Berkeley Hotel: Durant, Bancroft
 

Two couples will be attending an upcoming concert at the Greek theater and will be looking for a nice close-by hotel to spend the night.

Can anyone provide feedback on the Durant or Bancroft hotels -- or any others in the area?

TIA!

How about the Shattuck Hotel?

I can't qualify as having any recent experience staying at any of these hotels. In my student days (many years ago), I lived in the next block from the Durant. It's very close to campus, but off the main drags on a pleasant wooded street. It was known as the classic place for visiting parents who wanted to stay close to campus, and it would probably give you the easiest access to the Greek Theater. I drove by it while visiting a couple of years ago, and it looked like it had been upgraded some from my day. Even then, it was the most upscale of the three (although not all that upscale.)

The Bancroft, if it is the place I'm remembering, is much smaller and on a busy street, and at that time was definitely downscale from the other two. That may have changed, however.

The Shattuck was the big old hotel of downtown Berkeley. It was the largest of the three, but being downtown, it was much further from the Greek Theater than they were. It would be a pretty hefty walk to the Greek Theater from there, and a fairly easy one for most people from the other two.

Where are you coming to town from and what are you looking for in the hotel other than proximity?

My curiosity having been aroused by your question, I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor.com, which you may want to do. Of these three, the Durant received by far the most positive or, it might be most accurate to say, the least negative reviews. You may want to read them. I would be pretty scared off the Bancroft and Shattuck after what I read.

I also read the reviews for the Nash Hotel, where I did stay years ago. It was a dump then, and the reviews indicate it hasn't changed. There's an inexplicable gap between the respectable ranking and star rating Tripadvisor gives the Nash and the content of the reviews--they must not have read the reviews recently.

The Durant still seems like a good choice if your top priority is nearness to the Greek Theater, but as welch above implies, if you would rather trade off proximity for a newer, quieter, more comfortable room there are other choices which you can read about in Tripadvisor (under Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville) or hear about from welch and others. One I know of is the Holiday Inn in Emeryville, down by the Bay, which is a relatively new high rise well placed for spectacular views. There are other newer hotels at the Berkeley Marina too. All of these would be way out of walking distance to the Greek Theater, though.

Thanks very good to know. Since we're going to the concert, very little is important besides proximity and price.

The Durant was $40 more a night, but it sounds likes it's worth it.

Thanks again for your help.