Is Garden Court on El Camino Real or is it the one downtown with the Italian Restaurant? The downtown one is nice, but I don't like to deal with the traffic mess in that area.

There was (still is, AFAIK) a very nice four star property that was pleasant and a bit elegant on El Camino Real slightly to the left of the main street into downtown Palo Alto when facing Palo Alto village from the Stanford campus. The name might be Garden Court. It has a restaurant that was called something like Duck Tavern, very pleasant and reasonable, and a very pretty tiled pool in the courtyard with some statues. The style was Mediterranean with tile roof, nicely done. IIRC they had a wine reception in the early evening and free parking. The property belonged to a small California chain, maybe Summit Hotels, with others in Monterey, Bodega Bay, etc. It was clearly my favorite place to stay near Stanford, but I haven't been there in a couple years. It's small enough to seem personal, with good service.

The Sheraton seems pretty good but I'd call it three star with their generic business services. However, it can be very expensive for what it is. At some point there was talk of them trying to charge for parking in their outdoor lot, despite it being a suburban location. There's really nothing in easy walking distance, although if you're energetic, you could walk to at least part of Palo Alto Village.

Some of the hotels down the road in Menlo Park are real dumps.