E-Z 8 Motel San Jose 1

The room had a bad smell when I opened the door, so I ran the bathroom fan and the window A/C to air it out. The tub was stained, and there was sticky red stuff left on the nightstand. The pillows were okay, just very small, and the breakfast choices were limited. The orange, cranberry, and apple juice dispenser was broken. The lobby also smelled like urine when I came in to check in. Maybe it was ammonia cleaner, but the worn, dirty-looking carpet and chipped, scraped yellow-brown walls and dark brown doors made that seem unlikely. The hotel is on 1st street, and early in the morning the transit rail bell and track are noisy. I won’t be back.

I stayed four nights and got no room service or fresh towels until I went downstairs to ask. Even then, I only got clean towels, not a cleaned room. I don’t know what’s going on with this hotel or whether it’s going out of business. On my last day, there was a sign on the door saying “hotel closed until further notice,” though I don’t know what that meant. The free breakfast was basically nonexistent: expired yogurt, an apple, and a cup of really bad OJ.

Nicole at the front desk was pleasant, but that was about the only good part of my stay. The hotel feels like a real pit. It’s close to the airport and downtown San Jose, but the neighborhood is awful and scary. The out-of-business hotel next door looks like it has a bunch of squatters living there. My room was musty and unpleasant, and the heater/air conditioner was so loud it kept me awake. Avoid it if cleanliness, comfort, and safety matter to you.

For what we paid, one night here was okay, though some reviews seem misleading or out of date. The rooms were mostly clean and comfortable, but the carpet had visible stains. The hallway had several stains too and a bit of a funky smell. Breakfast was included, even though Priceline hadn’t mentioned it. There was an omelet, boiled eggs, sausages, waffles, cereal, coffee, yogurt, juice, bread, and bagels. The covered parking lot has limited spaces, and some spots have pillars between the lines. We visited on a weekday and found plenty of open spaces that were easy to park in. Security monitors the lot from 9 PM to 7 AM. We didn’t see any homeless people in or around it, but the monitoring made us feel a little safer. From our room window, we could also see extra spaces at the back, though we couldn’t tell if they belonged to this hotel. The lobby is right by the parking area. After a long drive, my wife urgently needed a restroom. We asked the receptionist, who said there weren’t any, even though we later found one on the second floor. She clearly knew we were checking in.