Let me preface this by saying that this was not our first stay at this hotel. My husband has periodic appointments at Stanford and we stayed at Hotel Zico in November 2022 and had a nice experience there. However, something has changed and our experience there this time was less than stellar. My biggest gripe? There is no one manning the lobby. No one to greet a tired traveler when you arrive. No one to check you in. No one to provide assistance. When you arrive at Hotel Zico, you check in via a kiosk. Yep, a kiosk. It was bizarre and horrible. It was difficult to hear the person on the screen. It was difficult to understand what she said. A process that would normally take 5 minutes with a human being at the lobby desk took more than 15 minutes at this kiosk. I had to input and remove my credit card at least three times. It was an impersonal experience. My husband and I were greatly perturbed by the whole thing. We came in about 2:15 after a three hour drive. Most hotels check you in upon arrival. They check to see if a room is available and let you in. However, this lady informed us that we would have to wait until 3 to be let into a room because, according to her, the rooms weren't ready. This just added to our distress about the whole thing. I happened to spot a human being (imagine!) with a name tag and figured that she worked there and she did. I told her what was going on and she went to the kiosk to inform the lady on the screen that yes, indeed, the rooms were ready and to let us in. After informing us that someone would be manning the lobby desk at 3 PM, she disappeared never to be seen again. Our entire interaction with her took less than a minute. We finally got to our room but guess what, no one ever manned the front desk. No one. Our second interaction with a human being was when I wanted to get some wine from the cooler in the lobby. A lady came out of a room that was behind the lobby desk and informed me that they had no red wine. Okay fine. That interaction took about a minute. So in the entire time that we were there, we interacted with a human being for about two minutes. That was it. Now, this place advertises that they provide "old world hospitality". You have to be kidding me. No human being at the lobby, no one to provide assistance, interaction with a machine and that is "old world hospitality"????? And we weren't the only ones who were pissed off about this whole kiosk business. There were other people staying there who asked us what we thought and we all agreed that this kiosk was bad business. Next gripe - not enough towels. Most hotels give you a stack of towels. Not this one. There were two people in the room so you got two bath towels and two face towels. That was it. No bath mat. I had to use a face towel on the floor as a bath mat. What is going on in this place? Are they that cheap that they don't want to pay a human being to be in the lobby and provide enough towels for their paying customers? And one more thing about not having anyone in the lobby - what about security? Anyone could come into that hotel and there would be no one there to stop them!! With all of the nut cases that we have in this country, you would think that security would be a priority? Not here! Maybe they think that a kiosk would stop them. Another gripe - the breakfast was minimal. No great shakes. And the last kicker is this - at every other hotel we have ever stayed at, when we leave, we just put the keys on the desk and walk out. Well, when we got home, I noticed a voice mail from the kiosk lady asking me to call back to confirm that we had left. We left at 8 AM for the Stanford appointment and got home about three. And they wanted me to call back to confirm that I had left? And the number that she left was a number in a foreign country! I called the hotel directly and behold! A human being answered the phone! I informed him that we were never instructed to use the kiosk to check out and that at every other hotel, we just left the keys on the desk and left the hotel. He said that the confirmation was so that housekeeping could clean the room. Well, have them knock on the door and enter at check out time. Duh. How hard is that? Every other hotel does that. As it is, we will never go back. The next time my husband has an appointment at Stanford, we'll stay someplace else. Some place that that a real live human being to greet you with a smile and make you feel welcome. Not some cold, impersonal kiosk. So much for their "old word hospitality". read more