Rose Garden Inn, Berkeley

Estuvo muy bien

The Rose Garden Inn was unacceptable. Among the problems: 1. The smoke alarm in the room below was sounding - not clear whether it was actual alarm or low batteries. The receptionist just silenced it by taking out batteries, without finding out why it was sounding. 2. No air conditioning. 3. The in-room gas fireplace was running and couldn't be completely shut off. You could only get it down to a little flame that still gave off heat on a very hot night. The receptionist said that was as close to off as it could go. 4. The room was stiflingly hot even at 10 pm. 5. You couldn't cool the room down without letting in bugs, because three of the four windows had no screens and the fourth window's screen was broken. 6. The room didn't look anything like the beautiful photos on the Hotels.com website. The room was plain, like a Motel 6. But it cost $190. 7. When I asked for a new room because of the stifling heat and not knowing why the smoke alarm had sounded, the receptionist initially said no, because all other rooms were reserved. Then he said he would get me a new room within 20 minutes. 25 minutes later, nothing had happened. I went to look for him and found him reading his cell phone. 8. I then said I was leaving and asked for a refund. The receptionist said he would give me a refund. When I asked him to sign something promising the refund, he said he didn't have authority to refund my money. I left and called Hotels.com, which arranged a refund.

Following the first night of my stay I noticed my room did not have a smoke detector (it had been previously removed). I asked to be placed in a room with a smoke detector, but the front desk attendant said no other rooms were available and they were unwilling to put a detector in the room. (My initial request was at 7:30am and I checked back with them later at 9pm.) I told them I'll just cancel the room through Hotels.com and once I started calling, then they found me another room. It was a good solution, but dissapinting that I had to call Hotels.com and plan on leaving for them to provide a room up to the legal code. The hotel is in a great location. I knew it was old and had "charm", which I like. Sadly the place is more run-down and broken (door handles, light fixtures, base boards/drywall, shower rods, missing window screens, etc.) With some proper maintenance it could be brought back up to charming. When I was there it was not in good condition. And they could stand to improve on costomer service as that is the main reason for this review. If I had a legitimate solution provided to me in a timely fashion I'd likely not be writing this. With all that to say, a good breakfast was provided and the beds, sheet, towels and rooms were clean.

Looks great from outside. Pretty rundown inside. Breakfast was bad eggs so overcooked it had brown skin throughtout, all fruit was way past ripe. No air conditioning and it was 98 degrees! Windows did not have screens so you had to choose between flys or totally stagnant hot air!

Check in was great and the property is quaint. The room was clean and HUGE. The fireplace was fun. The bed was firm. The condition overall was good but there were some areas that could use touch up like peeling paint behind the bathroom door and very poorly done drywall on the ceiling. There's not much to do within walking distance so be prepared to drive or take a Lyft if you want to go out, especially after hours. The free breakfast buffet was similar to what you'd get at a Holiday Inn or Best Western with eggs, meat, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, etc.