Signature Inn Berkeley

I can't recommend this place after my stay. As a former hotel customer agent, I found the experience disappointing by industry standards, even though I try to be understanding. The white blankets were quite stained, and I wasn't comfortable with the room's cleanliness. The phone and microwave were unplugged. Maybe a guest had unplugged them, but there wasn't a sensible place to plug in the microwave, which had to be set at a strange angle to reach the outlet. Other things felt awkward too, like having no towels by the sink. There were two sets of small shampoo and conditioner bottles in the shower, but one set was half used. Because the phone was unplugged, we were woken by repeated knocks at 7:00 a.m. about a maintenance concern. I wish the staff member had said they were staff instead of knocking in different ways over and over. Traveling alone as a group of women, we felt quite uncomfortable, especially given the neighborhood. I also don't understand the generally good recent reviews.

The internet kept going out, and there were no curtains, so light comes right in. The room layout is awful too. You can't open the fridge properly because it's too close to the bed. The furnishings seem picked for cute photos instead of being useful, and the rooms themselves are terrible.

I came for the week to visit my children at UC Berkeley. The rooms were clean, the service was amazing, and the pricing was affordable. It's in a perfect spot, just down the street from campus. Highly recommend!

I've stayed at the Signature Inn several times, and the new owners have clearly put a lot of effort into changing its style. The rooms aren't large, but they're doable. The cleaning staff don't speak English, though they're extremely kind, and the office staff are genuine people. I believe the owners are a family. The husband is very flexible and easygoing. As someone who owns and operates two rentals, I appreciated that. Once I needed to stay past checkout for an interview, and after some back and forth he let me extend checkout for the last-minute interview. His wife was very rude and obnoxious about it. More recently, I booked Tuesday through Friday, though I wanted to stay through Saturday and that night wasn't available at the time. On Thursday I checked again and found Saturday had opened up, so on Friday I asked the front desk about adding it, thinking they'd offer a good rate since I was already there. The owner's wife was at the desk. Google Maps showed a king room for $106, but she said $175 was the best she could do. When I pointed out I could find the same booking cheaper online, she got curt and rude like before, then told another employee the rate was $175 including taxes. I booked through Priceline instead for $120 including tax. I don't know why she's so obnoxious, but it really puts me off. Shoutout to everyone else.