I booked my 4 nights stay at this hotel through [--].
When I checked in, they were not able to find my reservation. I presented them with the confirmation letter and they still weren't able to retrieve it.

It wasn't until I received my credit card statement that I realized they had doubled charged me. 1 night for a 'NO SHOW' and 4 nights for my actual stay. The credit card company provided me with a copy of the Best Western statement showing that they manually charged me because I failed to check-in. It also showed that they entered my reservation under my guest's name instead of mine, hence, they were not able to retrieve it. The confirmation letter from hotels.com clearly shows my name and confirmation number. Why they didn't use the latter to cross-reference is still a mystery to me.

I'm still disputing the 'NO SHOW' charge. Frustrating. BEWARE!!!

Stayed at this place November 10 and 11th, 2004. Was booked to stay there three more nights, but checked out, and here's why:

1) The rooms are looking very "down at the heels". Furniture is in poor condition, the bedspreads are threadbare and the carpets are dirty. The bathtubs are extra short, an adult could not relax in them. The bathroom tile was grubby.

2) The bathroom towels were originally white. They are now grey with unidentifiable stains. Yuck!

3) The hotel is located next to a strip mall with a grocery store. There is a trash compactor which is adjacent to a number of the rooms and - boy- is it loud. Particularly when they start it up at 6:30 a.m. They also receive deliveries starting at 6:30 a.m. If you are a tired traveller, forget about sleeping in.

4) Last, and most important, as a single female traveller, I did not feel safe here. There were gangs of kids in parking lot until after 1:00 a.m. the first night I was there, yelling and hooting and hollering. The hotel is actually a "motel" style, with the buildings being 2 stories high. The 2nd floor balconies are very low, and would be very easy to climb onto. Also, my key did not work properly in the reader and it was a bit unnerving entering the relatively dark entry and not being sure whether or not the key would work. The front desk "recoded" it for me, but it didn't help. The building's doors were propped open all day long, and therefore there really was no security during the day at all.

5) When I checked out early, the front desk clerk just looked at me and said "Everything OK", to which I replied, "NO" and went on to explain my concerns. She just looked at me blankly and said, oh, sorry.

I took a look at the "fitness area". It is a joke. I couldn't bring myself to go and look at the swirlpool, I just couldn't face it.

I moved to the Marriot hotel which is quite close to this one. What a difference. I will write about it in a separate review. Suffice to say, with the cost of the two hotels being very comparable, I know which I will stay in next time I'm in San Mateo!