I recently stayed at Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport. It recently opened, and I took this opportunity to stay here while visiting a friend of mine outside of San Antonio. This is a standalone hotel review with no associated trip report since the trip was a short personal visit, and I did not review the flights.
Hotel Information
| Dates Stayed: | 8/24/2024 to 8/25/2024 (1 night) |
| Location: | 8650 Crownhill Blvd, San Antonio, TX 78209 Just south of SAT airport |
| Room Number / Type | 417 / 1 King Bed with Sofabed |
| Method / Cost | PAID / $115.45 |
| Loyalty Status | Hilton Honors Diamond (due to Hilton Amex Aspire credit card) |
Summary
Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport provided a comfortable and clean place to stay one night. While it lacked a few amenities often found at other lower-end Hilton properties and the breakfast was sparse, the cheap price point for one night still made it worth the experience.
Rating: 4/5
Booking Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport
My requirements for this stay was that I wanted something cheap and easy to drive to/from the airport and my friend’s house near Shertz/Cibolo. While I could have stayed closer to my friend’s house, those hotels were more expensive than this one. Spark by the airport ended up being the cheapest.
I had never heard of Hilton’s Spark brand until this trip. Since it was the cheapest option, I decided to go try it out!
To book this hotel, I used the Hilton app and booked directly. Fairly easy to go through the prompts and book everything within the app.
Check In and Lobby at Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport
The lobby of the hotel is fairly simple. The check in counter is a typical small hotel check in desk built into the wall. Opposite of it is a small seating area, and all this adjacent to the breakfast area.
I had hung out with my friend all day so I didn’t arrive at the hotel until 9PM. Luckily, I had checked in via the app earlier. Given that I did that and had requested a digital key, I decided to breeze past the check in desk. When I got to the elevator, I decided to check the app and see if I had the digital key. I did not. So back I went to the front desk.
I didn’t see anyone around, but the night auditor finally showed up after a minute or two. We exchanged pleasantries as I checked in requesting physical keys (just in case). The night auditor told me how this Spark hotel was a converted Comfort Inn and how the hotel had just opened up two months ago. Interesting, therefore everything should kinda still have that new hotel smell, right? Hmm.
Once she gave me my physical keys, I went up to my room.
Room at Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport
My room was #417, a 1 king bed with sofabed room. Walking in, the bathroom was on the right with an open closet (no door) on the left. Past this hallway was the living room with couch, end table, and lamp. Across from the couch was a desk with an ottoman-style chair. The desk has a charging station and lamp. Beyond the living room was the bed area with TV above storage shelves and the mini fridge, and the bed had side tables with charging stations.
As far as amenities go, there were a few standard things and a few things seemingly missing. The room had these:
- Mini Fridge – I didn’t use it, but it’s your standard mini fridge that can hold drinks and some refrigerated items
- TV – flat screen, I estimate it at 48”, had my name on it when I walked in
- Ironing board and iron – located in the closet
- Luggage stand – located in the closet
- Storage shelves – only storage in the room, no drawers
- Charging stations – desk and side tables have these cool charging stations that feature normal plugs, USB A and USB C
- Tall mirror and coat hooks – between desk and closet
All in all, these are fairly standard room amenities that I’d expect from a low-end hotel.
On the other hand, the room did not have:
- Coffee machine
- Alarm clock or clock
- Microwave
I’m assuming it is Spark’s brand standard to not have these in the room. They do offer coffee and microwaves in the lobby, and I suppose clocks aren’t as necessary anymore because most everyone has their own device (like a smartphone or smartwatch) to use as an alarm or clock. For a one night stay, the lack of these things didn’t really matter to me.
The bed itself I found to be firm-ish yet squishy. I had no problem sinking into it and going to sleep. It came with four pillows of similar comfort—feathery but still kind of firm. I actually like a firmer pillow but these were just fine. Usually in king-sized beds with lots of pillows at hotels, I basically surround myself with them so that no matter if I’m sleeping on my back or side, I have a pillow to hug, haha.
For the cleanliness of the room, I didn’t see anything egregiously dirty. Overall it was clean! Maybe it didn’t have that new hotel room smell, but that’s okay. Additionally, I normally check hotel beds for bed bugs and weird stains, and I didn’t see any. The couch didn’t have stains either nor did the floor. I expected all this knowing that the hotel is pretty new.
While the room was pretty clean, I did notice a little wear and tear or minor issues. Overall pretty minimal except in the bathroom. I noticed that one corner of the shower had a shoddy caulk job.
And some of the soap dishes had cosmetic wear. Also the curtain rod didn’t seem fully screwed in on one side. In trying to shower, I noticed the lever to activate the shower didn’t fully close but still allowed the shower to be “on” whilst leaking kind of a lot out of the faucet. Luckily, this adversely affect the water pressure. Lastly, the door to the room didn’t close easily–I had to push it in every time to make sure the door latched closed.
Moving onto the bathroom specifically… it has your typical fixtures with a sink, toilet, and bathtub/shower combo. Hair dryer was hanging from a hook on the backside of the bathroom door. The sink space was spacious, and the bathroom was stocked with an adequate amount of towels. Like other lower-end Hilton brands, Zero products are available. I didn’t really use these products as I brought my own stuff due to contact allergies with certain chemicals often found in soaps. When I took a shower, I found the water pressure to be good, and no issues with hot water. However, the tub area didn’t have a whole lot of head room. I’m 5’8”, and I would imagine taller people would struggle with this amount of space.
Regarding the temperature of the room, I didn’t know what it was set to until an hour before I checked out! There was no thermostat in the room—only the A/C unit beneath the window. I didn’t find out until before I checked out that the unit has a toggled display, which I turned on. Apparently it was set to 66F, but it didn’t feel that cold. Honestly, the whole time I stayed in the room it didn’t feel too hot or too cold. It was just right! But the A/C ran most of the time because it is summer in Texas. Therefore, I doubt if the actual room temp ever got to 66F as it didn’t feel that cold ever.
For noises, since the A/C ran much of the time, I did think it was kind of loud, but I got used to it. And in the bathroom, I heard some sort of whirring sound from something somewhere. Also, Room 417 is by the elevators, but I didn’t hear them at all. I didn’t hear any neighbors on either side of me, but I also thought that I was one of the few staying on the 4th floor anyway.
I tested the WiFi speed. Because I’m Honors Diamond, typically I get Hilton’s “premium” WiFi which supposedly has faster speeds. When I ran Speedtest, it came back with 30.4 Mpbs download and 29.2 Mbps upload with 14 ms ping. Pretty speedy for hotel WiFi, in my opinion.
In summary, I thought the room was more than adequate for me staying one night. It was comfy and clean and the rate was cheap, all of which I cared about for this trip. One weird observance is that I noticed the outlets, while generous, seemed to not be conducive to hiding wires. I’m assuming that this is due to the hotel converting from Comfort Inn to Hilton Spark resulting in different layout rooms but keeping the same outlets. Lastly, this room kept me thinking “no frills”, but it felt slightly more premium than a Tru or some Hamptons.
Service at Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport
One weird observation I had during my stay at this Spark hotel was the lack of a front desk person! It seemed like every time I passed by, there was no one manning the front desk. During breakfast the next morning, there was a front desk person, but she was kind of hiding in the corner on her phone. When it came time for me to check out, she became attentive and pleasantly processed my check out.
Other than that, my interactions with hotel staff were pretty minimal. I am not sure of how housekeeping was due to only staying one night.
Occupancy at Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport
I know I only stayed one night, and I had arrived kind of late. But I still saw a good handful of families around, and a good handful of individuals at breakfast and check out. I wasn’t convinced that the hotel was even at half capacity based on the number of cars in the parking lot. I suppose that it is still new enough that people don’t yet know it exists! Haha.
Amenities at Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport
Breakfast
Breakfast hours are 6AM-10AM. It is complimentary for all guests.
The food offerings were pretty sparse. While I am glad that they do offer free breakfast, I found it to be lacking because all they serve are coffee (all day), orange juice, yogurt, bagels, and pre-packaged muffins. I actually looked this up online and apparently this is the brand standard for Spark.
I had a bagel and yogurt for breakfast. Not bad. However, the orange juice and the coffee tasted watered down. What a shame.
On the other hand, the breakfast area seemed like a nice place to sit and enjoy breakfast. When I sat here, there were a few guests chatting.
Pool
The pool is located outdoors in its own separate gated area. It’s decently sized, and it even has an outdoor shower, which I think is rare among hotel pools. I noticed that the pool area has a place for pool towels and a hamper, but I saw it was empty. Yet there were (used?) pool towels scattered throughout the pool area. When I checked in at 9PM, I did take a peek out there and saw a few families using the pool.
When I grabbed coffee in the lobby in the morning before breakfast opened, I did try to go into the pool at 5:45AM. My keycard didn’t work on the gate. So I’m not sure what hours the pool has as it wasn’t listed in the app hotel guide nor did I see a sign posted near the pool stating the hours.
Laundry
On the 4th floor of the hotel, a washer and dryer are available in the ice machine room. It is $1.50 per load for each machine, and the machines only take quarters. They remind me of dorm washers and dryers, haha. But also this washer and dryer are similar to what I’ve seen at Home2 Suites.
Market
It’s funny because I saw signs for the market, but it took me a long while to figure out where it was. Apparently just around the corner from the front desk is the market, where you can buy various snacks, drinks, and personal items. A microwave is also available to heat up some of the items you can buy.
Parking
When I arrived at about 9PM to check in, I found the parking lot to be kind of dark in some places. However, the area seemed mostly safe even though the hotel is kind of in a commercial/industrial area right next to residential homes.
Surprisingly, the hotel has several Diamond member spaces, but none were being used during my stay. I actually could have used one but decided not to as I found good parking anyway.
Bottom Line
I wanted this trip to be cheap and comfortable, and I think Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport delivered on that. Really I just needed a place to sleep!
And for having those simple requirements, I thought the Spark more than adequately provided that. I only wish that the breakfast had a little bit more, but I suppose I could have just gone to McDonald’s or something.
Would I stay here again? I think so, especially since it seems to be the cheapest Hilton option around this part of San Antonio near the airport.
Have you stayed at a Spark hotel before? What did you think?
