My long delayed stay report for the Hyatt Sainte Clair.

In short, it's a beautifully appointed old hotel, nicely restored, beautiful entry, nice restauarant in the lobby (Il Fornaio) which provides the room service menu. The hotel has no RC or club floor. The staff was very friendly and accomodating.

My room was on the small side, but had beautiful furniture and beadspreads, etc. The desk chair was a black and metal ugly thing that didn't really belong in the room. The TV sat on a pedastal that looked like the one in the Sky Mall catalog. It also didn't really fit the room decor.

I had to call downstairs to get somebody to help me locate the data port. The phones are kind of odd for Hyatt. The data port was located near the jack near the floor.

The bathroom was very small, but was super nice. They had modern made, but classic designed handles and a teak-enclosed sink, but there really wasn't a heck of a lot of room in there. It was hard to close the door if you had to use the facilities. The bathroom featured upgraded ammenities from a typical Hyatt property. (I forget the name of the brand, but it was an upgrade from even the new brand Hyatt is now using.)

I'm only Platinum with Hyatt (33 nights and counting), but I had a Platinum extras coupon for an ammenity, so I requested the cheese and cracker plate and two sodas, which was delivered to my room within 20 minutes. It was nice, but not as nice as the ammenity I sometimes get at the SFO Hyatt Regency. (It was smaller, but it was very nice. I'd say that the one at SFO property is twice the size.)

Since there's no RC here, there's complimentary coffee in the lobby, but the nicer place to get a nice hand-made coffee is the Il Fornaio coffee shop area .. I had a very nice Cappucino and some sort of pastry for $3.85 .. it was very good and made my morning.

There's no gift shop in the hotel .. so I was directed around the block to a small newstand, but it was closed at around 8AM. I had a conversation with the owner that evening, he re-opens at 8:30AM.

I was able to just leave my car at the hotel and take the light rail to my meetings on the first day. My co-workers and I had dinner at the Original Joe's, which is in the building, but around the corner on 1st Street. Original Joe's is a San Jose institution, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

On the second day, I checked out and took my car and stayed up at the SFO Hyatt Regency for my early morning flight home.

For the right price, I would stay here again, but I think that the Fairmont is a much nicer property. If the price is the same, it would be tough to choose the Sainte Claire. Both hotels are right in the heart of the downtown area, and are convenient to the Light Rail, and all the restaurants and entertainment in that area. It's a nice place to stay if you do business in San Jose since there's a few things to do in the area in the evenings.

Valet parking is a bargain at (as I recall) $11, but they park the car accross the street in the Convention Center garage, so planning ahead and calling ahead for your car is a must at this property.

There's a construction site accross the street on the corner of the convention center property .. Marriott is building a large tower there. There was a letter in the room apologizing for any construction noise, but I never heard any. I had a room that faced the street (the side street where the light rail runs) and I left my window open and enjoyed hearing the quiet bell of the light rail train as it went by throughout the night. As an ex-city person, I don't mind low-level street noise, and I think it would have been very quiet had I closed the window.

-David