Residence Inn by Marriott Oakland Downtown

We visited the hotel for one night to see a friends band play at the Fox Theater. When we returned home I realized I left my AirPods in our room so I reported this to the front desk and they said they would ask housekeeping if they found any. I did not hear back and searched the find my app on my iPhone and saw that the AirPods were at the hotel. Later that night the AirPods were at a location 15 minutes from the hotel and then the AirPods were back at the hotel when I checked again the next morning. Being that you need a key to access the elevators and rooms and the fact that they were brought back to the hotel in the morning I believe a hotel employee took my AirPods. Would not trust leaving any valuables here.

I recently stayed at the Oakland Residence Inn and loved my experience. The complimentary breakfast had great variety and quality, and the lounge area was perfect for relaxing. Everything was spotlessly clean, from the lobby to the rooms. My suite came with a full kitchen - stove, fridge, and all cooking essentials, making it ideal for an extended stay. The layout was well-designed and comfortable. If you're looking for a home-like hotel in Oakland, this place delivers.

This property is close to my meeting location - the bed's are comfortable and it's quiet. There were no wash clothes in the room, no decaf tea or coffee. This may be my last visit to this property. I can't in good conscious recommend this place.

This is a two-in-one hotel - the Residence Inn on Floors 3-11 and AC Hotel 12 and up. It seems the RI is priced a little lower as expected so I chose it instead of the AC. There are also 3 other Marriott properties all within walking distance - the Full Service Marriott and Courtyard right on Broadway and the Moxy a little north. Marriott really had a lot of hope for Oakland. It seemed the initial design differed from the actual operating situation. There were supposed to be separate AC and RI entrances but only the AC entrance is open. So, if you walk from 14th Street, enter at the AC Hotels Oakland entrance. The RI entrance is closed. It seems the original design was for the RI Lobby to be on Floor 2 but the two hotels actually share a front desk now on the First Floor. This probably had something to do with COVID, labor cost and the Bay Area's downturn in hotel occupancy. The two hotels also share the breakfast area. My understanding is that AC Hotels do not have RI style free breakfast but I guess they decided it is cheaper to just do that instead of having a dedicated AC restaurant for breakfast. There is a Bar/Restaurant on the first floor that is open in the evenings. The breakfast is OK - it gets busy at times and messy too - like the cereal station given how the dispenser is setup. Sometimes they run low / out of some stuff but the staff works really hard to keep things stocked. My suggestion is to extend the hours by 30 minutes since 9:00 weekday finish and 9:30 weekend finish are kind of early for leisure guests. The breakfast area is beautiful. The strange thing is the public areas in the hotel do not have recycle bins - my room had it. All the stuff at breakfast are disposable. Kind of strange since I thought CA tries to reduce disposable stuff usage? One has to address the security concerns in the Bay Area nowadays. I took the BART to the 12th Street/City Center Station and walked. It is a 10 minute walk. It seems the safest walking path is to walk through the Oakland City Center (Exit A2 or A3 from the BART Station), which I was told is patrolled 24 hours a day. During business hours, one can even walk through the giant Federal Building to get to Jefferson Street. Once inside the hotel, it is fine. The strange thing is my room did not have a safe! The immediate area is OK but not great. Some of these crimes are random so you never know. A lot of restaurants are not open due to the low foot traffic and safety - even worse on weekends and evenings. I don't think there is any grocery store near-by (i.e. within 15 minute walk) but there are some further northeast - Whole Foods and Trader Joe's - but both are a hike. Other than the safe, the other two things that I found "missing" in my room are: luggage rack and alarm clock. There is still something about waking up to the radio news but I guess that is old fashioned... I had a corner room. It was nice with a really nice bathroom. It was pretty quite - no noise at all I could hear from other rooms although you get the street noise - including some loud music Fri/Sat evenings. There is a decent gym on the 2nd floor and a laundry room in the basement with multiple machines. There are "hydration stations" (water and ice) on some floors. The service was very good - I got there early and they had a room for me. The front desk, breakfast and housekeeping staff are all very friendly. Door-to-door BART ride from SFO is about an hour if you catch the train without a wait. If you drive, it is valet parking only for US$50/day. If one is used to taking public transit, can manage the security concerns and the price differential with hotels in the SF side is large enough, this is a good cheaper alternative to San Francisco hotels.

First I want to applaud the valet crews of this hotel. Henry was exceptional, he was very professional, friendly & polite. He was very helpful to us during our stay. I can say the same for Alex & Chave as well. All of them were auper accommodating & friendly. All of the front desk crews were amazing. Jocelyn, the front desk staff who assisted us upon checked in was very helpful, polite & professional. Rooms are spacious & clean. Breakfast facility was clean but breakfast staffs really need improvement. During our first day of breakfast most items were unavailable. Some guests including myself complained & brought it to front desk's attention. One breakfast staff even answered a guest's question rather rude.