365RoadWarrior

Just spent a night at this recently acquired hotel. This stay came immediately after a stay at the Summerfield Suites in Belmont. In terms of business plan, brand identity and amenities, they're about as similar as hotels get. In my stay notes, I'll make some comparisons with the assumption that y'all have some familiarity with the Summerfield experience.

Location: Just off highway 680, about 8 miles north of highway 580. San Ramon's a bedroom community for San Francisco and Silicon Valley, as well as home of Bishop Ranch and Chevron. Mount Diablo is nearby. The hotel is just north of the city's main crossroads. Commerce is abundant. For members of the cult, there is an In 'n Out across the street.

Arrival: Ample parking and attractive grounds. The Summerfield resemblance is evident from outside the building. Inside, the lobby is a bit "grander" and darker-hued than most Summerfields I've been too. Nice, young person at the front desk. Seems "hip" to the Gold Passport program, though the hotel was acquired just last week. I'm assigned to a room reflective of my low rate (bottom floor, potentially noisy) rather than any Hyatt recorded preferences (high floor, quiet room).

Room: What's the opposite of being on steroids? It's like a Disney-fied (meaning scaled down) Summerfield Suite Suite. That's not to say "bad", and it may reflect the relatively higher-rent district in which this hotel is located. There are some nicer furnishings and appliances than the Summerfield Suites. Like the Summerfield, all the lights are on timers with those motion detector things. I was able to locate the light switches more readily here, but still find them maddening...particularly when I want to have a light on to find my way around in the middle of the night, if I wake up. HVAC was effective on this mild night; perhaps 10 percent noisier than I might have liked.

Amenities: At the sink and in the shower, it's bottle-dispensed Gilchrist and Soames soaps/lotions. No bars of anything. Coffee maker with one, small portion of Maxwell House (if I recall correctly). Current telephone book in the room. ^ Extra bedding in the closet.

Facilities: High speed internet access was good. Fitness center was a mix of True and Life Fitness, the latter being Hyatt's standard brand. Everything I tried worked. Again, the maddening 20-minute light timers meant twice during my workout, I'd hop off the elliptical machine, go across the room to trigger the lights, then go back to the machine...which had, by then, reset.

Food Service: Evening reception had chips, one hot food, cheese, crudites, soda, and beer (Bud Light and Blue Moon pseudo-Belgian stuff). Breakfast was eggs and bacon with melon, cereal and a bunch of breads. (I'm vegetarian, so I was limited to crudites and morning fruit.)

Overall: There is a Summerfield Suites not far away in Pleasanton. I will never see that place again. There are also Hyatt Places nearby. All else being equal, this will be my first choice.

kenbo

Thanks for the review!

Were you "upgraded" at all? The one time I stayed at the SS in Pleasanton, I was upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite. It was clearly more than I needed but the gesture was nice.

365RoadWarrior

Near as I could figure, I got about the worst room in the place*...though it was fine.

* conceptually the one between the elevator and ice machine fronting the parking lot, though not literally, based on the hotel configuration here

soonerfanatic

What was your Diamond amenity choice? Specifically, how many points? thx.

365RoadWarrior

Sorry, I don't really know. I don't keep my business travel points (they go to my employer) and I don't ever use or look at my leisure travel points. I only know about my room preferences. I looked around at my Gold Passport profile and didn't see the Diamond amenity choice. (I know where it is on Hilton Honors, but not GP.) Room, Communications, Travel...

kenbo

Diamond amenity points will be the same as SS/HP.

365RoadWarrior

I wrote that way-back-when. I actually stayed here (and at the Rancho Cordova) property the week of the conversion. I don't see a real review here for San Ramon, so...

Starters: Usually, the hotel is unaffordable to me on weekdays, given over to business travelers with bigger budgets than mine, but it's affordable in the weekend. $100 AARP/AAA is pretty common.

Neighborhood: San Ramon is headquarters to Chevron and many somewhat smaller enterprises, most in the huge Bishop Ranch complex. It's just off highway 680, but some distance from BART, making it impractical for trips to Oakland or San Francisco without a car. It's an affluent area, so you won't starve, whether you want In 'n Out (across the street) or something fairly upscale. There is shopping and dining within easy walk of the hotel. The shopping is pretty utilitarian - we're not talking art and tourist stuff. Groceries and car parts. There is a nice, small bookstore (Bay Books).

Arrival: Parking was ample during my weekend stay, though the hotel showed "sold out" the Thursday before. They use what I think of as the airline approach to early check-in/standby: You have to go to the hotel, present your credit card and ID and assume you will be checking in no earlier than 3:00PM. Maybe you get lucky; maybe not. They won't give any clues over the phone I had put in an online reservation request for a 2:00PM check in, followed up with a Diamond desk reservation note, but it proved meaningless. I did get in promptly at 3:15PM. Small bonus: they gave me access to the fitness center to kill time until I could get in. Nice people at the front desk, two of whom I recognized from earlier stays.

Amenities: Fairly large pool. Fairly large fitness center too. Life Fitness equipment in good repair and not crowded any time of day on the weekend. Morning breakfast probably a little better than usual. They had a long queue of people wanting custom omlettes; a take-a-number system kept things under control. Kind of. The offerings were pretty standard overall: breads, bagels, cut fruit, oatmeal, cereals, eggs, bacon, sausage. No potatoes. Light-filled dining area. Newspapers every day in the lobby; local paper on Sunday and WSJ weekdays. Business center has two computers and one printer. The printer works, but internet access was pretty slow - about a minute to load a FlyerTalk page.

Rooms: I've always had something labeled "suite". It's small, with no real demarkation between bedroom and living/dining area. There is a full-sized refrigerator and microwave. Sink. Small desk. Very crowded. Shower-over-tub set-up.

Check Out: I asked for a late check out and got to stay until 1:00PM. Yeah, wanted early check in and late check out: I got greedy. No problems with the bill.

Bottom Line: For me, more civilized than the nearby Hyatt Place (in a mall) and Hyatt House Pleasanton (way out in an industrial park). Like the HHP, you have to sign a "no party pledge" when checking in to San Ramon. Believe me: I didn't look like I was going to have a party.

FlyinHawaiian

We stayed at the Hyatt House over the Christmas weekend. I normally stay at the Courtyard or full-service Marriott, but I found a decent AAA rate and decided to give it a shot.

Just a few updates to the very comprehensive comments above...

Bath amenities are now upgraded to the KenetMD products; no bulk dispensers.

The in-room coffee from the 4-cup drip machine was pretty vile; can't remember the brand. The coffee at the breakfast room was slightly better.

Breakfast remains eggs/omelettes made-to-order along with ham slices, breakfast potatoes, scrambled eggs, breads, fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, and cold cereal. It was pretty crowded each morning and seating was at a premium.

The property offers Studio Suites and One-Bedroom Suites; the latter are larger and have a proper door between the living room and bedroom. I wasn't able to get an upgrade from a Studio, despite One Bedrooms showing as available on the mobile app. They did honor my high floor and feather-free bedding request, though. The e-lock on our safe didn't work and the staff were unable to repair it during our stay. The room lights aren't on timers anymore but the air conditioning/heat is still on the noisy side.

Wireless internet was pretty speedy; I streamed videos without any issue.

Having only one elevator for the entire property can be problematic during peak hours.

I took the points for my Diamond amenity; didn't think there's anything else worth asking for.

The West Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station is the closest one to the property; it's still a few miles away by car.

Overall, I found it to be pleasant and quiet. I'd probably give it a shot again if the price is right.

FlyinHawaiian

Stayed here again for Thanksgiving Weekend. No joy for an upgrade from a Studio to a proper suite; perhaps I need to stop coming over the holidays when families are likely to book a suite to have more room. In any case, I was assigned a room on the 4th (top) floor on the quiet side of the hotel.

The main update is that the bathrooms have been refurbished with a very modern shower stall design instead of the old molded tub and shower. It looks like they also updated the digital thermostats for climate control. Otherwise, pretty much the same as previous stays and that's an overall good thing.

FlyinHawaiian

Finishing up a five-night stay here; due to the length of our stay, I decided to pony up for the one bedroom suite and was glad to have the extra room, including a proper space to sit and eat our meals. There was a small snafu at check-in; I booked one night using my Cat 1-4 cert and the remainder as a revenue stay. I called the property in advance and asked for my award night to be upgraded from the mandatory studio booking to a one bedroom so we wouldn't have to move rooms. While the front desk agent I spoke with was happy to do so, when we checked in (with the same agent) our room ended up being a studio. It took a little bit of work to straighten things out, as I really do not like rooms facing the street here and also not ones on the ground floor. I also need feather-free bedding. After working together with the front desk, the best they could do was a one-bedroom suite on the third floor at the end of the wing that's closest to the In-N-Out across the street (it appears that all, if not the majority, of the rooms of the one-bedrooms are in a single wing of the property. While the room doesn't face the street, it's still very close to it, but the road noise is minimal. Our lovely view is of the back wall of the Japanese restaurant next door but on the bright side, we don't have any privacy issues! My mom arrived a few nights later and I was able to get her one bedroom assigned near us; her view is of the parking lot of the Japanese restaurant.

Other than the hiccup at check in, all of the staff we encountered were exceedingly nice and helpful. For COVID, masks are mandatory on site and proof of vaccination is needed if eating breakfast downstairs. We choose to pick up our breakfast (ample to-go containers are available) and eat in our suite. Warm items included scrambled eggs (available every day) and a rotation of waffles, French Toast, pancakes, sausage, and bacon along with steel cut oatmeal. There were also breads, cereals, yogurts, and fresh bananas and oranges. Recalling our dislike of the room coffee, we went to the nearby Safeway and bought a small bag of ground coffee and #2 cone filters to make our own using the coffee maker in the room. There's a number of groceries and convenience stores a short drive away along with numerous restaurants offering delivery and pickup. We only asked for housekeeping service once during our stay; we brought some kitchen trash bags with us to keep things relatively clean in out room.

The parking charge mentioned upthread was abolished a few years ago; for the most part, there's enough spaces available, even during peak periods (and I don't think it would be a huge issue parking in the adjacent lot overnight. We were issued guest parking passes to display on our dashboard, which was something new to us.

Overall, I still think this is a great property for the area.

DELee

Looking forward to photos of those views.

David

FlyinHawaiian

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33750218-post54.html

DELee

Ah! to the photo - to the view.

David

FlyinHawaiian

A few updates after my annual stay here.

This year, I was able to get my one bedroom suite on the 4th (top) floor facing the woods; by the map, there are only four of these. Our room is the ADA-compliant one which means the layout is a little different. The kitchen area is missing the full-size fridge with an under counter bar fridge and no freezer. The over-range microwave is replaced with a standalone on the counter over the fridge. Most notably, the dining room table is absent. The shades in the living and bedrooms are motorized with a single remote control. The bathroom is enlarged with the small sink inside and the tub has fixed and handheld showerheads with ample grab bars and a shower bench is in the closet. The KenetMD bath amenities are in large dispensers mounted on the wall.

None of the above are particularly annoying for a short stay.

The $10 per night parking charge has annoyingly returned. Breakfast options were adequate although the lack of to-go containers was a bit of a miss. I saw several guests who brought their dogs with them asked by staff to leave the breakfast area; I am sure they would have been happy to eat in their rooms. Since I mentioned the coffee in last year's post, I'll mention that the 4-cup coffee makers in the room now come with packets of the Arabica Blend brand that I see with the CV1s at Hyatt Places. This may be a good thing as we don't mind that brand but we still brought our own ground coffee and filters. Overall, this was a good, not great stay.