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Woodfin Suites Hotel
Rating Details »
5800 Shellmound Street
(at Powell St)
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 601-5880
(at Powell St)
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 601-5880
- Price Range:
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24 reviews for Woodfin Suites Hotel
Very nice hotel, was impressed from the moment I walked in. The rooms are great and very spacious. The kitchens are fully stocked for cooking and if you choose you can have groceries and your laundry picked up for you.
The pool & workout room are ok. Lots of surrounding businesses, close to SF. Only negative in the neighborhood.
Once again go to http://www.priceline.com for a great deal!
I had to stay here for a work trip - I wasn't impressed. The rooms were fine, I mean they were clean and everything. The staff wasn't that great, I was basically made to feel like I was defrauding them since I asked them to ship me some items that I had forgot in my room. I was told "we have a lot of fraud, so we're going to make sure your account is legit before we send your stuff." I mean c'mon now, did you really need to say that? If you're going to do it, do it, but you don't need to tell your customer that and make them feel like they're criminals.
The other thing was the Amtrak - it's like RIGHT outside the bedroom window, so about ever 30 minutes get ready to hear a train horn blast, and the rumbling of the engines.
Rooms were nice and close to a lot of stuff to walk to. I dig it. Nice spacious room and bathroom. Love the kitchenette, and could use a bigger TV. I didnt really know about the workers rights stuff but hopefully it got all worked out.
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We stayed here for 1 night and it was OK. I didn't love the customer service..but the amenities were fine. Pool with jacuzzi, gym, business center, wine/beer store, restaurant. I'd stay here again if in the Emeryville/Oakland, CA area.
This hotel is pet friendly. My sister and her hubby brought their dog, so they put us on the 2nd floor. I really liked the layout of the suite we stayed in. It had kitchenette and small bar area, with range, oven, dishwasher, microwave, fridge, and plenty of plates, cups, silverware, etc. There were 2 rooms with a doors separating the two if desired. Both the living area and bedroom had televisions, and the beds were super comfy. I was quite impressed with the size of the spacious bathroom as well.
The woodfin is part of a huge shopping conglomerate in emeryville. It is a busy place, but if you are going to shop 'til you drop, it's nice to know you can drop at a nice, clean, comfortable hotel just steps away.
I was forced to live at the Woodfin until some work on my apartment was done.
I loved the suites that I had.. wasn't crazy about the plain ol bedroom, but that's because I was spoiled by the luxury of the large suite. The kitchen was fully stocked with everything I needed and then some. They even have dishwashers in every suite. Loved it.
The breakfast was great and I went for seconds even though the omelet guy told me to watch my girlish figure. He was cool though. He asked me if I was from Connecticut because of my "accent" - uh, no, that's SoCal Valley girl for ya brother.
The only reason they don't get 5 stars was my last night there, I was in a new room and the bedding smelled funny. I am hyper-sensitive to smells so, I was concerned about the quality & cleanliness of their linen. But, it was my last night there so, I got out safe and had a wonderful stay. Oh yeah, the train can be kind of annoying if you have a room that faces Amtrak.. that was a bummer too.
Free wifi in the lobby, but not in the rooms. However, if you sit really close to the window, you pick up on others in the area.
Good spying and people watching to the over-priced condos across the way. I'm really nosey!
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I've been staying here for 3 months for work and I love this place. It's a home away from home. The staff is fantastic especially the bartender and the waitresses. Kudos for having these people on your staff!
Update 1/11/08: The Woodfin is STILL under a workers-led boycott; they have STILL not paid the $250K that the City of Emeryville has ordered the Woodfin to pay in back wages; and, the Woodfin's former workers are now being harassed by immigration agents in direct violation of ICE's own regulations and as a result of the Woodfin's owner calling in political favors with his local congressman (that he just happened to give large donations to). This story continues...
Update 6/13/2007: Article in today's SF Bay Guardian about the Woodfin pulling political strings to call for an immigration (ICE) raid on their own workers:
ICE Does Favor for Republican Congressman & His Donor
http://www.sfbg.com/pr...
"An upscale Emeryville hotel embroiled in a nasty, yearlong labor
dispute appears to have called on the owner's conservative political
connections to bring about an immigration audit of the hotel. Worker
advocates say the move was an effort to intimidate immigrant workers
involved in a campaign to enforce a living-wage law."
Update 5/20/2007: Ha ha ha ha! The Woodfin has resorted to importing Young Republicans from Davis to heckle the workers on the picket line. These haters even pushed and frightened the workers' children. The Woodfin has offered free rooms to the immigrant bashers. Hopefully the Young Republicans found the room that the Woodfin evicted me and my 11-year-old from to be comfy. Grrr.
Update 4/18/2007: after two and a half years of residence at the Woodfin Suites Hotel, we received written a written eviction notice giving our family 30 days to vacate our hotel room. I haven't heard about any problems with our hotel bill being covered by the insurance company, and none of the other ten or so families also staying at the Woodfin on a long-term basis have been evicted.
Woodfin Exec. Kathryn Horn told my husband that we're being evicted for "inappropriate behavior." We have never received any complaints or warnings before this eviction. This eviction appears to be a retaliatory gesture for my activism on behalf of the 20 workers the Woodfin fired a week before Christmas. I thought Free Speech was a First Amendment right, but apparently not at the Woodfin Hotel. Here is a link to a story about the Right Wing owner of the Woodfin, who is booting me, my husband, and our little girl out:
http://www.sandiegomet...
Update 12/11/2006: I've looked up more information on the situation at the Woodfin...http://www.workingeast...
11/2006 We woke up this morning to a labor protest at the Woodfin. Unfortunately, some of the hotel's maids asked for the "living wage" that Emeryville's voters mandated a year ago and, in retaliation, the Woodfin's manager demanded that all maids resubmit their immigration documents...which is against labor laws.
Very unpleasant, and sad.
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DISCLAIMER: this review is only about my disgust at how the Woodfin Suites manager decided to handle the ongoing personal business (how's that for an oxymoron?) problems by involving local Emeryville residents in those problems using a junk mail campaign*. It is not a review about the hotel itself only about those who run the hotel.
Woodfin Suites winner of today's bad marketing 101 award.
___________________________
Like so many people in Emeryville I drive past Woodfin Suites whenever I go to Trader Joes.
Like so many people I only kind of acknowledged the protesters outside as I drove by but really didn't think about it.
That is until a big, hefty mass mailing arrived in my mailbox the other day from the General Manager from the Woodfin Suites complaining about how unfairly Woodfin Suites was being treated and how as a resident of Emeryville somehow these hotel union picketers were out to get me too.
So I just want to get a few things straight - Mr. General Manager
1) I hate mass mailings! Go green! Remember Al Gore! and all of that!
2) I'm old enough to remember Emeryville before it was "Emeryville" and when Woodfin Suites was just some skanky hotel with a different name, a place for illicit affairs and truckers - by the way it still looks the same just with a different sign out front . Edit: Kevin D. (obviously an employee who won't fess up) corrected me this 'Hotel' never had another name and was as Kevin D. states "Woodfin was built new from the ground up."
3) How dare you even suggest that you and I are somehow together against them (the big bad union people.) If I ran I hotel I would provide decent pay and healthcare to my employees. How about you, Mr. General Manager? Not on the same side now, huh, Mr. General Manager?
Just say no to junk mail.
PS Although it's unlikely I would have stayed at a hotel just a few blocks from my home I really might have put friends or relatives up in one of their suites if it were not for the seriously bad taste and ill feeling that letter left me with.
* in case you are wondering I posted the offending letter in the photo section, with my address redacted of course.
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***cannot endorse a hotel that treats its workers unfairly. clearly they are against their loyal low wage workers as they have spent far more in legal fees versus paying them fair and square. so sad.
i used to stay at the woodfin with large groups of current and former foster youth. we used the hotel nearly every month. we would rent like 3-10 rooms at a time. i referred them to other clients of mine. they would rent lots of rooms too. the rooms were perfect for large groups. my projects must have spent upwards of $50,000 in the years I used the hotel (from 2001 until the boycott began).
i will be at the demonstration thursday night asking the woodfin once again to change its ethics and behave like a moral company and pay the workers what they are due.
when we stayed at this hotel, the format of the hotel worked great for us. we consistently had trouble with the front staff, but we worked on having a good working relationship with them over the years. we started staying with them after 9/11 (when travel was way way down) and would patronize them again (monthly) if they valued their workers and community.
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Just two thumbs up! My sister, her friends, and I spent the night beofre her wedding there and I enjoyed the view, staff, and of course the comfy bed! Breakfast the next morning was delicious! IF you want to get away for the weekend, but stay local say HELLLO to the Woodfin.
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Let me get this straight. A hotel wants to use undocumented labor, but only if it can pay them slave wages. When their workers demand that the hotel pay them a living wage, following the city's legal ordinance, the hotel decides to suddenly fire them all for being undocumented?
So you want slaves, but you don't want anyone to know you want slaves?
Shame on you.
(http://www.workingeast...)
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Removed two stars! Was contacted by the manager about my stay who offered me a free night if I 'reported' the rude staff AND THEN told me I was lucky the staff was so ill informed because their dog policy limits pooches to 25 pounds. So ridiculous - I had called before I checked in and they said no limit. I checked in and out and not a single rude person said anything about a limit. These guys are too much!
******************
Stayed here a few weeks ago and thought it was ok - the rooms are nice, spacious, clean and quiet. They take dogs so of course get an extra star for that alone.
The staff is rude. Very weirdly rude. On check in, just not at all nice. When I called for room service (from the in-room room service menu) I was told they didn't have room service yet. WTF?? But I did call the restaurant downstairs and they didn't know they didn't do room service and sent the food right up (weird).
When checking out was asked if I'd told them I had a dog (of course I did - not only that but he's 80 pounds - not easy to sneak in) - and was asked rudely because the person checking me in didn't add the $10 dog charge.
So the rooms and nice and pleasant, the restaurant is good, the staff is rude and doesn't know what they are doing.
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http://www.individual....
Thanks Judge Sabraw.
I've been staying sporadically since 2004. I've swum (swam?) in the pool and used the jacuzzi (both are now salinated and healthy--not chlorintated)....I've eaten at the restaurant both before and after renovation--(the food is dynamite....the service needs some fine tuning). I've used the computers in the business center...I've brought my laptop to the suites and worked from there. I've rented movies from the library....(there were more when they had VHS...they need to beef up their DVD collection). I've stayed there in earlier years, prior to the current administration when security was lax--and bad people tried to make it a party hotel....held parties, smoked pot, hired prostitutes and stole valuable local Emeryville art from the lobby and walls. I've watched as a new administration rolled up its sleeves and cleaned things up.....(including being more attentive to federal law).
Many of the staff know me by name.Some of them are housekeepers. Some of them are among those without proper work papers who were let go. This saddens me because most of them are hard workers, caring people and many have familes to support. Will I speak well of them? Yes, of course. Will I join the marching groupies in their complicity with identiy theft (using someone else's social security number fraudulently)? No. The local law at the heart of this protest is designed to offer just wages and work conditions for those who are rightfully permitted to work in the US. Sadly, those who gamble with fraudulent documentation have lost the gamble. This group nearly drove PIXAR (one of Emeryville's major sources of tax revenue) out of town. That failed. As will this. This too shall pass.
I am sorry if my patronage and glowing reviews offend those who seek only punitive measures against the hotel for what they perceive to be unethical employment practices. The protest is dividing the residents of Emeryville which is not productive to this very succesful city. It is also exposing these vulnerable undocumented folks to INS, IRS and Homeland Security officers whose duty it is to enforce the laws attached to these departments.
I do see it as an obligation to warn out of town guests that they are in for a 1st rate San Francisco experience of activism gone awry. Not that these guests need me to make their minds up for them. The Woodfin primarily caters to a business crowd-- they are in town for serious purpose and are well-versed on legal issues. Loud aggresive protesters asking them not to patronize the hotel is seen as the a benefit of living in a free society..the First Amendment to the US Constitution never guaranteed that the speech uttered will be truthful, honest, just, tasteful or even interesting and that, I trust, is accepted by most business travelers.
FYI http://www.woodfinfact...
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My review is specific to the conference rooms in this hotel and their services. I give it 3 1/2 stars.
Came here for a work meeting. I was pleased to see how nice the hotel was and the meeting rooms were quite pleasant.
My only pickle was that the servers took the water from the entire room when trying to refill the containers. Would have been nice if they had brought in filled ones before removing the empty. We were thirsty for over 20 minutes during the meeting. :(
If this was a review of the facilities only, I'd have rated it four to five stars. We paid $169 for a Saturday night stay. Our one-bedroom suite was wonderful - spacious, modern, clean, and well-maintained. We had a balcony facing the bay, the kitchen was stocked condo-style, there were two TV's, a DVD player, and a large, well-stocked bathroom with recessed lighting. The bed itself was a little hard and the linen quality was just okay. Parking was free, Amtrak is practically on-site, there are lots of restaurants and shopping within walking distance, and it's a quick trip across the Bay Bridge to S.F.
Unfortunately, I can't give it full marks due to a couple of factors:
1. The hotel's long-standing opposition to and noncompliance with the local "living wage ordinance." Apparently the dispute has been highly publicized locally and involves some shady political maneuvering by the hotel owner.
2. At about midnight, a full-on party cranked up in the suite next door. Lots of door slamming, woo-hooing, and general mayhem. I called the desk twice and the noise finally stopped around 2 a.m. At checkout, the front desk preemptively offered me a $40 reimbursement, which worked out to $20 for each hour of lost sleep. I was told that it had been a post-prom party, booked by parents to evade the hotel's over-18 policy (nice example to set for your kids, mom and dad). To be fair, I doubt parties are a problem on weeknights, but buyer beware on weekends.
In summary, if you're looking for a spacious, well-maintained suite at a decent price near San Francisco, you might consider this. If you're concerned about how they can offer those good rates (low worker wages) or if a good night's sleep is essential to you, you might want to look elsewhere.
The bar was suggested to me and my party by the staff at The Townhouse, as a suggestion for after dinner drinks. I had booked and successfully held a birthday party here some years back and while my experience was great, the bar was not all that; it was nothing. But here is a copy of the text I sent to a girlfriend shortly after arriving...
"Girl! I am having a drink @ the woodfin and the bar restaurant is gorgeous! Only open for 3 weeks. A great alternative to the Elephant bar."
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People need to get over the whole worker thing, Woodfin just needs to deal with it. The protesters are only out there when they can be highly visible, I work not far from this place so it's weird when they suddenly come out and then dissapear again. That's freaky.
Anyway, I went for lunch. Service was excellent. No, really, it was very good table service, I was impressed!
Food however was overpriced and mediocre. Nothing special.
Drinks were damn good, I bet this place is kick-ass for happy hour! I will return some day, perhaps stay over night.
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Date: Sep 2007
Who: 2 adults, 2 kids
Rate: ~$200/night
A clean extended stay, all suite hotel. The rooms aren't that big, but was big enough for us.
We had two full size beds and we pulled the mattresses off, put both together on the ground and slept all together. There was just enough room in the 'bed room' portion of the suite. I think it would have been better if they removed the partition and door and just made it one big room instead...at least for us.
The complementary breakfast was decent - individual OJ, bunch of cereals, breads, fruit, yogurt, and a small selection of hot food including oatmeal. Definitely enough for the kids to fill up on.
The price is kind of high but the location was good (visiting friends in the east bay).
I thought the suite was really cute and the bathroom was really nice and spacious but the staff was rude.
On NYE, we decided to just rent a suite and kick it together...girls night in... a nice and quiet get together with champagne cocktails... It was just four girls, we were all checked in, so it wasnt anything suspicious and we weren't planning to get hyphy or anything... We weren't going to throw a NYE bash, we came in our pajamas, it was like a sleepover... As soon as I got off the elevator, I could already smell the mary jane and see the smoke in the hallways... which didn't bother me...what bothered me was that they kept calling OUR room and thinking it was us and threatening to kick us out if we didn't tell them who's room it was coming from. She said the whole 10th floor would be evacuated within an hour if they did not find out where it was coming from. WTF? Did you want me to go knock on every door and ask? It just ruined my nite because if you did suspect something, why didnt you come knock on our door or stick ur head in and ask us instead of calling and telling me to go find out! Security came a few hours later like at 1am and stuck his head in and said "oh, you guys aren't smoking..."
Even while I was checking out, the staff at the check out desk were gossiping about a break up and didn't even look at me.
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So my company put us up here for a two day training session, and because the hotel was out of standard one bedrooms, we were upgraded to the suite category. I was somewhat dumbfounded when I walked into my room. It could have been the initial delirium that ensued from absorbing loads of new information and participating in a lively team-building activity at a local restaurant. But when I stepped into my suite to unwind, I felt instantly as if I were at home (maybe because the one bedroom I rent with my husband is teeny!) In any case, I was able to store my leftover dinner in the fridge, could have cooked on the stove, and had loads of places to lounge--chairs, a coach, a king size bed. I had my pick of TV sets--the front room or the bedroom? My choice:) In addition, I could make use of the glass- fronted sliding closet doors. I've always wanted the reflective closet doors. (Is that too much to ask, apartment complexes?) The bathroom was immaculate and stocked with all that I could have needed--fresh linen, deliciously aromatic spa style soaps, lotion, shampoo, and conditioner. My bed was also perfect--not too stiff, not hotel--feeling...just nice:) I slept pretty darn well, considering...
Only downsides: The shower pressure was somewhat spotty, although not horribly poor, and there was a burnt toast smell around 5 a.m. I checked around my room and nothing was on, but I got the sense that someone's mangled breakfast had been recirculated. Oh well...I was able to fall back asleep regardless.
I've stayed at loads of mediocre places throughout my life, but this was not one of them. I could have stayed there for days....
Christmas Eve a coupla years ago we were waiting for Amtrak to take us to Oregon and the train was delayed delayed delayed. Ends up that an earthquake in Santa Barbara bent the tracks and the train was stuck for awhile. So our options were to sleep in the train station or find a hotel with vacancy on Christmas eve. We walked over to Woodfin Suites and they had vacancy. The room was really nice sized. The flourescent lights a bit harsh. I am all for saving energy, but when you are paying 185.00 for a few hours of sleep, I would expect nicer. Not luxury but it was heaven compared to the train station.
I had my parents stay here because it's easy to get on and off the freeway, and also an easy drive to things they like in Berkeley and Oakland. Plus, they are not urbanites so the easy parking lot made a difference to them.
Because it was a weekend or because they got some kind of senior discount, they stayed in a suite for the same price as a smaller room (around $165). I stayed there one night as well, on a fold-out bed in one of their rooms.
Very nice, comfortable, newer hotel. The kitchen was better than the one in my old apartment -- all the plates and utensils and stuff you need to prepare little meals. And a dishwasher.
The room was on the side with the railroad tracks but there was no problem at all with noise. One train whistle at about 7 a.m. It was surprisingly quiet.
Very accomodating front desk. The only downside was the restaurant at the hotel. But there is lots of easy food without even driving, since they share a parking lot with Emeryville Publlic Market.
I would definitely recommend this place to visitors, especially if they are not the street smart type. Also, there are regular shuttles to BART and the Amtrak station is a short walk over a pedestrian bridge (DON'T OPEN THAT ELEVATOR!), so you don't even need a car here.
suites are nice and big, and well equipped. however, they're kind of poorly lit, and i couldn't for the life of me find the heating console (it was really really hot at night). also, no minibar. i wasn't gonna eat/drink anything, but still, i like rummaging through minibars. breakfast in the morning was decent (eggs a little over-cooked), but they have belgian waffles, which rule. also, the bedside table is insanely high (made me go nuts when the wake-up call came and i couldn't reach the phone).
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