Sens Hotel & Vanne Bistro Berkeley

Absolutely serviceable, great location, profoundly ugly. SenS Berkeley is a flop hotel that presents and prices itself as a European boutique treasure. You walk through the “Vanne Bistro” (generic coffee shop which although closes 2pm does not serve egg) to check in at its cash register. If “bistro” has closed, you enter though a jumble of stacked tables and chairs from the sidewalk. That is, no reception area. Hallways bland with cheaply framed fake paintings. Rooms modest size w red French medallion AND olive striped wallpaper and a faux Gerhard Richter abstraction rug. Plank desk in trademark SENS chartreuse. Both fridge and microwave. Bathroom clean and functional, peeling wallpaper. Free off street parking. Forgot to clean room one day although door knob asked for it. All made worse by the marketing pretension.

Hotel is in back of a cafe. Rooms are really nice and updated and we were given a handicap accessible room which was great. Bathroom and patio especially nice. Hotel gives you coupons for free drip coffee at cafe which they allowed us to apply against other fancier coffee drinks. Also, staff was very quick to help my disabled husband when he had a fall.

We loved our stay in this renovated boutique hotel that is perfectly located in Northside Berkeley! Our room was nicely updated and decorated with a large bathroom and seating areas plus an outdoor seating area which made the room seem much more spacious. Microwave and small fridge plus coffee and tea fixings, robe, and slippers are provided! My only nitpick would be the lack of a full-length mirror. There is no formal lobby/common area but there is a very good cafe (you need to go through it to get to the tiny front desk) that has good coffee/espresso drinks and baked goods. I only wish it was open past 2pm. Hotel staff were very friendly and helpful with questions about parking, room heating, and they fixed a leak in our fridge right away. The hotel is right across the street from Chez Panisse and Cesar and just a block away from Saul's Delicatessen and the Cheese Board. Easy walking distance to downtown/BART and the NW corner of the Cal campus. We would definitely stay here again on our next visit to Berkeley!

We wanted a hotel in the heart of Berkeley. This is not a big chain hotel with a lobby, so if you need a concierge, this is not for you. We loved it here. There is someone at the "desk" all night but it is pretty casual. They lock the door at night and you ring the bell. The room was clean and everything worked. The bed comfortable, nice view into the grocery parking lot (which was kind of interesting). There was enough room to move our large suitcases in and settle. Decent size bathroom with walk in shower. The best part was heading down to get coffee in the café, a real hot spot of old men in deep discussions on the merits of a semi-neo-democratic socialist society or the final days of Tsarist Russia. Some hocking their latest book. My wife settling in and spoke with one group and ended up seeing a slide show on the loss of the great buildings of Paris by some retired history professor. The coffee and baked goods are outstanding. We also took walks around the hills every morning, a great ritual to calm one's inner soul. Take photos of the eclectic houses and years. Hike the "stairs" to the Rose garden. Hike to Indian Rock. We will definitely stay here again.