Chris R.
Yelp
I frequently travel to Santa Clara for work and enjoy trying new hotels. This time, I stayed at the Avatar Hotel for three nights. Typically, I prefer Hilton brands.
Lobby Area The hotel lobby is spacious and open, featuring a bar and restaurant. The bar offers a good selection of beers, but the food menu is limited. I ordered an 8oz ribeye with two sides and a 16oz draft beer. They mistakenly served me a 16oz steak, which was perfectly cooked, so no complaints there. The steak was decent, the onion rings were good but not exceptional, and the side salad was average. The total cost was around $38.
Fitness Area The fitness facilities are the best I've seen in a Santa Clara hotel. There's a large weight room with two sets of dumbbells ranging from 5 to 75 lbs, barbells, and about a dozen weight machines. Plenty of towels and water were available. There's also a separate cardio room, which I didn't use. The gyms are open 24 hours. Additionally, there's an outdoor pool, but I didn't check it out.
Common Areas The hotel seems to be a renovated old-school motel just off Highway 101. The doors open to the exterior, and the windows face the corridors, so if the shades are open, people walking by can see inside. A fence has been added around the property, so you can't park right outside your room like in traditional motels. You have to walk through unsheltered areas to get from some buildings to the lobby. There's also an attached Starbucks that opens at 5 am, which is a definite plus.
The Room I wasn't impressed with the room. It was small and cramped. The desk is part of the entertainment/drawers unit and is directly in front of the bed, with about two feet of clearance between the bed and drawers, just enough for the desk chair. The room appears to have been recently renovated, with fresh white paint and interesting art on the walls. The bathroom was also clean, with minimal mildew in the lowest grout line around the shower. The towels were soft and absorbent, but you need to remember to grab a bath towel before getting into the shower since they are on opposite sides of the room. The shower has dispensers for conditioner, shampoo, and body wash, but there's a sealed bar soap for the sink. The coffee station uses a typical pod system, but the creamer is Coffee Mate, not real milk or cream. The bed was comfortable, but the top sheet only reached mid-chest level. The room doesn't have an iron, only a steamer, which takes some practice to use effectively. There's no closet, just a hanging bar in the bathroom and a rack for your suitcase.
Overall, the quality is average to good, but the experience was poor to average. I won't be staying at this hotel again.