The Hotel Durant is a venerable Berkeley icon with enthusiastic young people manning the front desk. Presently, it is undergoing renovations, as it was bought by the Joie de Vivre boutique hotels chain. As a result, there were some minor inconveniences that would not stop me from checking in. We were there for our daughter's UCB graduation, and the easy stroll to the auditorium made it all more than worthwhile.

On the other hand, watch that fine print and don't assume all hotels have air-conditioning; this one doesn't. Instead, rooms have giant ceiling fans with two settings: "Off" and "Gale-Force Winds." I had called earlier to confirm this because there was a heat wave going on, so I brought our own small, quiet fan that we set in the wide-open window and ran all night. Unfortunately, with the wide-open window comes the noise of the trash truck at a very early hour, cars starting up, and whatever else is going on out there all night. Can't say I had the best of sleeps.

One other point: the hotel website claims there are refrigerators in every room. There wasn't one in ours, and upon questioning the desk clerk about this, we were told we could have one for $10/night. Hmm, false advertising, or else they just haven't in reality caught up with their remodeling dreams yet. You decide.

Just returned from Mother's Day weekend at the Durant. Perfect location and only steps from the campus, in the heart of the Greek houses, restaurants and PFA. We booked the Scharffenberger package. A king room with a rollaway. I called ahead to ask which room would best fit the rollaway. Clearly I got poor information, as the room was really too small. Our two biggest complaints was that the very nice students at the desk were just not trained to work in a hotel. Too many mistakes and it detracted from the stay. Biggest complaint by far was the terrible smell in the room. It wreaked of Cleaner when we entered. We opened all of the windows into the evening until the street noise made it impossible to sleep, and finally drained the smell only to have an overwhelming smell of mildew. The hotel needs work. Bed Linens were sad, although the rooms appeared to be recently redecorated. Scharffenberger Package was a waste of time, as you can book it for free anyway and the other amenities we seemed to constantly be hitting a brick wall. It did include free parking after we pointed it out to the front desk tfrom the website. Hotel is undergoing renovations. No airconditioning and the fan has 1 setting only. But you can't beea the location.

We stayed at this hotel for a conference. The two main things it had going for it was the staff - who were exceptionally friendly - and the location - right in the heart of Berkeley. However, the room was old, small, with almost no sound proofing, no air conditioning, and a mediocre bed. There is also no gym - you need to walk to the school gym, which is a problem when you are on a tight time table. I most likely won't stay there again.

Right now, I can hear the man in the next room talking on his phone as if he were sitting right next to me. Same with the room above -- except the floor creeks when they walk. If you are looking for a quiet, peaceful hotel room, look someplace else. I don't care how much they fix the place up, the walls are paper thin and the permeability has ruined my visit.