THE BERKELEY CITY CLUB

Quaint hotel that may have been charming at some point, but I found it very disappointing. The room was dated and I was shocked by the poor quality of the breakfast; only one notch above that of breakfast offered at airport motels. If you charge close to $300 for a night, I expect a much better breakfast. On the upside, staff are friendly and helpful.

This hotel is a former beauty that has gotten horribly old, cranky and sick, but still charging $300 a night. When asking for a quiet room (they put me right next to the super noisy historic elevator even though I had specifically asked for a quiet room) I was offered a "suite" for extra $100. I looked at it and furniture was so dated that I could not make myself take it. Breakfast spread is worthy of a standard roadside motel with boxed cereal, oatmeal from a pouch. Except the motels have fresher bagels and there were no scrambled eggs, bakon and sausage. There is barely heating in the room - there is a radiator, but it does not come on unless "a thermostat in the basement" turns the heat on, and it did not come on all evening. Helpful staff (this is not their fault) points you to a space heater in the closet. I checked with some other guests, and there is a space heater in every room - so that is their plan for when heat is needed. There is ONE power outlet in the room, no TV, no coffee maker and horribly weak internet. Except for observing beautiful old architecture, there is absolutely no reason to stay here.

Stayed here for three nights to attend an event at UC-Berkeley, and we were highly disappointed. First, the rooms lack basic amenities that virtually any hotel in this price range provides, such as a safe and mini-fridge (it also didn’t have a TV, though that didn’t bother us). Second, the very small fitness room is substandard with truly terrible exercise equipment. For example, the NordicTrack elliptical was so clanky, noisy, and rickety that I thought it might tip over. The treadmill belt dipped noticeably toward the front and the machine was equally unstable. At these prices, is it really too much to expect safe, high-quality exercise equipment? Third, the rooms are quite small, made worse by a large amount of wasted space in the closet and entry area, space that could be used to make the room more comfotable. Fourth, both restaurants were closed Sunday evening. Is this not supposed to be a full service hotel? Finally, on the last night of our stay, the radiator spontaneously turned on and could not be shut off (and I called the front desk). The room became unbearably hot and uncomfortable, even with the windows open. The outside temperature was in the mid-50s, similar to the prior two nights when the radiator never came on, so there was clearly no risk of pipes freezing. Why the heat turned on automatically was never explained, but not being able to turn it off, as you can in virtually any other hotel, is unacceptable. Bottom line: This hotel has some old charm but that is vastly outweighed but what is otherwise a substandard experience, especially given the high room rate. We will not return.