We visited family in Palo Alto over Christmas. Dinah's was clean and friendly. Would recommend it. We did not swim but it is close to everything in Palo Alto and Los Altos including theatres, Stanford University and Hidden Villa farm. Would highly recommend Dinah's.

I liked the room, and the furniture...nice, clean and well-designed. However, the heat was inadequate. I was cold. Next time, nice hotel people, please offer an electric heater when it's so cold outside.

I stayed here for a week on a business trip. The hotel is about an hour drive from San Francisco but I was working at Stanford University so was perfect for me. The rooms are excellent. I had a balcony that overlooked the pool where in the morning humming birds would be in the tree, wonderful. The room was very spacious, well stocked mini bar and fabulous mini coffee maker. There was plenty of storage and work space. The bed and pillows were really comfortable. The bathroom was very clean excellent shower and plenty of fresh towels and toiletries every day. The place itself is very quiet. The breakfast room is great lots of choice and excellent service although you can get free coffee and pastries in the reception area, breakfast was about $15 dependent on what I had (their eggs benedict is to die for). All the staff were very pleasant and helpful.

My only grumble is that there is nowhere within the confines of the hotel to get a meal and a drink in the evening, although the road which the hotel is on has plenty of choice, Chinese, Mexican, Italian and sushi to name but a few. But I was a lone female and would have been happier staying in the hotel at night. Although the staff to be fair did offer to order me take out.

I can recommend getting a taxi (cab) for about $20 to Stanford shopping centre it’s fabulous (Bloomingdales, Macey’s, Nordstrom and lots of little quant shops) and to University road. This is a road that is spoilt for choice for eating and shopping and very beautiful, the cheesecake factory is a must. I also visited Stanford University which was well worth a wander round.

Although I was working I did get to have some fun time. Took a boat trip around the San Francisco bay under the golden gate bridge and round Alcatraz, which was great. If you want to visit Alcatraz Island you have to book months in advance. San Francisco itself is good for shopping I went on my last day as my flight wasn’t until the evening. I left my bags in the secure area at the airport $15 and got the direct train $8 return to San Francisco this was really good.

Because we sold our Palo Alto family home of over forty years in 2007, now we do not have a place to gather in our home town. We all stayed at Dinah's this year to celebrate my mom's 85th birthday and it was perfect. We rented several rooms and we were very pleased with this Palo Alto landmark! Growing up, we used to eat at Dinah's Shack for special occasions and my high school boyfriend worked at the hotel so it holds a sentimental place for us.