I recently chose Berkeley Travelodge to house guests from overseas. Even though the preparation of the rooms was unsatisfactory, this would have been bearable had the night staff not been rude and treated us to obscenities.

Although the rooms were advertised as queen beds, the size of the beds was obviously twin. Furthermore, one of the toilets began overfilling when flushed--the overfill mechanism had been dismantled and not repaired. We had to do this by hand. Then, one of the bathroom doors locked on itself, and we had to go retrieve the key from the front desk. The attendant at the front desk, Shirley, was rude and made it seem as though it was our fault, even though the door was obviously broken. (She admitted so afterwards after I returned the key.)

But none of these compare to what Shirley treated us to on checking out. After we rang the bell at 6:30AM, and Shirley grumpily took our room keys and returned the bill, she mumbled something and disappeared into the office. Then she reappeared behind the locked glass door and yelled out to where my guests were loading their bags onto the bus, "Can't you ****ing read?!"

Not only do I have no idea what this refers to, I have no idea what provoked this. Surely Shirley does not mean to insinuate that 6:30AM checkouts are not appropriate at a motel? Either way, like many consumers across the world, I don't appreciate having obscenities yelled at me as I check out of a hotel. Fortunately, there were no young children in the party.

The Berkeley Travelodge property is of very low quality. From the exterior the property looks like a very low-budget motel. The room interior was clean but old, run-down, and musty in odor.

On the day of check-out, I left the room, walked downstairs to my car, packed my luggage and then walked over to the office to get a receipt. Upon entry the OWNER (at least she identified hersoef as the owner of the motel) rudely said, “I told you last night when you checked in that checkout is at noon. You’re late. It’s 12:11.” I was quite shocked. I said, “When I left the room the alarm clock said 12:02.” The owner responded, “Those clocks don’t work, it’s 12:11!” I took out my cell phone and showed her that the time at that exact moment was 12:05. I explained to her that I had already walked from the upstairs to the perimeter of the hotel. Down the stairs to the parking lot. Across the lot to my car. Packed all my luggage in the car. Walked across the parking lot to the office, and had this discussion with her. All of that would have taken at least 5 minutes. Her face filled with anger and she yelled at me: “Checkout time is before noon. Not at noon. Not at 12:01. Not at 12:02. BEFORE NOON!”

If it were not for the fact that the owner was so clearly aggravated, I would have thought it a joke. Very calmly I said to her, “Ms., I understand that you need to have guests check-out of their rooms in a timely fashion so that you can have the rooms cleaned and prepared for the next guests. But I cannot understand that you would treat me so disrespectfully over my vacating the room at noon, or at the most, two minutes past checkout. I can tell you that I will never come to this motel again having been treated this way.”

To which she shouted at me, “Who cares! I’ve been running this motel for 16 years now, and I really don’t care about your business.”

My business travel will take me to Berkeley four more times this year. I have found a La Quinta Inn and a Holiday Inn Express within blocks of the Travelodge, both at competitive rates. I have not seen the rooms, but both hotels from the exterior are newer and much better maintained. I will stay at one of these properties next time, and needless to say would never consider returning to the Travelodge Berkeley.

What can you say, for the price, it is what it is. I need to be in Berkeley about twenty days out fo the year. My usual spot is down for renovations, so I had to break out of my comfort zone and try something new. I went with the "close to work" criteria in my decision. This will likely become my new first choice, because I can get here by foot from work without having to worry about my walking path.

What I got was a clean room with the basic functions you need in a hotel. The ladies at the desk are very sweet and good hearted. The facilities are clean, which is nice in Berkeley. Perhaps my favorite of all is that turning on the hot water actually gets hot water, which has proven to be a luxury at the four other Berkeley hotels I have used at different points in life. Unless your on a Claremont budget, this is pretty hard to beat in Berkeley.

Stayed on a 2nd floor room. Manager was generally nice and the location to the restaurants towards UC-Berkeley was great. She also said that safety was okay from the hotel towards the campus and not so great the opposite way - towards freeway.

Price was good relative to other chain hotels and nicer properties closer to campus. Unfortunately, our room, designated as non-smoking, smelled of smoke. Other negatives were: students partying in the next room. They kept it up all night and the manager did not seem able to bring it down. With the walls being thin, it felt like we were in the party as well.