The Sainte Claire

Stayed here for a wedding back in early March and the experience was mediocre being that we only stayed one night and didn't get to try any of the amenities.

They offer a valet service for $30 or you can choose to park in the Convention Center/Public Parking lot for a flat rate of $20. (It's the same garage St. Claire uses for the valet for $10 more!)

The hotel is in a decent area for walking around, trying local eateries or restaurants, like Original Joe's.

We got to stay in a newly renovated room and the decor was very modern. Loved the dual head shower and the tile work in the bathroom. Front desk was friendly and informative. Probably be back to try the Italian restaurant in the near future.

This was a great hotel! My friend and I stayed two nights here and I think we would both definitely stay again.

The valet parking was super easy, check in and check out were hassle free. The hotel itself is really pretty and smells good.

Our room was very cute, the bathroom was a good size, the beds were comfy. Oh! And there was a DVD player, which worked out great for us because we were both too exhausted the second night to do anything, so we bought a movie and watched it.

Only complaints were there is no electrical outlet near the beds. I tend to charge my phone while I sleep, and like having my phone near me so I can easily answer it or turn off the alarm. I had to charge my phone on the desk on the other side of the room.

The bathroom door had a very old knob and it was kind of difficult to close, you had to wiggle the knob around a bunch of times to get it to catch.

Other than that, this place was great. Very conveniently located to everything we wanted to do, in walking distance of lots of restaurants and bars.

Tamie was FABULOUS!!

We opted for the "Day-Of" package for our wedding and that was the best decision we could have made. She directly dealt with all vendors and our special day was flawless.

The venue itself is gorgeous and has a 'boutique' feel with beautiful woodworks and warm textured wallpaper. Our honeymoon suite was amazing, topped off with a sunken tub that's surrounded by lit candles. And of course, the staff is definitely worth mentioning. I can't thank them enough for everything. From valet to catering, everyone was so attentive and made sure our party was their number one priority.
All our family and friends had an amazing time. The ceremony, cocktail and reception were all in one location, which made it easy for everyone. The open bar was a hit and people couldn't stop talking about the delicious horderves!

Tamie was very helpful from the moment I inquired about the hotel until the very end of our wedding. She was responsive, carefully listened to our vision from day one and was the ultimate ninja (coordinator) on our wedding day. She kept us all on time and made sure my husband and I were her first priority all night. I can't thank her enough and I highly recommend picking Sainte Claire Hotel for your next special event.

I'd give it 10 stars if I could... A big High 5 to Tamie and the crew at Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose!!

I spent one night at the Hotel Sainte Claire located in downtown San Jose recently thanks to some good friends who had hired me to work on an event with them. The building itself is registered on the National Register of Historic Places according to a plaque embedded into the wall at the front of the hotel. Inside the hotel is simply beautiful. I wanted to get some photos of the beautiful ballroom but there were two special events going on.

When you check in they make you sign an agreement saying you will not be having loud parties or boozing up on alcohol during your stay. My friends had made the reservation for me and had misspelled my name, but luckily I had a copy of the confirmation letter handy on my cell phone. Once they found me in the system check-in was a breeze.

All of the rooms have free high speed wi-fi. You should get the password while you are checking in. Considering it's an old building the elevators ran very smoothly. I was expecting a bit of the herky jerkys, but I didn't experience that here.

My room was a single with one king bed. They give you six big firm and fluffy pillows. I can't imagine anyone actually sleeping with so many pillows, but who knows. Besides the free wi-fi the room was loaded with amenities including a clock radio that played CD's and had a connector for MP3 players, a flat panel television, a DVD player, a personal digital safe hidden inside the closet, a mini refrigerator hidden underneath the desk and a bathroom scale. You can check out DVDs to watch in your room free of charge at the front desk.

The highlight of the room might have been the surprise in the bathroom though. The bathroom lights go on and off via a motion detection system (although you can switch to a manual hand switch based on your preference). Once the first set of lights go on a second set of flourescents come on above those lights to illuminate this (http://static1.px.yelp.com/bphoto/dwouctbRQiDtt7XFdszM_A/l). Suddenly I was reminded of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I'm told that the wildlife varies from room to room, but butterflies were hanging out in mine.

Need a wake-up call? This was a surprise too as I didn't get an automated call at the time I requested. About one minute late I received a personal call from a real person wishing me a good morning and asking me whether I needed a follow up call in fifteen to twenty minutes. That's service!

This could be a really cool boutique hotel. Someplace for a romantic getaway. It is in all way what you would expect in a classy grand hotel including...

A GHOST!

Yeah, this place gives me the chills. I've stayed here quite often on business trips and everything was always great. Then one time my staff and some coworkers decided to book this hotel instead of the hotel across the street where the conference was held. That night I could not sleep, little noises kept pulling me out of my sleep. I was so tired from the conference that I did not really wake up but the next morning I thought to myself - Man, I didn't get a good night sleep. I just had this odd feeling that someone or something kept waking me up. Well, I brushed it off and went to breakfast. It was during breakfast that my cowork said she was so scared that she went to sleep in her friends room and she did not want to spend the next night in the hotel. She said she heard steps in the hall way but when she went to look, no one was there.

During a break in the conference, I searched the net and guess what - this hotel IS HAUNTED - check it out:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/388898/haunted_sainte_claire_hotel_in_san.html?cat=37 .

No, no, no, I don't stay here no more!!

This review is long overdue, but I wanted to make sure everything had been sorted out before writing it. I stayed here mostly by accident, several months ago with other members of my non-profit, after going a little too hard the night before. Waking up in a strange, hot, humid room, with no recollection of how I got there, but at least recognizing the people in the other bed as my friends, I make my way into the restroom, then clamber back in to bed to try to get some sleep.

Imagine my horror upon opening my eyes several minutes later to check my phone, and noticing a bloated, red, pill-sized bug lethargically crawling away from my face. Add to that horror the explosion and pooling of blood after I applied some pressure to it with my phone, immediately realizing what I had just killed was an adult bed bug that had just fed.

So, like any sane person would do, I immediately got out of bed, and just sat around freaking out for a few minutes, wondering what to do. Eventually, I make my way downstairs to alert the front desk about what I discovered, and, to their credit, they handled the situation incredibly well. They send up the head of housekeeping to verify what I had found, have us vacate the rooms, and provided us with the option of tossing whatever we wanted into their dryers (as prolonged exposure to high heat will kill off all stages of bedbug life), while we wait in another room.

With only myself knowing the headache and stress associated with possibly bringing these pests home, I opted for that, while my friends decided to just go home. A shower and free meal later (since I had no clothes to go out with), I make my way home. About four months later (as it can take a few months to rule out any possible hitchhikers), I can say with some certainty that I'm in the clear, for now, be it because of these precautionary measure or otherwise.

So, while I personally won't stay in this hotel again, that's mostly because I live in SF, and there's really little reason for me to be staying in a hotel in the Bay Area to begin with. To the point of the bug problem, I'd much rather stay in a hotel that I know has protocols (both safety and customer satisfaction) for handling a situation, rather than one that doesn't have any experience with it at all.

It's a beautiful hotel... but I went there to find a ghost and found nothing!!!!

A few of us decided to try out ghost hunting skills and find "Julia" - the resident ghost at the Sainte Claire. We even stayed on the 2nd floor (supposedly where the phenomena happens).

All we accomplished is scaring the crap out of each other... and ate some damn good breakfast at Il Fornaio.

Our rooms were only $97/night for a Saturday.

We had our wedding here in March and it was the best wedding ever! We celebrated our 1st year of dating here and fell in love w/ the place.

Hilary is very professional the food was great and Raul the catering manager was so attentive from the time we got there to the time the event was over this is the perfect place for a wedding!

Sincere staff. They were truly nice and made one feel at home. Free Wi Fi. I called for room service and they made accommodations for us, made my son a plain cheese pizza since I expressed that my son only likes "plain" foods. Well, they called back to ask if my son was allergic to oregano, because there was oregano in his pizza sauce. How kind and caring is that?

My only true complaint is that our room had a sticky rug. So I didn't feel comfortable being barefoot. Contrary to the rumors, it's not haunted.

Room service is only Il Fornaio.

This hotel is great for two reasons: the main lobby looks amazing and it's reasonably priced--especially for San Jose. The rest of the hotel is OK, but not great. The rooms are on the small side, but clean and comfortable if a bit dated. It does appear that they've made a serious effort to make the rooms as modern as possible given the age of the building, but it's still not perfect.

The fitness center was surprisingly decent with 3 treadmills, an elliptical and some weights. It's as much as you'd expect in any hotel and was really appreciated when I realized I wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore at 6:30 in the morning.

The only real downside of this hotel is that there's no parking at the hotel except for their $29 per day valet parking. I was traveling on business, so that was fine, but if I was traveling for pleasure, it would have been a real letdown.