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!