Caravelle Inn & Suites

I have stayed at this property this past year over 17+ visits. I host a shelter challenged family in the area and drive down from San Francisco bi-monthly to check in to make sure everything is good and they have daily essentials as needed. This property allows me to financially stay in San Jose when I’m exhausted and can’t drive back to San Francisco. It is not the nicest but it’s somewhat clean if your standards are of a street nomad and depends on the location where the front desk places you really depends on your the experience you will have. The closer to the office the nicer the room. The farther from you will get filthy stained walls and broken furniture and musky smells. If you ever check the website I would like to know when those photos were taken perhaps circa 2010? This Motel sells out every night as it being probably the cheapest in all of San Jose you can find rates at $42 per night on different travel sites and depends on what’s going on in San Jose. The name Caravell Inn and Suites is misleading as I’ve been in numerous rooms I’m trying to understand the name Suites how that comes into play probably false advertisement. I have never seen a suite as a room offering but maybe it’s those seedy rooms to the back of the motel where the pool once was before it was cover with cement and a few potted plants were placed to make it appear that it’s a garden. I understand the demographic this cost attracts and I understand the changes in deposits but I have read about the deposits being a scam and for years I’ve never had a problem as I respect properties and treat them like my own even cleaning and folding linens and stripping the beds and gathering the trash for housekeeping. The front desk is always hospitable and friendly and professional if you are checked in by one of the female clerks if you get the male clerk rude, aggressive and short fused is what you will get like the other reviews write about. Through the years the deposit on a stay has altered in many ways. Before if you checked in with a credit card they charged one dollar to make sure the card was valid and that was it folio closed if all was in order at checkout. It then went to a hundred dollars this probably hurt their normal guest demographic in my opinion so they lowered the deposit to sixty dollars. Understandable as if you stay at this property you’ll understand why and the demographic. So the shelter challenged hanging around the outside and in my opinion prostitution happening on the sidewalk on the side street you take a guess what’s happening. Now I have stayed here because the nature of my visits to San Jose and being financially conscious it’s always been a quick sleep shower and on my way of course with a oversized bottle of disinfectant and bed bug begone spray. I’ve NEVER have had problems until my last stay. I always thought someone like me who is consistent, respectful and responsible that I would always be treated the same way my stay record was proof and I thought owners valued guests like me as I do them. I digress. This last stay I noticed my deposit was not returned I called, nobody ever answers the phone and trying to find the proper phone number is like a treasure hunt. Because nobody ever answers the phone I tried for several days. I ended up stopping by the property (as if that wasn’t an inconvenience) and spoke to one of the front desk managers. He was professional and personable for once in all of my past interactions and pulled the record of my last visit. He said that house keeping had reported that I damaged linens. I owned that I had spilled Gatorade and used a towel to clean the mess up. I was willing to pay for a towel or two as that would be my responsibility but $60 was steep for towels (that are the quality and thread count of Swiss cheese) He gave me the email of the owner and told me I would have to discuss it with the owner. I have attached actual pictures of the room before and after I left and the emails with follow up sent to the owner with not one reply back. I always take before and after pictures just to protect myself from this exact thing from happening. So you can make your own judgement if this place is a scam or not! I was hoping it was a mistake. Or do they turn and burn the property so quickly and sell out daily that he doesn’t care because he’s laughing all of the way to the bank. It’s interesting a business like this can take your deposit and not have to answer for the charges they deem as damage. Well in the industry of hospitality this behavior should not be rewarded but I understand times are hard and owning a property isn’t easy but not to care says a lot as you should care so make your own judgement on what type of place he’s running and yes I know it’s a he because I have met him and was introduced to him on an earlier transaction when I booked a stay and their was no electricity or hot water he was on property and it’s rumored he lives in the back, I digress

They were closed on the day of my arrival. Lobby was closed when i had arrived at the hotel in late hrs so i couldn't stay. hotel is a public place and it a place for a traveler to stay not the place to find out that it will be close for the night. Hotels are required to open even at night particularly for those travelers arriving in the nighttime, when they have an active booking and yet they close their doors on them simply because they don't have a staff working at nighttime so they close making travelers stranded on the road with no option but to find another place in wee hrs of the night. Not only that their rooms filled with smelling odors with NO internet, NO phone service at the hotel and broken wall outlet. This isn't a place to stay. It's a rip-off on you dime! DONT STAY at this location. They don't offer any refund on your money back if you couldn't stay because you failed to arrive in daytime hrs.! I have never seen any hotel who would close their doors on customers that're expected to arrive in late hr's of the night! They're re supposed to open 24/7 to offer a least hrs of stay open regardless of what they offer "a smelly bed, infested with roach with Brocken wall outlet, no internet access and no phone service at the desk! and NO breakfast for your stay! Stay away from this premises that engage in SHADDY business practices I would highly recommend booking and other online travel agencies such as Priceline, Expedia, booking and other travel companies to consider ending their partnership with this hotel as YOU would end up losing customers not because of your fault but because of the hotel that you partner with that is CARAVELL INSUITS.

Don’t consider staying here the management is rude and aggressive, when I asked him a question he snapped as though he was looking for a fight when I continued to ask questions he became worse. I asked him to ring the owner which he didn’t as he knew he was in the wrong, he then told me he wasn’t checking me in and to get out. To top this off the photos are from 10 plus years ago it looks run down and dirty, not a place fit for anyone to stay. After reading other bad reviews most about the same manager, it’s clear that the owner doesn’t care about the property or the customers.