There are mediocre hotels, there are bad hotels, and then there are hotels so awful you tell your friends about it. You've already read about the pervasive curry smell... but no one here has yet mentioned the fact that the rooms have no closets, just cheap IKEA style coat racks. The bathroom is cramped and uncomfortable. Heat is provided by free standing electric appliances... when a colleague of mine plugged his in, he shorted out the whole hotel.

Repeat: he shorted out the whole hotel.

The desk staff, although friendly, seemed confused much of the time. One guy told me the hotel offered internet via DSL; another told my colleague it was wireless. They couldn't find room keys. They didn't seem to know if there was a breakfast, as the website promises. (There isn't any.) At one point, i got a call from the desk... to ask me what my name was.

In its favor: it is very centrally located, and we did not actually see any insects or dead bodies.

Right up the street is the Hotel Durant, which is no great shakes, but is clean, professionally run, and not nearly as smelly. I recommend the Beau Sky only for the desperate or for those people who always imagined dying in a cheesy hotel room. This is the place.

Who would put a curry restaurant in the lobby of a hotel? The smell of curry permeates the entire building. Hasn't been cleaned or remodeled in years. One of the most seedy rooms I have ever been in. No breakfast served, they gave us a coupon for the donut shop across the street. The web site sounds good and somehow they took pictures that made this place look inviting, but I would not stay here again if they paid me.

greg

We were surprised when we arrived to find you have to walk through a curry restaurant to get to the front desk. The Indian music from the restaurant was incredibly loud when we got there, but fortunately we couldn't hear it in our room. The room was small but clean and comfortable, except for the bathroom fan which rattled so loud I'm sure you could hear it down the hall. Our room door didn't lock, and when we asked the manager about it, he stated "oh, its engaging," but it wasn't. On top of that, their continental breakfast was a joke: a few donuts & some containers of raisin bran. We opted for bagels down the street.

The one saving grace (and that this place wasn't terrible) was this: for being in the middle of a busy area (right next to Berkeley campus), it was a clean, quiet room.

I had a hard time understanding why this got the top review of all places to stay in Berkeley. Rooms are motel quality, marginal cleanliness and the breakfast had no appeal. Would be OK in a pinch but definitely does not deserve top billing in Berkeley...I felt led astray!