Hayes Mansion San Jose, Curio Collection by Hilton is a 1905 South Bay landmark that dropped its longtime Dolce flag for Hilton's Curio Collection in 2021, following a roughly $20 million renovation. The 214-room property added Palm & Ember, a new California-cuisine restaurant, while keeping its historic grounds and roughly 33,000 square feet of event space.
The essentials
Group Hilton (Curio Collection)
Opening 2021
Rooms & suites 214 rooms
Segment Upscale / historic boutique
Designer NC
Entry rate From $130 Learn more → The place 200 Edenvale Avenue, in the Edenvale neighborhood of South San Jose, on landscaped grounds set apart from the tech-corridor hotels of downtown San Jose.
The concept Built in 1905 by paper magnate Everis A. Hayes as the family's private mansion, the property was later converted into a hotel and carried the Dolce flag for years as Dolce Hayes Mansion before converting to Curio Collection by Hilton in 2021, following a roughly $20 million renovation. The mansion remains a Historic Hotels of America member, and the renovation preserved its early-20th-century architecture and roughly 33,000 square feet of event space while updating guestrooms and public areas.
Dining & wellness The renovation introduced Palm & Ember, a roughly 2,000-square-foot restaurant serving California cuisine from locally sourced ingredients across an indoor dining room and an open-air patio, for breakfast, brunch and lunch.
Our take A genuine flag change on a building that was already a working hotel: the move from Dolce to Curio Collection, paired with a real renovation and a new restaurant, gives this South San Jose landmark a fresh identity rather than a name-only rebrand.
Google guest reviews 4.3/5 · 2408 reviews
As I did not stay in a room, I can not give a review on them. However the grounds and the inside are awesome. I was there just for a few hours for an outdoor concert. The bar and restaurant were nice as well as the outdoor patio area. Plenty of tables and area has a gas fire pit. This place seems like a great place for big parties or business get togethers. The front desk were friendly and knowledgeable about the long history of the place.
This hotel is overpriced, no question. It's not in a convenient location, far from the high traffic areas in the region. Parking is challenging. The grounds are nice and well maintained. The front desk staff were not very friendly. There is no spa contrary to what was posted online. The only bell desk person was not available, nor was a cart for our luggage which was hugely inconvenient. They didn't seem to have a radio to ask him how soon he would return.
The mansion has so much potential but the facility is badly managed.
If you're there for the pool get there early. There are only 4 or 5 loungers and a few inexplicable tables. Multiple families were sitting on the floor. We had to ask for pool towels to be replenished. There are two umbrellas only. With a few hundred dollars the pool area could be renovated.
Check-in took a half hour because the front was understaffed. On top of that the clerks seemed to have little sense of urgency. My impression was that this was very normal for the hotel.
Breakfast was a complete mess. The skeleton crew was not enough. Most families had to sit down to dirty unbussed tables. My waiter did apologize and said that he had to go to the back and cook the breakfast himself for us. People were waiting around for the continental breakfast items to be refilled.
This is probably a one-off but indicative of bad management: there was a large food crew cooking in the parking lot. I have never witnessed a sight like this before. It must have been for a wedding and there was no other space to grill. As a guest, it is the most bizarre sight to pull in to park and see billowing smoke and caterers making food next to people parking. Other guests may not experience this but they will experience staying at a place where management is clueless to the guest experience.
The grounds are nice. And when the food arrived it was tasty. The pool was heated and the kids enjoyed it. The room was nice and clean. The location is off the beaten path but that's expected. Unfortunate that a historic site like this is being run this way.
Don’t let the lovely exterior fool you. So many problems. Most of the staff are perfectly nice people, but the management is atrocious.
Among other things: (1) They didn’t let us check in early as requested, needed as we are in SJ hosting 50+ people for our mother’s funeral. There was no manager on site to help sort the issue. Do we waited until 4pm, then 45 minutes later we got our keys, but… (2) We didn’t get the 2 rooms we had requested. (3) The front door of one room was broken and never fixed. (4) No air conditioning in the bedrooms which were hot all weekend. (5) The other room’s a/c was broken on arrival, which the hotel then “fixed” but it still did not work, so that entire room & bedroom remained hot. (6) The room was not cleaned while we were away at our mother’s funeral so when we returned to host the guests, it was not clean… a woman came at 6pm to ask if we wanted the room cleaned but that’s ridiculously too late. (7) Missing basics such as wifi login info, electric hot water kettle. It’s frustrating to need to continually ask for such things.
When my sister-in-law couldn’t sleep last night (due to the lack of a/c), she went down to the front desk at 3am and was told to “take photos of any problems” and to “use the app” (which she doesn’t have and could not download in the moment) to report it. Utterly unhelpful. Why couldn’t he simply help her then and there?
#Hilton should be aware of how poorly managed this property is. The focus seems to be hosting conferences, events, and weddings… not running a hotel.
We would like to thank the staff who were kind and apologetic due to management’s shortcomings.
Nice place! Terrible hospitality. I receive better service and professionalism from the Hampton inn line from Hilton. Seriously, good looking place, nice rooms, comfortable. But you are in the hospitality business. Ate at the onsite dining, the server at the bar said a total of 10 words to me: I asked if they served the club sandwich, she just said “that was only on the lunch menu”. No follow up, no suggestion, she just walked away after telling me. Then once I ordered I didn’t see her again and my water glass sat empty for the duration of the meal. First instance of poor customer service. Second, no water bottles in my room (not that this is an issue this is just a nice thing that Hilton does) but I called the desk to see if I could get some as I am a diamond member who stays all over with Hilton and the desk clerk when asked about them, let me know that the hotel was out of them (again not a problem) but then needed to go on to explain that because I booked on Priceline, my diamond status wouldn’t have gotten them for free anyway. I would have paid. What was the point of that? Unprofessional, and I have only been here for like 1.5 hours. 2 stars for the comfort. I stay with Hilton because of the service and consideration and this is the first place that doesn’t live up to it. One bright spot was the young lady who checked me in, very nice and very helpful, starts with a T (Tamara maybe) super helpful. Thank you for showing what customer service should look like.
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