Boulder University Inn

The University Inn is a fantastic deal. Sure, it ain’t as grand as the Boulderado or the St Julien, but it’s perfectly comfortable, clean, convenient to both the campus and Pearl Street, and the staff is friendly and efficient. Giuseppe, the manager, couldn’t be more charming and accommodating.

I was in town mid-​week with my daughter looking at CU and were very happy with the one night we spent here. I chose this location because of it’s close proximity to the campus and not wanting to pay over $ 200 a night, which of many others were. It is a motel with updated rooms. The o.k.: traffic noise from the street and single-​paned windows; drafty door that needed a minor repair (mentioned this at checkout). The Great: woman at the registration desk was very friendly and helpful with our reservation and information on getting to the campus and places to eat; free bikes to use and a bike path right behind the building to take you to the campus; asked for a room on the second floor and were given one with a nice view out the back; room was very clean with a large bathroom, refrigerator, microwave and hair dryer; Alfalfa’s market is right across the street (on par with Whole Foods) and we visited it 3 times; if you have stayed there before, you can get a discount off your next stay. Decent, clean, affordable place in a great location!

Newly renovated rooms with updated bathrooms — PERFECT! Continental breakfast only one fruit: apples. Outside still looks like a motel but my experience was wonderful. Central location to walk everywhere. Very satisfied customer who will return.

Recently came to Boulder with the band I tour manage for two epic shows at the Boulder theatre. We booked rooms for everyone at this hotel and it was PERFECT! Giuseppe the hotel manager was so accommodating and helpful and everyone of the employees went out of their way to make you feel relaxed. The rooms have been recently remodeled and are modern and comfortable. The hotel is well priced, (has bus parking FYI to all tour managers) across the street from a massive local whole foods market called Alfalfa and is a short and very beautiful walk to pearl street and the Boulder theatre, and a short drive to the flat irons (beautiful hiking). Would definitely recommend to anyone and will book again next time five + stars for sure.

Great little motel within the heart of Boulder… Surprisingly quiet, Newly renovated and a wonderful staff.

This place is wierd. 1^st time I inquiry they had «0» availability, I called 10 min after and they suddenly had one room, but they wanted $ 200 dollars per one night. When I initially went into the lobby to ask about the room… The two people at the front desk seemed extremely flustered and kept me standing there with no greeting for 5 minutes… As this was such a strange encounter I’m glad there was no availability.

We had an awesome time. Everything was great. Room was clean and spacious. Breakfast room was plentiful. Parking was close. Location was excellent and the main reason we chose the place because it’s so very close to downtown. The only reason it’s not five stars is due to our checkout experience. When we picked up our receipt the blond woman behind the counter said scoldingly and begrudgingly, «Well, you weren’t supposed to have a refurbished room at that rate. You should have got a non refurbished room. But we were over booked.»
Really? She seemed upset that we got an upgrade. We never knew. Now we know if we ever came back we’d get a crappier room. Bad attitude.

Fantastic find! So close to everything downtown that we wanted to see, clean and nice! Definitely will stay again.

I spend a great deal of my year travelling and this is by far the dirtiest «inn» I have stayed in. Let’s go with the positives first: Jose, was a wonderful host and did everything to make my stay pleasant but even his surprise at how dirty things were should not be ignored.
1. The bed sheets, duvet and pillow cases all had stains on them. I asked Jose for another room however everything was booked. He did come up and change the sheets however the subsequent sheets he brought up also had stains. He changed the sheets 3 times until clean sheets were found.
2. Every single one of my towels also had stains.
3. The complimentary breakfast spread looked unedible. I’m not one that goes for the breakfasts outside of grabbing a coffee. I noticed the 3 or 4 trays of stale pastries while at the coffee station. They did not have tongs by the trays which means the transfer of germs from people’s hands to the food can take place.
4. Inns that do not have individual soap, shower and conditioner are not only cheap but have no thought for cleanliness. I definitely do not want to use communal bathroom amenities.
5. It’s also loud because the rooms face the street. Street traffic is easily heard.
They make it look trendy but the truth is the place is so dirty. Once you walk in the room you can sense how gross and disgusting the place it. Your skin gets all itchy just being in the room. I understand that places will have insects but to see a number of spiders on the bed doesn’t give someone a restful sleep.

It’s easy to provide good customer service when everything is running smoothly, but what happens when something goes wrong? Unfortunately I was on the other end of something going wrong during my stay at the Boulder University Inn on Broadway in Boulder several weeks ago and found out first-​hand what terrible customer service is.

I was in a room for two nights over one weekend in a king-​sized bedroom on the second floor. There was a large, over-​sized chair that was between the bed and the bathroom and I hadn’t paid attention to the fact that the chair was right in line to the bathroom door.
So? In the middle of the night when I woke up to use the facilities, in the dark, I stubbed my toe on that chair which was in the way! Now, two weeks later, I am still dealing with the aftermath as it is broken. When I tried to talk to the Manager about this the morning that I was leaving he cut me off in conversation, I had gone down to get more ice to ice it down with.
Later, when checking out, I tried to discuss this situation with him again, and again, he cut me off. I asked him to listen because I didn’t want this situation happening to anyone else. I had to spend my Saturday night in bed, icing down that toe all night long! He was very abrupt with me and immediately jumped on the computer to charge me for the room again! He was so concerned that I was trying to get out of paying for the room he wound up attempting a double-​charge which my bank stopped! He made no attempt to console me, offer some kind of compensation (which I wasn’t even looking for!) nor did he acknowledge my situation, but the point is he wound up trying to put a double-​charge through on my account!
This was some of the WORST customer service I have EVER received! Pray, if you choose to stay here, that you don’t wind up on the end of something going wrong because of their neglect. i would have given NO stars if that was at all possible.

Perfectly fine place to sleep, and lots of points for being close to almost everything in downtown Boulder. The bathroom was 3 star– there was no ventilation– just a window to open, that looked into another building. The staff were pretty nice, though– and they had smoking rooms available. We thought it would be easier to find these in Colorado (wink, wink), but it was surprisingly tough.

Best deal in Boulder! Clean remodeled strip motel that services perfectly fine if you want to be walking distance to downtown and pay around $ 100 per night. Another great find thanks to Unilocal

I was pleasantly surprised by cleanliness of the University Hotel, but unfortunately upon checkout, my boyfriend and I received the single worst customer service experience we have ever had.
We checked on January 31, 2014 and stayed at the hotel through January 2, 2015. The night before we were due to check out, January 1, we called the hotel front desk three times from the hours of 1:30am to approximately 3:30am to complain that other guests were being very loud very close to where we were trying to sleep. Each time I called, I was told that the front desk attendant would handle it, but only did after my third call to the front desk did we hear the other guests actually go inside their rooms.
The next morning, my boyfriend and I were very unhappy and frustrated with the hotel’s slow response to our complaints, and requested that our room be discounted.
All the manager (Giuseppe) of the hotel had to do was apologize for the fact that we had such a rough night and ask what he could do to make to us happy. However instead of doing that, Giuseppe become aggressive and defensive, and insisted that A) the hotel had handled the issue promptly, that B) it was not the hotel’s responsibility to quiet loud guests, and C) that we should have expected the noise given that it was New Year’s Day.
My response to Giuseppe’s declarations were and are as follows:
1. The situation was dealt with promptly: If this were the case, then why did we have call the front desk three times over the course of several hours? The only time the attendant actually left the office to go ask the partygoers in person to quiet down was the third time I called, and the walls of the hotel were so thin we were able to hear him. At that point, my boyfriend and I were debating whether to actually call the police. When I told this to Giuseppe, he insisted that it is company policy for the desk attendant to call the police themselves after 3 noise complaints — but then admitted that the police were never actually called.
2. It is not the hotel’s responsibility to quiet loud guests: Of course it’s the hotel’s responsibility to quiet loud guests! Phones are provided in guests rooms with a number to directly contact the front desk in the event of a complaint. If the hotel did not want to take responsibility for their guests, why were we told each time we called that it would be taken care of, and why were we not told to call the police directly ourselves? A hotel’s absolute goal should be to make sure that all of their guests are comfortable and happy, not to deflect responsibility when that fails to happen.
3. We should have expected the noise given that it was New Years Day: The previous day was New Years Eve, and we hadn’t had any complaints about the noise on NYE. Regardless of what day it was, 1:30am to 3:30am is an inappropriate time to be having a party outside, especially when complaints were made. Furthermore, why on earth would Giuseppe defend the people that caused the complaint in the first place?
After deflecting all blame and refusing to take any responsibility for the hotel or to apologize, Giuseppe offered us a paltry $ 20.00 discount on our stay, which we said was inappropriate. He was rude, aggressive, and refused to take any responsibility or apologize. When we turned down his first offer, he countered with a comp of $ 50.00, while also accusing us of trying to steal from him and then immediately told us not to «mess with him». My response was that Giuseppe has absolutely no business working in the service industry. A person who is clearly so incapable of making guest’s happiness his primary responsibility, and who is apparently unable of hearing a guest’s complaint and responding appropriately has no business running a hotel. I couldn’t believe how we were being treated!
After all that, Giuseppe insisted that he provided great customer service, gave us his card, and tried to tell us we could have a night free at the hotel. At that point, I was absolute furious. I ripped up the card, which was very rude of me, and told Giuseppe that we would absolutely never stay in the hotel again. And why would we?
Throughout the course of the conversation, Giuseppe was rude, aggressive, and got in our faces. Even after we had all agreed on the $ 50.00 refund, he kept trying to goad us into arguing with him more. We had to tell him to stop and just give us our refund three times before he would let us leave!
Once we were finally able to obtain our refund, I told Giuseppe on our way out the door that I would be writing a review of our argument on Unilocal,because I believe potential guests have a right to be informed. Giuseppe tried to scare me away from doing so by yelling that it was a felony to threaten someone with a bad Unilocal review. However, seeing as our transaction had already been completed, it was not a threat. How awful to provide such poor customer service, and then attempt to frighten someone away from reporting it!

I stayed three nights at the Boulder University Inn in November 2014. From the outside this place is a bit tacky — two stories with external room entry doors. It’s not hideous, but it certainly looks low-​budget. Fortunately, the rooms are significantly better than the outside! My room was on the small-​side, but it was nicely furnished and modernized. I don’t know when it was renovated, but it looked quite new. My king-​sized bed was comfortable and covered with a nice comforter. The bathroom was particularly nice — nice (large) walk in shower and a high-​end toilet!
The nightly rate is even on the low-​side for the area. The location is also great (if you want to be near the university and the West End).

Nicer room than the Warwick in downtown Denver.
The pool area is pedestrian. No spa/​hot tub, which is a bummer, but whatever.
The parking situation was kind of annoying when we went, I guess there was a football game at the college. The main lot was full, so there was parking out back, but after a long day of hiking carrying my heavy bag back up to our room was a bummer.
The breakfast was fine for a free breakfast. Donuts, bagels, cereal, fruit. Everything was clean. Easy walk to Pearl Street.

Would stay again! In fact tried to buy is is booked up. Nice recently renovated rooms. Great price and great location. Walking distance to Pearl St. Continental breakfast pretty standard which for me is not great, but there is a nice grocery store across the street which has great coffee, breakfast and food selection.

This «motel» may look mediocre from outside, but the rooms are quality — including king-​sized beds, granite bathroom counters, full-​length mirrors and generic+ amenities you want/​expect during your stay.

Clean renovated room. Looks dingy from the outside but the room was perfect for a night. Walking distance from pearl street and all the shops, bars and restaurants. Would definitely stay again.

Had a great stay at the Boulder University Inn — The newly remodeled rooms were very nice, clean, had a fridge and microwave, huge shower. Blocks from the University and blocks from the Pearl Street mall. Walking distance to both. Management was AWESOME and very helpful, as I was there for a work trip on a very busy week-​end for the community. They could not have been more accommodating to my business needs as well as my personal needs (offering a late check out). Will look forward to my next stay in Boulder — thank you to the staff!

Great little MOtel. Not a 5 star hotel but a great little motel. Staff is pleasant and absolutely accommodating. I could see where the parking may be a little tight at times but we never had a problem.
Easy walking distance to The Hill in one direction and Pearl St Mall in the other. Juice and «snacks» to start you on your walk to one of the great breakfast restaurants around. Alfalfas across the street if you would rather. Of all the restaurant/​bars you want to visit, only the Dark Horse is driving distance.
The room had a coffee maker, hair dryer, iron and ironing board and TV. OK, let me say, if you are watching the tv, you are in the wrong place… Get a life. We found the weather and a local news channel and that was good enough for us.
Motel is under construction. There will be no smoking rooms after the renovation is complete. We hardly noticed the construction unless leaving or returning to the room.
Someone stayed in the room above us a night or two. They must have kept the same hours we did as we only heard them a couple of times.
Let me say, if you are comparing this motel to the 5 star hotels in Boulder you are doing yourself and the readers of these reviews a disservice. If the University Inn charged $ 100 a night MORE, then I could see how people would find them lacking in some areas. But lets compare apples to apples. This is a quaint little motel in the epicenter of life in Boulder. The room is clean and the staff friendly and accommodating. If you require more, I suggest you pay more for your room. As for me, I will be back here again!