- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
Bancroft Hotel
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: UC Campus Area
2680 Bancroft Way
(between Bowditch St & College Ave)
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 549-1000
2680 Bancroft Way
(between Bowditch St & College Ave)
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 549-1000
- Price Range:
-
$$
17 reviews for Bancroft Hotel
Adjectives for the wedding Kelly arranged for us here: "Absolutely beautiful." "Perfect." And these are direct quotes from my (incredibly fussy, immigrant) MOM.
The Oaklandish A review is detailed and almost exactly what I'd say, too. So just to emphasize certain key points:
We gave Kelly lists and spreadsheets, we met a couple times in advance to discuss the details and execution -- then on the day of, we just threw up our hands and let her take care of things.
It was effortless. It was warm, and friendly, and fun. The room is classy and cozy, and the hotel feels intimate, personal. We enjoyed our wedding thoroughly, and cannot recommend the Bancroft enough.
Kelly is absolutely TERRIFIC. She's like having a built-in wedding coordinator (and a bit like a fairy godmother). She gives great advice (like on how to SAVE money), knows her venue inside and out, runs a top-notch staff, volunteers to take care of all kinds of details that other places charge extra for, and is incredibly accommodating of special requests. Incredibly.
They laid out placecards for us, directed traffic, even orchestrated the timing of the processional!! The ceremony started on time, and we never ran late. All evening, whatever we planned to do, just happened; I feel like all we had to do was turn around.
I read in a review elsewhere, though, that during the planning stages, micromanaging brides may have a fit with Kelly's style. I can see that; she's awfully busy, so if you need someone at instant beck and call every day, you're not going to get that here. There will be times when an email has to marinate. But if you're willing to be a normal human being during the planning (as opposed to a freaked-out bride), then everything turns out fine. Better than fine. Better than you'd dared to hope.
Thank you, Kelly. You've made the Bancroft a bright, warm spot on the map for us, for always.
I did not know this hotel was built as a private clubhouse by College Women's Club in 1928. That makes sense; cozy room with minimum decoration.
Their soap/ shampoo were really nice with good scent. Bath towel was super comfortable.
They might want to keep an original (?) floor carpet for some reason but I would suggest to change it...it is a consumable goods.
My personal note: I saw 3 receptionists on 8/7 and 8/8 and all were so beautiful. Was it a coincident or one of job requirement?
How many times can you say that absolutely NOTHING went wrong at a wedding? We had our wedding here in June 2009 (which as I write this review is only a few days ago), and have zero complaints.
THE ROOM:
The Great Hall is a simple gorgeous room in the Arts & Crafts style. The hall is huge, but because of the way it is set up, can work for both a smaller wedding and a larger wedding. The hall has a lower middle section, with a raised dance floor at one end, and another raised section at the opposite end. For our smaller sized wedding, we put all of the tables in the middle section, and used the upper section for cocktails/bar, the cake table, presents table, and just a place to sit on a comfy sofa. For a larger wedding, both areas could be used for tables.
The room has beautiful stained glass windows, and is lined with bookshelves. Because of the detail of the Arts & Crafts style, you do not need to decorate the room at all.
THE FOOD
We served sliced roast beef (succulent, tender, yummy) with a demi-glace and horseradish sauce, fresh fruit, spring green salad, roasted vegetables, polenta with mushroom sauce, and bread. Apparently the Bancroft caters for a number of venues in the area. Part of the reason we chose this venue was because the cost of catering was so reasonable. It is not often that you go to a wedding and are wow-ed with the food! The chef is very flexible - if you have a favorite recipe or childhood dish - they'll make it for you.
THE EXTRAS:
I've already mentioned that you do not need to decorate this space! Tables/chairs are included in the cost of the room rental. In addition, the staff provides tall eiffel tower style vases for centerpieces, flickering candles for the bookshelves and tables, all of the plates/glasses you need, etc. As opposed to many places we looked at, this was more of a one stop shop where so much was taken care of for you. You can provide your own alcohol without a corkage fee.
THE BEST PART OF THE DEAL:
Kelly, the events coordinator, must have been doing weddings for years. We did not have to lift a finger in terms of setting up the room. She has great relationships with many vendors and goes out of her way to make your day stress-free. Unlike many places, she is extremely responsive to both email and phone calls. If you use the Bancroft, you do NOT need a day of coordinator. All of the staff were extremely attentive - the manager, the servers, the bartender - no complaints.
IN THE END...
We walked into the room filled with our friends and family and had the time of our lives. It really was our dream wedding. I was (am) recovering from a lengthy illness, and couldn't do a lot of planning. The Bancroft really just made it all possible.
I probably would give the Bancroft 1 star, but for the granola, which is legitimately awesome. Was it worth $150 /night though?
The downstairs lobby/ballroom area of this hotel is really beautiful, as people have described-- I can see why it would be a great wedding venue. The exterior is also nice, and the location is directly across from the Cal campus, so hard to complain there. But the rooms are TINY and not just outdated but seemingly poorly decorated to begin with. Worst of all, I can't even begin to describe how little water pressure we had in our shower. You know how you turn on the faucet just a little bit so you can run the water while you brush your teeth without wasting a lot of water? Like, a trickle? I promise you it is no exaggeration to say that this was a more consistent stream of water than was coming out of our shower. It would have been comical, had it not been miserable.
They do have free wifi, but who doesn't these days? They do have a yummy free breakfast. But I wish I had been able to get a room at the Hotel Durant, a block away, which I hear was much better-- at the very least, their showers work...
My wedding was a blast. We rented out the whole hotel (only 22 rooms, so just close friends and family stayed there) and had both our rehearsal dinner (80 people) and our reception (120) there. My expectations were blown away - the staff had thought of everything and executed my ideas to perfection.
The rehearsal dinner turned into a regular hootenany - with relatives banging away at guitars and a multi-generational party carrying on up on the rooftop into the wee hours. I stayed in a room by myself the night before the wedding and went to bed at a reasonable hour, and was entirely oblivious to the ruckus that was taking place a few floors above. My family and friends were able to party with abandon (maybe a little bit too much abandon the night before the wedding?) and spend quality time together, before ambling down the stairs to their rooms.
The wedding reception itself was pure bliss. The staff obligingly set up the bar at the very last minute so that we could take family portraits by the beautiful stained glass front windows. I had communicated all details over email to Andrea, who followed every last one of my requests to a tee. The bartenders were fantastic, serving up my custom drinks with gusto (including the "Green Freedom of a Cocktoo" - a labor of love for which I had made about a gallon of ginger syrup). I had no idea where the cake was going to be displayed, but there it was when I walked in - at the front of the stage with plates, napkins, forks and a serving knife all ready to go.
The food was delicious and the buffet thing worked as artfully as a buffet can. The alcohol kept flowing (in fact we bought about 30% too much booze - but it's hardly an area in which we regret overspending) and so did the party. I'm not sure what time the DJ left, but we had the hall rented until 1:30am and many of our guests stayed that late. Also, between myself and my husband (!), at least three of our cousins hooked up with three of our friends. At the very least, that indicates... something.
I had picked the Bancroft because it created a central location for guests to spend the weekend, and because my friends and family could party late into the night and then walk upstairs to their room. I also enjoyed meeting Kelly, the events manager, and everything seemed reasonably priced, including the small bar setup/bartending fee, which allowed us to bring in all our own alcohol at a much cheaper cost than other venues. I would recommend this venue wholeheartedly - it served as an elegant-yet-homey-feeling place for our guests to celebrate our wedding.
I'll start with the bad. There is no air conditioning. Only a weak floor fan. I was having some real bad allergy problems, so opening the windows for an extended period of time was not helping. The room was real small and stuffy. The bathroom was even smaller. There are only stairs, so getting my back up the small stair case was difficult. You need to request an ironing board.
The good. They have free wi-fi. The customer service is top notch. Chantel at the front desk was super nice. She gave some great recommendations for food and things to do. The free breakfast was not bad either. I actually enjoyed the granola and fresh bananas and apples. The coffee was decent as well. The location is right where you want to be in Berkeley. I would not stay here in the summer, but any other time would be fine.
I'd rather stay at the Bates Motel. I suppose one could call this place "cute," or "quaint," but I'm going to go with "really frigging tiny." My hotel room was literally the size of my bedroom in my one-bedroom SF shoebox apartment. The shower was so tiny I felt like a chicken on a spit in there as I turned around with my arms by my side ("Set it and forget it!").
What other amenities were there...oh yes: a 13" television, rusted bathroom fixtures, and a bleach-stained carpet.
But what annoyed me much more was that I stayed there for three days for my buddy's wedding and the Cal-Tennessee game, and when I checked in they informed me that the room rate had gone up because of the game. Oh, and so had parking. Nice bait and switch.
Two stars because the supply closet across from my room had a big bottle of brandy in it. Random.
Location, location, location. And that's about all I have to say that's positive. You can't beat waking up across the street from campus and next door to Caffe Strada.
The rooms themselves are small, and the decor is unintentionally shabby. That's all well and good; I don't need the Ritz or anything.
I'm giving the place a low rating because of the hotel's shady practices, previously alluded to by Geoff K. It was my wedding that weekend, and people associated with the wedding (including myself and my now-wife) filled up about half the rooms in the hotel. We made the reservations over a year before the wedding, and were quoted a certain rate for the rooms and parking. Later on, when the Cal football schedule was released, and it was revealed that there was a game in Berkeley that weekend, I called the hotel to ensure that they would honor their quotes for the rooms and parking. No problem, I was assured.
Wrong. They jacked up the room rate by $10 per night, as well as the parking by $8. When we complained, we were met with an indifferent shrug, as if to say, "Where else ya gonna go?"
If it were just me that they messed with, I'd probably just write it off as a poor experience. But the fact that they messed with so many people in my wedding...screw these guys.
This is the nicest hotel close to campus - I know because before some family members came to visit I personally inspected all of the better hotels nearby.
If you have really picky out of town guests the Claremont is the only choice near Berkeley, but if your visitors are just a little willing to make due, they will enjoy the charm and location of the Bancroft.
The rooms are small, there is no elevator and don't expect super high thread count sheets or anything, but still it is a nice little hotel. You can't beat the location right across the street from campus and next to the UC Berkeley Fine Arts museum.
The reception room is a great place to have an event.
"european-style"?? that's quite funny. what they mean is:
no a/c,
no fridge,
no microwave,
fixtures/plugs not properly installed with wires sticking out of the wall,
holes in the carpet,
claustrophobically tiny rooms,
windows that are hard to open (screeching metal-on-metal sound... yum)...
that's europe in the 17th century, minus all the charm.
this is a budget motel that's deceptively overpriced. make no mistake about it.
there's free internet and breakfast at least :) some rooms also have balconies (mine did not). and yes, location is great for campus access.
This place has a really pretty exterior, nice balconies, a free European-style breakfast, and very nice desk people. However, the room is small and outdated, the TV worked only intermittently, and the bathtub was tiny.
This hotel is RIGHT across the street from campus but if you need a room for game weekend or graduation be sure to book early!! This place doesn't have too many rooms since it is kinda small, but for convenience it is awesome. They have parking lot too but parking is additional in cost. The rooms are too bad in price either. All of the rooms are fairly small but decorated nicely and there is even a rooftop balcony you can hang out on too. You won't find another hotel as nice and as close to campus as this one. And if you need a banquet hall or something to rent out, they have a great one complete with a small stage and the staff is very easy to work with here.
I had a gf who worked at the front desk. This is a really nice hotel. Not much in the way of parking though.
The rooms are, let's say, "quaint." Small but very tasteful and nice. Parking, as others have noted, is fairly abysmal, but there are plenty of lots in the area. My friend had her wedding reception here, and reserved just about the entire hotel for her family (she's got lots of family, but it's not a very big hotel). The staff really took care of us--there was a room upstairs for the bridal party to get dressed in, they brought us water and mirrors, and let us leave our civilian clothes there to pick up later. The reception hall is beautiful--very classic and tasteful. It's huge--there were over 200 of us--with a dance floor at one end. There's even a rooftop terrace where you can go and look out over the campus and the Bay Area.
"Their reception room restores my faith in humanity."
Overall my experience with this hotel was great, we did have a few hiccups when planning my wedding reception there but in the end it worked out. My husband and I rented the entire hotel for our wedding reception. The thing that attracted me to this place was the ability to have our guest stay in the same hotel but more importantly we had the hotel to ourselves from check in to check out. Also this place does not have they typical ballroom feel. It has beautiful stained glass through out and great wood bookcases which we filled with pictures and candles. This was the only place that we found where you don't have to be out by midnight or something like that. We were truly able to enjoy our guest and relax without having to rush around to get everything wrapped up. We ordered pizza after most of the guest had left and hung out until 2am. The next morning we had a catered brunch and the hotel also had it's own spread of homemade granola and other things. The only negative things were some confusion on billing and being billed without notice for a broken table that was broken when we arrived. They were supposed to charge our guest for the rooms and reimburse us since we had paid the entire bill already. The did but it took several times of explaining as if no one had done this before even though they have it as an option. They were also telling our guest that the day they wanted to reserve a room was booked, yes it was for our wedding and our guest. Even after my friends explained to them they still had some troubles. We figured it out and the wedding was beautiful and I would not have had it anywhere else. At the time we were able to bring your own caterer but I believe they have their own now. We used Shai's which does amazing beautiful food, that taste just as good as it looks.
This hotel is conveniently located for anyone wanting to visit the university. And I usually love staying in historic hotels. Although it possesses historical charm, the rooms are small, with hardly anywhere to set 2 small duffle bags, and ours had a rank, musty odor which was somewhat relieved by opening the floor to ceiling windows. The noise from the cafe next door would be quite obtrusive to anyone who is noise sensitive. You definitely know that you are in a college hub when you stay here. The parking lot is small and awkward but we were lucky to always find a spot. The staff was kind and helpful.
