AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront Review

Booking & Stay Details

This hotel was booked last minute through the Marriott app. I should have spent more time on the reservation and booked through a portal to get extra miles/points for the reservation. Originally, I was planning to stay at the Hyatt Regency near the airport, as I need more nights to requalify for Globalist. However, I had some pretty sweet Chase offers for mainly Marriott hotel brands, which were about to expire and tried to get at least some of them used. After a little bit of browsing, I decided to book the AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront. At this point I don’t worry much anymore about requalifying for the Ambassador status with Marriott. I will requalify shortly for that status, as I already reached my night requirements and only needed a few more dollars spent to reach the status for which I have about six months left to do so.

Location

The AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront is a 10-minute drive away from the SFO rental car center. It’s pretty easy to get here and the hotel sits in the heart of many big bio-tech companies. AstraZeneca is right next door to the hotel. Most of the buildings in this area are brand new as well as the campus area. Gives you some nice areas to walk through and enjoy the architecture of the different buildings. Right across the street from the hotel you have access to the Bay Trail, which can take you along the bay in either direction. It’s a very quiet area and the hotel itself sits on a dead-end street. Therefore, there is not much traffic. The 101 freeway is not far away but I couldn’t even hear the traffic noise in my room. Since the hotel sits next to all these corporate buildings, the area is pretty much dead on the weekends. You only see a few people out walking the trails, but that’s about it.

Parking

There is ample parking available in the lot around the hotel. Maybe not enough if every guest has one car. The hotel charges you $18/night to park a vehicle. 

Shuttle Service

No shuttle service is offered by the hotel, not even to the airport. This is a bit sad, because other hotels, further away from the airport, offer complimentary shuttle service. If you don’t have a rental car, you can use ride share, taxi, or paid shuttle services to get to the hotel.

Check-In

After getting my rental car, I drove over to the hotel. I knew about where the hotel would be and how to get to it, as I have seen it a few times while driving on 101. Check-in was straight forward, the agent looked up my reservation while I had my ID and credit card ready. At the time of booking the day before, no suites were available during my dates, but I asked the agent if anything had opened up. Unfortunately, all the suites were still booked for the night. Not a big deal as it is just me anyway, but who doesn’t like a suite? 😉

I had the choice between $10 food and beverage credit or points as my welcome amenity. Besides that, I received a small welcome gift bag with a pack of chips and a small bottle of water.

Check-In: 3 p.m.
Check-Out: 12 p.m.

1 King, Sofa bed, Bay view (Room 539)

As you enter the room, you have an entryway leading you to the sleeping area. It comes with a King-sized bed on one side of the room. On either side of the bed is an nightstand as well as a reading light and a lamp, which are mounted to the headboard. On either side of the bed are also multiple power outlets and USB ports to charge your devices.

Next to the bed is a sofa bed and a cocktail table in front of it. The table has wheels, which makes it easy to move it out of the way to transform the sofa into a bed. When I arrived, I had a welcome gift on the cocktail table consisting of a package of chips, two small bottles of Fiji water and a greeting card.

On the other side of the room is a work desk with a simple chair. There are multiple power outlets and USB ports at the desk as well. Next to it is a long bench which can double as a suitcase rack. However, it is almost too narrow to handle a full-size piece of luggage.

The window of the room overlooks Oyster Cove, which is located right in front of the hotel. It’s a very pleasant view and you can even watch the planes flying by when taking off from SFO.

The bathroom is located at the beginning of the entryway. It comes with a walk-in shower which has a rain shower head as well as a shower wand. A vanity with a single sink and wall-mounted mirror takes up most of the wall space. The size of the bathroom is perfect. It is not too big or too small.

On the other side of the entryway, you have an open closet with hangers and some shelf space. The same closet also holds a safe, coffee maker and a small refrigerator.  

Public Areas & Amenities

Lobby

The lobby area houses mainly the front desk area and then the on-site restaurant. There is not much open lobby space available at the hotel. There are a few seats along the window wall towards the restaurant.

There is a courtyard space in the center of the hotel. Inside the courtyard there is plenty of seating, but it looks like it is more used as an event venue when companies hold meetings or events at this hotel. But it’s open to guests if there is no event.

Business Center

A small business center area is located just past the front desk. It comes with two workstations which can be used by guests free of charge. Right next to the business center is a meeting room which can be booked.

Fitness Center

The fitness center is large and well-equipped. Plenty of workout equipment is available and the large windows offer a lot of light in the room. 

Open 24 hours.

Pool

The indoor pool is located adjacent to the fitness center. It’s a very small pool in a very small room. There is very limited seating near the glass wall. The pool looks more like it was just stuffed in so you could claim a pool as amenity but its probably more for kids to play. There is no whirlpool in the pool area. There is a unisex restroom located between the pool area and fitness center.

Hours: 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. daily

Guest Laundry

The AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront offers no guest laundry, but they have dry-cleaning service available. Oddly enough, there was no laundry bag and paper form in my room for dry cleaning, but I confirmed with the front desk.

Housekeeping

Housekeeping is provided every other day of your stay. To receive service, remove the do-not-disturb-sign from your room door. 

Dining

The AC Waterfront Lounge is the on-site restaurant at the AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The restaurant takes up most of the lobby space and has lots of seating available. Even though the hotel was pretty full, I hardly saw anyone at the restaurant and was always able to pick my seat when dining.

Breakfast

Monday-Friday: 6:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Saturday & Sunday: 6:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

The hotel serves an a la carte breakfast. There are plenty of good options to choose from. Service is great and fast. Well, there was hardly anyone ever dining when I was there for breakfast. The food was delicious, and it was not very expensive after all.

Lunch

Unfortunately, the lunch buffet is only served during the week from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. You are out of luck on Saturdays & Sundays. Unfortunately, during the 4th of July week they didn’t offer any lunch service. However, they let me pick a free salad from their market. A very nice gesture.

Dinner

Dinner is served every day of the week from 4:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. The bar actually stays open until 11:30 p.m. daily.  

The hotel offers no room service; however, you can order your food to go and go downstairs and pick it up.

Market

The market is located next to the front desk. It’s pretty much your typical hotel market with the exception that they have a pretty large wine selection here at the market. But it is an upscale hotel – might as well.

Conclusion

My stay at the AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront was fantastic. Everything was great and I loved the views of the bay. On the last day I requested a late check-out at 4 p.m. and got it set up without any issues.  

It’s interesting to note, that on the Marriott website the hotel is called AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront but the signs on the hotel itself show AC Hotel South San Francisco.

If you are visiting any of the bio-tech companies or offices in the near vicinity, this is a great place to stay. You can even walk to most of them and don’t even need a car.  This was also my first time in an AC hotel. Not bad at all. I like this brand.