We stayed at Hotel Lucent for three nights over Thanksgiving. I would like to leave a more positive review but overall it wasn’t a great experience. I suspect it’s very dependent on which room you stay in.
Pros: Friendly and helpful staff, great location, safe neighborhood and clean premises. Thoughtful details like a pool table, backgammon board and good jazz music on the sound system were appreciated.
Cons: The shower in our initial room (107) was infested with ants. We moved to a second room (229) that was located below a massive air conditioning unit that sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof when it fired up every few minutes. This made sleeping very challenging. I’ve read other reviews where people commented on traffic noise, but honestly Menlo Park is pretty quiet at night. That being said, I wouldn’t have noticed traffic given the oppressively loud AC system.
Our room wasn’t serviced on the second day but the person at the front desk kindly provided clean towels on request.
Breakfast was fine, typical readymade hotel omelets and a pancake machine. However, on the second day everything had been consumed by 8:30, so it pays to get up early.
I must mention again that the staff was unfailingly courteous and helpful and did their best to make our stay pleasant. Managing a hotel is a very challenging business so I don’t want to complain too much, but I suspect our experience would have been better if we’d been in a different room.