBLE! as we speak it has taken me 15 minutes to write the review because the internet keeps losing connectivity.
I have been in palo alto for 2 months for business and have stayed in multiple hotels, this was my least favorite.

I’ve stayed here quite a few times in the past couple years, and for the most part it’s fine. Me and my girlfriend wanted to watch a DVD on the tv, but the remote didn’t work. When I called the front desk to ask for a new one the staff insisted they couldn’t help and hung up. Considering the price of the room, everything should be able to work well. Not satisfied and I won’t be returning. If you’re in the area, look up and down El Camino. There are dozens of other hotels that’ll give you a better deal than this one. No bueno.

I switched from a pricer hotel to this one. Yes, the room is smaller but it is $ 20 cheaper, with free internet and free breakfast (pre-​package pastry, boxes of apple juice, popcorn, bags of pretzels etc). For the price and short stay, it is a reasonably priced hotel.

This place gets one star for being walking distance to the Crowne Plaza, and one star for having a drink machine next to my parking space. Went to a friends wedding at the Crowne Plaza, unfortunately their room block was all booked. So the backup plan was the Days Inn Palo Alto. Not exactly the same level of accomodations.
As soon as I opened the door, the smell of stale smoke and non-​functioning AC hit me. You know the smell. Or maybe you don’t? You’re lucky if you don’t. So I turn on the AC and sit on the edge of the bed. And it never kicks in, but it sure sounds like it works. So I wait a little longer. By now, it’s almost an hour, so I let the front desk guy know. He assures me that it works. I have to pretty much drag him to my room to show him that not only does it not work, but it’s also dripping condensation onto the floor. Only then does he give me another room, sans broke AC. I turned the AC to coldest and the fan to 11, left to go to the reception, came back in the middle of the night, and thank the Lord, it was nice and cool in the room. Otherwise, the room was clean enough, but pricey for what you get. This place looks like something out of the movies, where shifty characters on cell phones are constantly opening their doors and looking around at the parking lot, and then shutting their doors again.
Bottom Line — There are better places, but this place works in a pinch.

I am, quite frankly, shocked at the fact that this hotel has anything other than 1-​star reviews. First off, it is a motel. It is next door to an America’s Best Value Inn, and I guarantee you looking at them, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.
I was here with one other person. He was in room 124. Said the front desk clerk, «There’s no number on the door, just go to the end of the row of rooms, and the door without a number is yours.» Or it’s the janitor’s closet, who knows. Anyway, strange.
Next, we were told that the complimentary breakfast was in our rooms. Confusing. Went to my room, and found next to the coffee maker, two nutri-​grain bars and a package of microwave popcorn. Seriously. That’s the breakfast. The coffee maker was not usable, as it was sitting on a platform below a shelf that prevented the lid from being opened to pour in the water. The power cable was too short to pull the coffee maker off the shelf to open the lid at all.
The mini-​fridge used a compression cycle rather than being thermionic. Every half hour, it groaned into action. This would not normally be a problem, except it was four feet from the bed. GROAAAAAAAAAAAN.
The «messages» light on the phone was blinking. However, attempting to actually retrieve the messages yielded a busy signal, so there was no way to actually stop the blinking light. Annoying. The night-​light in the bathroom, which was part of the hair-​dryer and not possible to unplug, also blinked all night. Bright red light.
The shower-​head made a shrieking noise not unlike my crazy neighbor who spends her Saturdays yelling at the vinyl siding. I thought I’d have a nice relaxing shower before bed. Instead I was treated to the soundtrack to a horror movie.
And it was $ 200 a night! The Americas Best Value Inn next door is half that, and is probably better. Avoid at all costs unless you have no other choice.

I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent customer service at the front desk! They were very friendly and helpful. The room is nicely furnished — the bathroom is large and clean. Lots of snacks in the room: popcorn, nutrigrain bars, sweet rolls, apple juice, cookies. (Not healthy snacks, but at least something.) Room included a blow dryer, iron and board, coffee maker, microwave, mini-​fridge, tv. The only negative is an annoying squeeky fan on the ancient electric heater. Now I just have to decide if I want to chance getting cold or listen to that thing all night. I’d definitely stay here again. I paid $ 83, midweek in February, through
.

I strongly recommend that anyone wishing to stay at the Days Inn in Palo Alto, CA. to think twice before making their selection. For $ 113.20 is not worth the cost. The heater in the room was loud and noisy throughout the night, thereby preventing a good night’s sleep. The water pressure in the shower was lacking, and the fixtures controlling the flow of hot and cold water came off numerous times during the shower. I would not recommend this establishment to anyone.

Friendly & excellent customer service!!! Chuck at the front desk is the BEST!!! The renovation is completed now too (mentioned in previous person’s review). The room has a microwave, coffee maker, & mini frig which make both short & longer stays more homey. LOTS of free snacks too, which was a nice bonus since there isn’t a breakfast provided downstairs at the lobby area (like some other Days Inns I’ve been too). Days Inn of Palo Alto-​Stanford is an affordable option for those who need to go to the Palo Alto VA hospital for treatment or have a relative coming to the Palo Alto area for a visit.

I needed an inexpensive motel for a personal trip to Palo Alto, and I found a great rate here via a web search. The rating is low because the place is undergoing renovation, and the results can’t yet be predicted. My room was schizophrenic: the newly renovated bathroom was nicely done and very clean, but the unrenovated room had open switchplates, drooping wallpaper, and a worn unsweep carpet. All the furniture was new, and the bedsheets were crisp, bright and clean. And LOTS of free snacks — Nutragrain bars, pretzels, sticky buns, hot chocolate, etc. IF the renovations get completed, and IF they active the level set by the bathroom, this place will be a find! For now, eat your snacks in the bathroom, and wipe your feet before getting into bed.

My teenage daughter and I stayed here while we were visiting family in Dec. 2009-​Jan. 2010. Our room was very small and the heating system was primitive. Two of the days there was no hot water. One of the days we were gone all day and when we returned no one had cleaned the room. The staff is inexperienced, does not speak English well, and some of the time there isn’t even anyone in the office.
Do NOT stay at this motel. I will never go back. Terrible place.