Princeton NJ is a challenging place to stay if you actually would like to be anywhere near the university itself. All of the hotels are located a drive away from the campus. So, a visitor who wants to be near the very attractive downtown & main streets & who doesn't have a car (or who doesn't want to drive) has to choose between the Nassau Inn & the Peacock Inn. I stayed in the latter: I could not find any on-line reviews of it, & I confess that I was hoodwinked by the evocation of a traditional yet extremely comfortable & updated inn where Einstein had once stayed. Also, its restaurant boasts a Zagat rating which I thought was a good sign, & so I thought that my $220 a night rate might be money well spent.
What a terrible place! When I arrived, the extremely abrupt guy at the desk seemed to be far more worried about what was happening in the restaurant than anything to do with guests to the inn part of the operation. I had asked for help with my suitcase since I was in the third floor. But he left me waiting for such a long time for help that I set out on my own. Suddenly a woman appeared out of nowhere to help me: this woman, I was to discover, pretty much does everything in the place. After what I will call for convenience the "breakfast", she was the only one around whom I could ask for walking directions. She pulled the place apart looking for maps (apparently such a request was unknown), including holding the front door open for minutes at a time in the freezing cold, shouting at someone up the street--presumably he or she had a map? Although willing, she herself was no help because she had no English whatsover.
My room was extremely disappointing: fine if you are staying in your grandaunt's old house, where the room is decorated with all manner of frills & flowers but hasn't been dusted in years. Einstein's white hairs can be readily found in the coverlet. (Or somebody's whilte hairs.) The bed was badly made with the undersheet barely smoothed over. Plus, the pale-green sheets were pretty unappealing.
Bits of pot-pourri littered several surfaces. The "bathroom" consisted of a wafer-thin room, seemingly cut into the wall via a step upwards into the wall. (Approach with caution in case you trip over.) It was freezing cold. The shower seemed pretty basic (I didn't use it) but the microscopic handbasin was the cheapest possible model (the kind that is usually found in utility facilities). There was no tiling, but plenty of unappealing pale-green paint. The chipped shelves over the toilet contained yet more hairs & a couple of slivers of soaps in an old woven tray.
Breakfast would have been acceptable if you were staying in an inn or motel c.1959. Basic coffee in a thermos. Cheap orange juice in a carton. A fruit bowl: a delicious array of 2 Red Delicious apples & 2 large oranges. Toast: highly-sugared bread that must have come straight from Sam's Club. 3 cereals: Total, Cheerios, Cornflakes. Yes, really inventive, imaginative, & prepared with care.

I was booked in for 2 nights but stayed for one. Horrible!

The Peacock Inn has seen better days. Just a few years ago I stayed here and it was fine. This time, I spent $189/night for two nights, and here's what I got.
A small room with a broken window through which freezing air drifted; a bathroom across the hall; a showerhead that dribbled lukewarm water; no towels or soap by the in-room sink; and sheets that had not been changed since the last guest: hair from all the previous guest's body parts greeted my anguished eyes at midnight.
On top of this, there was a loud party downstairs that lasted until 11:30 PM (Friday night), with the bass pounding through all three floors of the hotel. As some other reviewers have mentioned, the breakfast was a do-it-yourself deal, with a search-party being organized into the kitchen. All this for just $189?
On top of this, the staff-person, a friendly lady named "Kim," did her best, but was not fully competent in basic things like knowing the location of the hotel. A friend coming to visit me at the hotel was misdirected by twenty miles. And as another reviewer mentioned, there seems to be no person of final authority anywhere accessible; another guest who was complaining at checkout was given vague evasive answers about how or when "management" would hear her complaints or get back to her. Guests deserve better for the price. The reason the Peacock Inn can get away with it is that the only other hotel near campus, the Nassau Inn, is even more outrageously overpriced. But if you have a car, then you will do better to stay at the Holiday Inn or other hotel on Rt. 1 outside of Princeton.

Princeton is a very pretty town and but there are few places to stay unless you want a Route 1 mall location not within walking distance of the school and restaurants. One option is a well reviewed B&B, the peacock Inn. The rooms were indifferently put together, broken TV in one, moldy bathroom in the other. The restaurant was closed Saturday night (must be ready to go out of business if there are no diners on Saturday evening), forcing us to run around town in a rainstorm. Breakfast was the worst I've every had at a B&B. Soemone should buy them ou t and redo the place

We recently stayed at the Peacock and were extremely disappointed. The place is worn. The putrid green carpet in the bedroom was hard, our "private" bath was in the hallway and everything seemed extremely dated. The musty room was clearly a reflection of the indifferent staff which served up a mediocre breakfast and seemed to care less if we were there or not. Seems that the place is up for sale -we heard another couple romanticizing about buying it and fixing it up. It'll need a good bit of work.