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22 reviews for Santa Clara Marriott
One man's meat is another man's poison. Reviewers have complained about the proximity to Great America, and if I were looking for a hotel for any other reason, that would be a downside for me as well.
But because Little Big Man loves them roller-coasters, we try to go down once a summer. We look for the package deals so that we can go down on a Friday, check in, hit some rides, come back to a hotel & eat, hang in the pool & jacuzzi, watch some movies, get up in the morning, and back for more rides, coming home happy and tired before the rush traffic.
Marriott fit the bill perfectly in many ways. For the price of the package, the room was only $20 more than the tickets alone would have been, which meant that the beautiful pool and amazing beds and sheets were nearly free. Naturally you don't get the best room for this price, but it was more than adequate.
One of the posters complained about kids in the pool late at night, but they have a strict "no one under 21" rule after 9. My son, who was perfectly behaved, quiet as a mouse in the jacuzzi with me and some nice Ukranian folk, got booted, as did the couple of months shy of 21 daughters of the latter. Perhaps a bit too strict.
The food on the premises is pretty pricey, so we didn't indulge in our usual room service, but I did notice it had a Bradley Ogden, I think it was, pedigree. There's some strip mall type food close by, and the ubiquitous IHOP if you're pinching pennies.
Also, is there an Indian wedding every weekend in every hotel in Santa Clara?? Everytime we've been down there, we walk into a lobby full of beautiful saris and handsome men who look like princes (no not he-who-is-often-unnamed Prince). Between that and the Bollywood dance class we've been taking, I'm wanting very much to be Indian, if just for the cool clothes. Thank Krishna for reincarnation.
Best of all....express checkout. We who are in ugly GA shorts and tank tops can skulk out unnoticed....sshhhh.
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I am a Marriott regular and the pictures can't adequately describe the situation at the Marriott Santa Clara. The exterior is nice, the rooms are your basic decent Marriott stock, and there's a simply fantastic (and not inexpensive) restaurant on the main floor. What KILLS this hotel is the noise problem. You can hear toilets flushing all all sides. You can hear TVs through the walls. There's also a pool with families playing Marco Polo into the night hours and an airport nearby. And did I mention the air conditioning unit kicking into gear?
How do I know this level of detail? I am currently staying at the hotel. Right now. These things are happening for me LIVE, prompting my desire to put a review on Yelp. To be clear, I'm not a hotel nutjob who parses every detail of a stay. I could care less about the hair dryer and the density of the scrambled eggs in the breakfast buffett. When I travel for business, I book Marriotts for the points and think of hotel rooms as places to rest for the night. That said, you should know that this is a fine Marriott that comes with a notable caveat.
Located right next to Great America, I think this is one of the nicest hotel's my parents actually sprung out to pay for. Which was probably only because my dad had a friend with a family member who worked here, so we were staying here for $30 a day for like a week or 2 right before we moved down to Gilroy, since we already sold our house in ESSJ behind the Hillview Airport and moved out already. So we had to live in hotels for like 2 months cause wack ass Kaufman & Broad took 2 months longer than they said they would to finish our new house down in Gilroy. I like how one of our neighbors actually got reimbursed from K&B for all their hotel bills by threatening to close their account on them if they didn't pay them. I guess my parents didn't have enough hustler mentality in themselves back in the 97 to get the same deal.
But yeah, this hotel is pretty dope. They got a cool sports bar with a pool table in it that we ate at on a couple occasions. They got an indoor hot tub and their pool is half indoor and half outdoor from what I remember, I think (either that or I'm thinking of some Las Vegas pool from my childhood). And yeah, we were staying here around July during the summer, so when we had a room in the big tower facing Great America, we could see their nightly firework shows sometime between 9PM and 10PM pretty clearly from our hotel room window. I forget if there was a balcony. I wanna say there wasn't though.
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A hotel with HDTVs with actual HD service? Who'd've thunk of such a wild concept?! Since the first HDTV that I saw in a hotel room a couple years ago this was the first hotel to actually have HD channels.
However, when I think long and hard about it (long meaning about 5 seconds), I'd very much rather have a toilet that doesn't need 2-3 flushes. I'd like to think that I don't poo that much in one sitting. I casually mentioned this to a passing employee (the toilet, not the poo) and she looked at me funny. I dunno, I guess I must be much more comfortable about the deuce than most people.
It also struck me as odd when some Marriotts offer Internets for free in some and not in others despite their utilizing the same service (this one being the latter).
Another thing: is it normal now for hotels to not have mini-fridges anymore? Is this a way to cut energy costs? I'm finding that I have to ask for a mini fridge much more often in similar grade hotels.
All in all, it was decent hotel that had great TV service, and oh, the shower-head rocked, but flushing 2-3 freaking times every time I'm going to the bathroom seriously irked.
Tip: If you're room's in the back it's much easier to just park your car yourself closer to your room. Why walk all the freaking way to the lobby and have to wait for your car, unless you like it like that.
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Three stars because it's right next to Great America; if it wasn't for the location, I'd give it two stars. This hotel is showing its age- our room was fairy dated- furniture chipped, carpet faded and run-down. The bathroom was clean, but the portable baby crib was filthy! There was dried baby food crusted onto the rails.
Room service was good- the server was very nice and when she saw that we were traveling with young children, she cut the toast into fourths, included extra cups and utensils, and added some nice extras to our order!
1) NO FRIDGE, NO MICROWAVE in the room! Just no acceptable for a upscale hotel like this to be missing these appliances in the room.
2) Shower head was totally useless, I think it's those water conservative shower heads, the spray pattern is spreading out very wide and each water spray is very tiny and widely spaced between each of the spray. And the pattern was FIXED, NO OTHER CHOICES. I tell you, I couldn't even wash a loosen hair off my body with this shitty spray pattern. This really pisses me off.
3)Toilet is too close to the bathtub.
4) Parking of $9 per nite is way too much, it's not like they don't have enough space, they've plenty of spaces. And in Santa Clara, I don't see any lack of land in this area like those in SF.
5) No free internet access, even some $50 motel offers free wireless internet access.
Other wise things are ok, pretty nicely furnished, things looks new and decent.
I've experienced better in a cheap Day's Inn hotel than it.
Very disappointed. Good thing I didn't have to pay for this room.
OMG! I sank and went to bed heaven.
I had one of the best power naps in a long time thanks to the super fluffy comforters here. The pillows were amazing. The TV was huge. Plus the guy at the front desk changed our room to be right in front of the pool. Score! Pool is open til 11pm. We were probably there after that and they never said anything. After 9 its only for adults....not sure what that means. We didn't see any disco lights or open bars *sigh*
We came here for a wedding reception. It had to be one of the nicest decorated wedding receptions i've been to. The staff took good care of us. The wine was freely flowing. 'nuff said.
Best part...we stayed awake till 5am outside lounging in their comfy seating area by the pool. We were loud and rowdy and they never said a word. Cool beans!
Can you say noisy? Oh my lord, I had no idea how many people actually are flushing the toilet at 3 am until I spent the night here.... I was in the "tower" and you can hear everything going on above, below and sideways.... not to mention the noise from the outside, freeway, airplanes, etc. Needless to say not the best night's sleep in the world.
And yeah the toilets were bothersome... at one point in the night my room filled with the acrid odor of sewer (and no it was not me bundled under the covers!) but I think there was an errant sewer pipe or something gone wrong, but the smell was very offensive. I am a super duper Marriott elite gal (which really means I spend too much damn time in hotels) and I would say this is sub par to other Marriotts. Finding dark curly hairs in my tub that morning that were there before me wasn't any fun either.... then when I checked I was charged $6.95 for a telecomm charge... uh for what? I got to the room, brushed my teeth, passed out and was up the next morning and checking out... they said it was for internet, which I did not use. Same thing happened to my colleague so watch that extra charge.... could it be added automatically?
who knows?
The up side. The gals working the Starbucks kiosk were darling and nice... and Parcel 104 is a great meal. I would go elsewhere given the opportunity and probably will do just that next time.
This is a decent full Marriot's, but not the best. It has been here for a long time, and could use a little remodelling to give it some freshness. The location near all the Hi-Tech businesses in Silicon Valey and Paramount's Great America is great, but it finally has more competition in the area, too. I have stayed here, been here for snacks, went to a company Christmas party here, and conferences.
There is plenty of parking, but it is gated and costs you. The rooms are average at best for today's standards. The restaurants are what you would expect from a Marriott, and there is Starbucks. The meeting rooms are off on a wing, and modular to fit most needs.
Because the land is so expensive here, their still isn't enough quality hotel rooms for the amount of global business being done in this area, in my opinion, but it is better than when there was only the old Red Lion Inn on First Street off the US 101 at the start of the technology boom.
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This review is for SCM's conference facilities and related services only. I just recently attended another conference at this facility and I must say I'm quite impressed with how SCM manages to provide consistently good services with respect to their conference faciltiies.
It doesn't look like much from the outside but the facility is pretty nice inside. It's got a nice rustic, old Spanish feel to it. I've been to both big and small conferences here, and the conference rooms have always been spacious, well lit and ventilated, and relatively problem free with respect to slide projection and related technology.
Aside from one annoying wait staff who tends to prematurely take peoples' plates before they are finish with their meal, I am impressed with the speed and quality of service of the wait staff. At a recent conference, there were close to 1000 participants, and the wait staff provided excellent and efficient services. Tables were cleared fast, food was warm and served quickly.
The food alone, probably gets 3.5 stars since it really depends on the budget of the conference. In the mornings, they tend to have fresh fruits, pastries, bagels, muffins, etc. They serve Starbucks coffee and variousTazo teas. Lunches usually include a salad, entree, and dessert. At one conference, I think I gained like 20 lbs from the non stop grubbin'. The cookies and desserts were continuously refreshed.
With respect to parking, sometimes the conference sponsors are generous and pay for parking, but sometimes you have to pay as a participant. =(
PS, I've been saying that if the conference serves crappy food, I am going to try Parcel 104, but SCM has always delivered with consistently decent food. One of these days, I am going to have to come back just to try Parcel 104.
I think if 3 time Superbowl Champion New England Patriots football team decides to stay here, when they could have chosen at least a dozen other places, says something. I think they were using San Jose State's facilities before playing the Raiders on Sunday December 14th.
The football team probably liked all of the space for position and team meetings.
The beds are very comfortable with all of the fixings on top of a firm mattress. They all have 40" LG LCD tv's which were a nice change. Furniture is accented with dark cherry, there is granite countertops in the bathrooms.
The exercise room was open 24 hours; it had Arrowhead water with fresh fruit, lots of treadmills with individual flatscreens, exercise bikes (upright and recumbent) and basic weight resistance machines. There is a sauna in the locker rooms. Everything is well maintained and clean.
Staff manager even waived some fees for us.
It's a quiet, clean, well appointed, unassuming large hotel in the middle of Silicon Valley.
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Nice rooms ... clean, comfortable, great TV reception, firm beds with thick, soft sheets, tons of pillows, lots of hotel stationary to write notes on, HOT hot water, good water pressure, soft towels!
Hotel staff was super friendly and courteous.
I recently discovered all of this on one ten hour visit.
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There's only one bellman there I think that's hott! (with two t's) He has an awesome smile and great guest service skills. =D The other bellman are awesome too, that one just caught my eyes.
Guest service here is very important, you never go anywhere in the hotel without anyone forgetting to greet you with a good morning, good afternoon, good evening or just a smile. It's great! They make you feel welcomed at this property.
When you call for help, the 'At Your Service' operators are there to help you 24-7! They are so polite and they are great to talk to.
Banquet staff, though, are the people who are giving this hotel a 4 star instead of a 5. They're pretty rude. They ruined my time at this location. Sad to say.
Besides the fact, that they have tremendous staff services, they have excellent amenities as well. They have a great olympic sized pool (sometimes I still wish this was indoor, but it's okay), the work out facility is pretty big and updated, the gift shop has most of your needs, they have impressively great restaurants on site as well as in-room dining.
The atmosphere of this hotel is very calming and inviting.
The rooms are so exceptionally awesome! They're so CLEAN and TIDY! I know that they are going through a renovation right now, but I know it's so people like us, will enjoy our stay even more. Their beds are to die for! Once you sit on the bed, you may not end up leaving it. They are so comfy!
I know that this place is a tad pricey, but I greatly recommend this place if you're coming down to visit Santa Clara. It's worth the money and it's a great place! I LOVE IT!!!
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I stayed here for a 5 day training event for work - checked in on a Sunday and departed around noon on Friday. The staff are friendly and efficient - I had no qualms with the service or anyone that worked at the hotel.
The hotel has two restaurants - both of which I have reviewed separately on Yelp - Character's Sports Bar and Parcel 104. Great burgers and buffalo wings at Character's; excellent espresso during the day and a nice single malt scotch selection at Parcel 104.
In the Hotel lobby, there is a Starbuck's coffee kiosk that is open in the morning to around 11:00 am. There is also the standard small gift/snack shop to pick up toiletries, snacks, sodas, bottled water, beer and wine, magazines, newspapers, and travel knick knacks.
There is also a nice gym - which I only made it to once during the week - they have nice quality treadmills - each one has a small LCD mounted on it for watching TV (make sure you bring earbuds or headphones if you want to hear the TV audio). The gym overlooks the pool area - which was vacant most of the time we were there due to the temperature never really getting much into the 70s.
The rooms are nice and comfortable. The bed was one of the more comfortable ones that I can remember sleeping in - in such a long time - and the pillows were actually decent - they had substance and did not flatten out to the size of a pizza box when your head hits the pillow.
We had a nice large screen HD plasma TV in our room. The bathroom is rather small - but it was clean and fresh and the caulking in the tub/shower was not tinged/stained with mildew like you see in so many hotels.
One evening we went out for a team dinner - the Concierge out in front of the hotel got us taxis - when we got to the restaurant - I realized I had left my camera bag in the taxi. I called the taxi company several times trying to get them to contact the driver to check for my camera bag - they were no help at all. When we got back to the hotel - I checked with the Concierge - the same one was still on duty - and he knew exactly who our taxi driver was - he called the guy at home - verified that my camera was in his cab - and asked him to bring it to the hotel the next morning. I was so thrilled with the Concierge's willingness and ability to help me and resolve my problem that I have him a $20. Next morning, sure enough, they had my camera for me! Kudos goes to Stephen on the Concierge staff!
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I'm at the SC Marriott this week for a conference. Nice rides parked outside...A Ferrari and a Aston Martin Vanquish S! The conference facilities are so-so. Catered food is far from spectacular. Best catering is the Fairmont in San Jose! The SC Marriott seems like a decent place to stay: great lobby, central Bay Area/Silicon Valley location, decent restaurants.
Parking is the big minus - $9.00 a day! In Santa Clara? WTH? I guess it keeps the riff-raff out...
The other big minus: I caught the flu while I was visiting here and got tonsilitis while I was on a cruise.
Despite its aged look on the outside, the Santa Clara Marriott is full of life on the inside. The overall staff was very friendly and the new Intel Viiv in the lobby was awesome. There is a Starbucks in house, but it closes at 11am. There are two restaurants, Parcel 104 and Characters Sports Bar. They charge for parking which is $9 overnight, but rumor has it that the hotels in the same area will follow suit. The outdoor pool is excellent and their 24 hour state of the art health club is like no other.
The hotel will be going through some major renovations in the summer, but it will be worth it.
My review is for the parking based on the conferences I've attended, not for their hotel rooms, restaurants, etc.
Sometime in 2006 they decided to put up a guardshack and charge for parking... of all years past, it's been free parking... both open or in the garage structure.
I was surprised when I attended a seminar in 2006... I paid about $4 for parking ~2.5hrs .... luckily, the future conferences, the event hosts gave out parking passes, otherwise I wouldn't have signed up for their seminars anymore.
SC Marriott is very close to Mission College and Great America, so I can see them needing to control their parking, but even in the off-season?
Another rant is the two exits from the parking structure... one gate is for pass-keys or credit card payment, the other is staffed by a person. Well, when you have a hundred conference attendees all leaving at once, the parking structure is a literal PARKING LOT and TRAFFIC JAM.
Does anyone know if the Nortel building parking lot across the street is patrolled? Park there, and walk over.
3.5 stars is more accurate (than 4)
I stayed here over the weekend for a conference that was happening at the Santa Clara Convention Center a short drive away. The hotel is nice, comfortable, clean, well-appointed for business travelers and conveniently located to the local tech business. Even so, I would NOT recommend staying here.
I recommend you choose another hotel in the vicinity for one crazy (but important) factor....the toilets are ridiculously loud when flushed. Now, I know what you're thinking....it sounds petty. However, when you are sleeping and you can hear every toilet above, below, and next to your room being flushed at various times throughout the night it, it makes getting a decent night's sleep tough if not impossible. Nothing is more frustrating to a business traveler than not being able to sleep well when they are away on business. Business travel is exhausting enough.
You might be thinking that I don't travel much, or that I am a light sleeper. I would estimate that over the last 18 years I have stayed at an average of 10 different hotels a month, or about 120 different hotels a year. Over 18 years that is a lot of hotel rooms, and none of them have had toilets this loud. Toilets have never kept me up, or even awakened me in any other hotel....anywhere in the world...except this Marriot in Santa Clara. It certainly doesn't help that the walls are also poorly insulated. For example, if you are already awake (most likely because someone nearby has flushed their toilet) you can actually hear people above you urinating into the commode...tacky, I know, but my intention is to illustrate how poorly insulated the rooms are. This shouldn't be happening at a business hotel that would otherwise be a 4 star hotel (not a yelp 4 stars but a 4 star hotel in general). It's even worse if you are sharing your room with someone and they use the bathroom in the middle of the night. It sounds like a flash flood is coming when they press that handle.
Aside from that our stay was lovely. I think yelper Neal E. does the best job of detailing the hotel's amenities, so check out his review for other relative issues outside of insulation and plumbing.
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Stayed here for a conference. They just upgraded all rooms to LCD 32 or 37 inch screens. dam things were too heavy to carry to the car. The food was good. the service was good. However The layout of the hotel has much to be desired. The layout of the rooms being here there and everywhere got annoying when they tell you to go on a hike to find your room in the 6th building. Plus they didn't tell me there was a parking spot near my hotel room. The stupid thing that really bugged me was that all I had to do was walk outside and the conference rooms were right there. The directions they gave said to walk though the hotel. yeesh.
one of my fav hotels for the following reasons:
- great pool
- yummy food at Parcel and Characters (closes at 1:30am)
- great work out room
- walking distance to food, shopping, and a running path
- friendly staff
- clean
the rooms are pretty good. but you have to walk forever to reach them. the angled ceilings are kinda weird with exposed, painted beams. the bathrooms are very large with just enough room btwn the toilet and the sink. the beds are pretty new and comfy.
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This hotel needs a redo. The rooms are "tired" and the staff was not very friendly.
finding santa clara marriott shining in comparison....well-staffed and friendly service....interiors kept clean with some minor remodeling visible...good sign for future....interiors of rooms sizing standard....bathrooms seemingly smaller....overall neat and tidy....updated large lg lcd tv in every room....bedding comfortable...plush relaxation for working souls....in most situations....thinking giving three rating....added bonus of hotel food being surprisingly superior to other location marriotts, hyatts, hiltons, etc.....bacon thickest and perfection...hotel room services meals being best experience had....location a $fifteen ride from sjc airport...
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