Homewood Suites by Hilton Oakland Waterfront

I came to the hotel after work to check in. It was approximately 1am. The lady at the front desk was very rude, disrespectful and racist. She kept asking me if I was sure I was an employee of the Hilton Brand Hotels. Well, yeah of course I’m sure I am there mostly 6 days a week. I asked her is it was because I was African American, and she just looked at me blankly. Then my credit card would authorize the $ 75 incidental fee, and then she really started being rude. I was shocked, appalled and very hurt about this situation. She told me my card wouldn’t be charged yet it got charged. I asked her to call my mate and I a taxi cab, and asked if we could wait inside for the cab. She stated «We have nice new seat outside, that are almost like a couch. Well that gave me all I needed we just when outside into the freezing cold verses waiting in the lobby and being stared at and ridiculed. It was very disappointing and I am a employee of the company, I truly hope nobody else gets treated like this

Arrived here for a late check in after a long drive only to be greeted by a room that stunk of bad plumbing. The hotel maintenance staff came in the room and couldn’t smell anything which indicates they are so accustomed to this horrible smell that they are unbothered. The lady at the front desk sent him up to «deoderize» the room (something that should have already been done). I waited patiently for this magic funk remover and he arrived with a can of Febreze! He had the nerve to try and leave with it. I was offered another room with much smaller accommodations, but with no guarantee of fresh air. This hotel SHOULD NOT carry the Hilton name and I regret wasting my points… I should have stayed at the Marriott.

This Homewood Suite was the closest thing they got to the center of Oakland, and I was a bit disappointed that there was not anything closer to downtown Oakland from the Hilton brand. The hotel was located at a bit strange location with one side being next to freeway, and there was a train depot with countless amounts of graffiti. On the other side, there was a nice waterfront with private boats parked along the docks.
For some reasons, not all rooms are suites here, and I got one of those regular rooms. Fortunately, the noise did not seem to affect the rooms from the outside. However, the sound insulation was extremely poor for the room I stayed in, since I had to listen to the screaming kids and people talking next door close to midnight.
Breakfast comes as complimentary with your room, and maybe that was why they were so awful? During one morning, they had a completely dried hash browns sitting out in the tray that tasted like cardboard bread. Other stuffs were the standard country breakfast items. I ended up skipping it them, and ate elsewhere.
They have complimentary shuttle to the main Oakland waterfront area; however, it does not run on the weekends, so I still ended up depending on Über for transportation. I have mixed feeling about this place, the staffs here were just ok friendly here, and I would probably book elsewhere if I have to come to Oakland again.

Not great but close to work location. No airport shuttle and ‘non suites’ are VERY small.

I stayed at this hotel for about 3 and ½ weeks Dec-​Jan/​2016. The place is modern, clean and serves a good complimentary breakfast, with «mini-​meals» as a managers reception with draught local beers! The staff were courteous and accommodating and friendly – esp Amy from housekeeping, who is a delight and a font of information. The suites have medium sized ‘fridge, 2 burner stove & microwave, and are more than adequate for a long stay. The hotel is on the waterfront, and provides a pleasant place to sip your coffee– or your beer. The back parking lot is shared with a German restaurant that offers solid dining and a variety of beers. All in all, a comfortable and pleasant stay. The only downside is the relative isolation from the sights of Berkeley and Oakland-​but not much of an issue with a car. Recommended

Booked this stay with
found the price for 173 the day before we were suppose to go there they charged me 264 for one night I called then saying I got over charger they basically told me it wasn’t there problem and if i didn’t stay there I was out of 264 so I called booking to try and figure it out then called them and said the manager was the Hilton was very rude and said they never agreed on 173.
Just by all that going on with the hotel I wasn’t happy to stay there at all.
Very rude, staff didn’t care to talk to you, breakfast was hard and cold.
Next time I’ll go to the best western right down the way.

I think the fact that I had such high expectations of this place makes this review that much more disappointing as I write it. One of my co-​workers who had stayed here given this place high marks. After reading reviews from other trusted Unilocalers, I had high hopes. Then I remembered, they probably do not work (or sleep) the same hours I do. With all that being said, I am surprised I did not check out early.
One of the few cools things about this place is the close location to I-​880. Since I worked south on 880, getting on and off was a breeze. You do not encounter a single traffic light. Just be careful when getting on and off the exit– it is an interesting setup (especially with all of the construction).
I checked in, and it was a breeze. As I checked in, I noticed this property was independent from the Hilton brand (speaking of that, I need to make sure I got my points n such). I got room 151, which is in the second building, 1^st floor, second to last room on the right.
I got a standard room (I didn’t need a kitchen or anything this stay), and it had a mini fridge and an extra sink, and a microwave. I did not use of any of it. I had a great view of the marina. I was thinking to myself though, «how much noise will that generate?»
The closet was right outside the bathroom, leaving it in a tight hallway when the door was open. I kept thinking I was going to rip off the closet door by accident when walking by. They had the standard Neutrogena «Clean» products I have gotten at the Hilton Garden Inn before.
I tried to go to sleep, and I tried to turn the damn «Smart AC» controller off. It was kind of cold, and I wondered why there was no comforter, of any kind. Later in the stay, I finally saw there was a blanket in the top of the closet. For the time before that, I somehow managed to use the mattress topper as a blanket…
I was exhausted when I first got there, I just needed a nap (I literally flew in that visit on a whim, they needed me that badly here in the area) to catch up on the sleep I didn’t get earlier in the day. Well, I can assure you that did NOT happen!
Guy in the room next to me was watching cartoons and breathing heavily. Yes, I could hear the guy breathing heavily the walls were that thin. I could probably hear him pick his nose or wiped my ass if I could try hard enough. In fact, the walls were SO thin here (probably the thinnest I have ever experienced), I might as well have slept in a hostel! Harsh, but true…
The next day, room service went on their rampage. The vacuums were extra loud (yes, I had my «do not disturb» sticker hanging), and seemed to be rampant. When the cleaning crew shut doors, it literally vibrated my room (sounded/​felt like some mean thunder). At that point, I was pretty pissed. The most upsetting thing is that all the noise came from within, and not from where I expected it from– outside.
There is something with the water here too. Not sure if the outside weather had anything to do with it, but my skin was hella dry here. In fact it was so dry, I managed to cut myself shaving not once, but twice in 2 days. I have not nicked myself shaving in over 10 years… Or maybe that could have been from the complete lack of sleep I got here… Kind of on the bottom of the list here, but I just wanted to point that out– may want to bring some extra lotion (as I said, may be weather related, not sure).
There is a German restaurant here (Brotzeit Lokal) that shares the parking lot. Check it out and drink your woes away here. I really hope other people do not have the same experience here, but damn yo…

The highlights of our stay were the beautiful view when we were having breakfast and the complimentary breakfast. The room, however, was tired. Everything was dated, though it was clean. My daughter liked the complimentary Cup O’ Noodles, water, and Luna Bar. She was too tired to make the pull-​out sofa bed. Would have been nice it it had already been made after a long trip. The hallways carpets, especially the stairwells, needed vacuuming too.

A Great Stay By The Waterfront! (And A Trip To Christmas Past!)
SITREP
This is actually the first time I’ve been back to this Homewood Suites, which I hit regularly from late 2008 to early 2010 — my pre-​Yelping Days!
THE SETUP
These were the days when we conducted our training academies more regularly in different parts of the state, including Oakland. Because of budget cuts and consolidations, we saw a dramatic scaling back of training locations, which used to be about 10 throughout the state including Oakland — this has been reduced to just Sacramento and Monterey Park (East L.A.).]
As a result, this is the first time I’ve been back since Spring 2010. [We still come down to our Oakland office and conduct ad hoc trainings, but those are usually day trainings where we’re in & out in just the day with no overnight stay.]
FACILITY AMENITIES
You can’t go wrong with this facility nor it’s location. It’s close enough to our downtown regional office so that there has been no traffic issue and I’m usually at our Clay Street location in about 10 minutes from here.
And Homewood fires on all pistons for me:
* Free Parking
* Free WiFi (which I’m using AGAIN right now)
* Free Hot Breakfast — a decent one too, with REAL scrambled eggs (not those form-​fitted coaster egg patties)
* TV with LOTS of Cable Channel selections
* Comfy bed
* Great bathroom & closet set-​up
* [And though I wouldn’t plan on it, still now as then, they throw out the random «room upgrade», so for nor extra charge I got a suite this stay instead of just a room.]
Taking the totality of all these factors into account and weighing all the pros & cons of each area of hotel lodging, Homewood Suites has always proven to be the best stay for me.
INTERESTING CHARACTERS
And if you happen to look into the harbor water just at the right moment, you may find some interesting critters staring back at you. :)
MEMORY LANE AT THIS SPECIFIC HOMEWOOD SUITES
So this was a bit of treat to walk back down memory lane when I would be posted here weeks at a time — nine (9) full weeks in fact, which translates to three (3) different academies we conducted here.
This was also the time — December 2008, just before Christmas — that I first met my two (2) Pocket-​Panthers Jack & Bobby from the Oakland SPCA. And as seven (7) week old kittens, I wanted both my boys with me, and so the front desk allowed me to keep them in their one kitty-​karrier that last night, and then we checked out of Homewood Suites, and headed back to Sacramento.
THE LOWDOWN
Homewood Suites is really a great choice for a cost-​effective, and yet a nice, comfortable stay. In addition, with this Homewood Suites here in Oakland, and the two (2) Homewood Suites I’ve stayed at in Seattle, «Homewood Suites» is probably actually kinda sorta my favorite hotel-​branding in the Hilton family when you consider price, incidental costs (no parking fee, no WiFi fee, etc.), locations (close to where I want to be with out the traffic headaches), etc.

The best part about this hotel is that it’s on the water. If you don’t have a water view, I would question staying here. It’s a great spot if you are going to a raiders game or athletics game. It’s about a 10 min can ride to the stadium.
The reason for 3 stars lies in the service. Not very friendly. And in actual hotel it’s self. It’s not terrible but it does feel a bit out dated. Imo.

Wow I can’t say enough how great this hotel was. We stayed two nights beautiful view great place to stay specially large groups plenty of room we stayed at a two bedroom suite 6 people 4 adults 2 children it was plenty of room two beds a pull out couch we had privacy and a full kitchen complimentary breakfast, complimentary happy hour and complimentary shuttle complimentary wifi this is my favorite place I will be coming back here over and over again. The price is just right not over priced you get your money worth, I have stayed in San Francisco other hotel are so expensive and dirty and twice the price but not at home wood everything is clean and great friendly staff. It’s only a 15 min drive to the city or take the ferry to pier 41 its an awesome ride and only 12 bucks round trip

I think the current 3.5 star rating for this location is appropriate.
I thought the staff that checked us in was possibly a trainee until I began observing the only other person on site and realized this was the standard at this location. Customer Service gets 2 – 3 stars. I was disappointed by the size and overall appearance of our room. It was easily 3 stars, but I expect more from Hilton. Although we had a corner room, there were still many noisy people coming and going which wasn’t at all relaxing but is not the fault of the management. The bed was comfortable enough but I didn’t care for the pillows. (Side note — both of us had difficulty sleeping for an unknown reason unrelated to the comfort of the room and both reported having bad dreams while staying here which is out of the ordinary for us… make of that what you will) The view was lovely; you can see the water from the rooms along the back side of the hotel. You can also walk along the little dock. Parking was ridiculous. There are not enough spaces near the rooms. We literally had to park around the corner and 3 buildings away from where our room was. I did not appreciate having to walk that, late at night, in the dark, in Oakland! The pool area was overrun with families and loud, screaming children and it is outside as well so we declined to use it. We were advised about breakfast, but opted to sleep in. From the looks of the other reviews, we may have missed out on that one. I would say this place is a solid 3 stars if you are staying in the area but we will most likely try somewhere else on our next visit.

I wrote a pretty negative review about this hotel on tripadvisor that I wanted to update but couldnt on tripadvisor (cant edit without removing and I didnt want to do that either) so I’m leaving a review here to acknowledge that after having a pretty stressful stay a few weeks ago I spoke with the manager about everything and he listened and took my concerns very seriously and seemed genuinely interested in making things right. People/​businesses make mistakes, but it’s rare that people acknowledge them without getting defensive AND try to make them right so I just wanted to acknowledge that effort and say that I definitely respect the management here.

First time here, last time here. The sad part … I’m writing this as I’m staying here tonight. If it weren’t for my coworker and boss staying here, I’d find the next hotel that’s cleaner and safer.
More about my stay tomorrow. Thankfully, it’s only one night.

I was charged twice for my room. My girlfriend was asked to give a credit card for security deposit. Was only supposed to be charged 20 dollars. But charged the total amount for my room even though I used my credit card to check in. I am now pending a total of 3 charges waiting to clear. Another thing the water line broke around the area so I had no running water for shower or the sink. Very unhappy. No discount just extra points to my Hilton membership.

I stayed at this hotel because I like the Hilton Brand. The room was nice, the view was great the location was also great. The problem came when we check out we paid the bill $ 183.64 posted to my card and cleared, but then they also put a hold on my card for $ 184.00 so we really are paying $ 367.00 for one night only in Oakland would they do this kind of madness.

Staying here with my partner and our dog for a month. I accepted a job offer that relocated me from San Diego to Oakland. Some of the staff are nice. I find it odd that although the staff is mostly comprised of people of color, they are much friendlier to the white clients. The view is really nice, breakfast and social dinners are delicious. If you can find a room on the third floor, take it. You will definitely hear footsteps, and door slamming. The young man that checks the rooms, and cleans the pool is very helpful. It’s cute that they provide food for stray cats. Very close to Starbucks and Uptown Oakland. We’d stay here again for the view, location, and great food (breakfasts and social dinners).

Marina view. Suites were clean and big. Had a refridgerator and microwave. Free self parking and wifi.
The complimentary breakfast was really good. Ton of choices.
A few miles away from the BART which takes you to Oracle arena.
Small German bar shares the same parking lot.
Great view and location.

The back is beautiful. There is a harbor and water front. It is great to have breakfast at the deck in the morning sunshine. Staffs are kind. It is nice to allow pet, if you are animal lover and travel with them
The front part of hotel is not so kind. The combination of highway and trains makes sleep at night almost impossible.

Beautiful location on the marina right off 880; about 15 minutes away from the Bay Bridge.
–kind staff
–free parking
–free wifi
–free breakfast
–pets allowed
–OK gym
–mini market in lobby
Perfect place for my weekend in the Bay, we will be back!