Charles Inn

IGNORE THE BAD REVIEWS FROM THE PAST!
My wife is a travel nurse and had the pleasure of staying here from two months! This is a better, more refined Charles Inn than from the previous ownership and management team. Coincidentally, the name of the building originally was the Phenix Block (spelled traditionally), built in 1873 following the great 1869 fire that originated in the area and destroyed 10 business blocks. The hotel, Bangor’s first art gallery hotel, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The original foundation and brickwork from 1873 can be seen from under the building in the basement. Toward the front of the basement are remains of tunnel ways to bring in illegal booze built during Prohibition time. These tunnels spanned many blocks from the canal way of the Kenduskeag Stream near the Penobscot River.
The Bangor Historical Society and the Bangor Ghost Walk make a stop here for its haunted history. Legend has it that the hotel was one of the original buildings in Bangor burned during the Civil War. A union soldier was helping to carry items out of the hotel to save them. He was hit on the head by a brick and was killed. His spirit has never left this property since. They say room 405 is where he died and is said it is haunted. The room was the subject of a ghost hunters investigation a few years back. The investigators found a probable presence within the building. However, no guests have been confronted by the spirit directly and have not left out of fear.
In 1937, the famous gangster Al Brady (FBI Public Enemy) and his gang lost their lives in West Market Square located directly in front of the hotel. The gunfight between the gang and the FBI began outside Dakin’s Sporting Goods Store a few buildings down from the hotel. Contrary to the marker placed down the street from the hotel, Brady was gunned down and killed across the square in front of the building where Paddy Murphey’s pub resides.
The only suite in the Charles Inn, Room 201, was the office of the CEO of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad during the time of the building’s existence as a mercantile prior to it being converted into a hotel. We had the pleasure of staying in it! A large safe converted into a library is in the corner of the suite! Anthony Melchiorri and his team from Hotel Impossible refurbished the room upon shutting down the bar below this suite. Tony Shalhoub of «Monk» recently stayed in this suite as well!
Located in the heart of downtown Bangor (The Queen City of the East and home of Stephen King), West Market Square directly in front of the hotel is home to the New Year’s Eve ball drop. This hotel, featuring Victorian décor, is a crown jewel of the area and the owners are VERY hospitable, professional, and polite. Verbal history lessons about the building and surrounding area can be available upon request. Enjoy your stay, and if there are ANY issues (large or small), to which you hopefully won’t have any, notify management and they will promptly take care of you! Again, ignore the bad reviews from the past! This is a new Phoenix rising from the ashes of bad experiences and poor management! We loved our stay and will definitely be back again!

Just a place to rest your head while having an excellent location. If possible, book a room online. We paid $ 110 or so while online it was 70 $.
The room was old fashion and bare– not a problem except for the price. The sink was outside the room with low water pressure. There was only one small bar of soap. Squeaky bed. The carpets were old and dingy. Once again, wouldn’t be a big deal but they bragged about being on a Travel Channel «rescue this hotel show».

First timer here! So far so good. Excellent customer service. The front desk clerk was very helpful in regards to finding parking and arranging for a long term solution seeing as how I will be up here for business the next 4 weeks.
Room is fabulous. I am staying in the Hotel Impossible room and there is an actual vault INSIDE my room! They’ve turned it into a library which is pretty neat. Bed is comfy. Room décor is current, simple but elegant. View of the street is fun. Will see how things go over the next few weeks but my outlook so fag is excellent! :)

The new owners are great. Don’t be fooled by the average reviews.

Leading up to our Bangor visit I had a hard time getting in touch with anyone at the hotel so I booked online. Upon arrival we met the owners and it turns out they had just taken over so the previous owners were probably to blame for that but the new ones were extremely nice and went out of their way to make us happy with our stay. The rooms themselves are rather run down but the hotel couldn’t be anymore convenient to downtown. Bars, restaurants and shops within walking distance. I would stay again.

I would like to start by saying that any hotel staff that we had contact with during out stay recently was nice, engaging and courteous. The hotel is conveniently located and the exterior is quite charming. The little «house-​pug» was a sweet little thing that greeted our own little pooch warmly and added a nice quirk to the business. Unfortunately, for the price paid for the stay, the hotel could be better-​run. One of the most important things that we remember is that we really should have had more warning about the noise level at the downstairs bar. For the two nights that we stayed here, we could not actually get to sleep before about 2AM because the bar directly downstairs has live music and the walls are super thin, so we could hear all of the commotion from the entertainment and the bar guests up in our room on the 4^th fl. Furthermore, the bar across the street also played loud music that we could hear through our thin windows. We are actually from NYC and very amenable to bars and entertainment, but if the sound was so loud on the weekends that it would keep us up, we feel that there should have been warning on the hotel website or from the hotel staff at the time of the reservation. We visited the bar in an attempt to ‘join them if we can’t beat em’ and the bartender was so in-​the-​weeds that we could feel his inability to keep up and tend to us, as he was a little short and quippy. Perhaps he should procure a barback? The beer selection, however, was wonderful. Additionally, I think we were slightly privy to some arguing from hotel management and staff, both of whom were nothing but nice to us when we dealt with them directly. Both mornings, I woke up to the sound of the cleaning staff using one of those roller hand-​held cleaners on the carpet floor upstairs. The rooms should be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, as these carpets are not young. The mattress felt like cardboard and frankly should have been replaced well over 10 years ago. This hotel could be so much more, but it is currently be a long way from its potential. We do appreciate the effort.

We tend to like «old charm» hotels, and chalked up the negative reviews as people mistaking this for a hilton. basically, we read and believed the review preceding this one.
Unfortunately, we were wrong. It is old, but not «old classic.» Rather it is «old run down.» The mattress was thin and bowed. Bathroom is dated to 1970. Rooms lack decoration except for cheap curtains. carpet is stained.
It is a shame. the central location and restaurants surrounding drew us in. There is an outdoor brick area being built that will make for a great outdoor addition. But until someone puts some money into a restoration, we will stay away.
Why not one star? it was generally clean. and it was priced at a point where we should probably have known (110/​night) what we were getting.

I read a bunch of bad reviews for this place before I went. I decided to assume that they were written by a bunch of high maintenance people that should have just gone to a Sheraton. I was so right. The place was great. I had absolutely no problems. The room was very clean and comfortable. There was a wonderful older pug to greet me and the woman who ran the desk was extremely helpful and accommodating. This is one of the oldest buildings in Bangor. So if you are looking for a cookie cutter sterile hotel maybe this isnt the place for you. If you want to stay in a very nice place with character and comfortable beds then this place is spot on. I was on the second floor and didnt hear the band playing downstairs as far as noise goes. I would definitely stay again if I make it back to Bangor.

I frequent this place not as a lodger, but as a consumer of fine beverages and an avid listener of just terrible open mic nights. I can’t speak for the rooms but hey, there is nothing wrong with the bar. A well thought out selection of beer and a nice atmosphere is to be found here in this establishment. With just a few taps, the man surprises me with a jolly pumpkin offering. A beer more suitable to my pallet then any of the dozen or so on tap down the road at the «beer bar».

We were headed into Bangor from Acadia NP when we inferred from an advertisement that The Charles Inn was a «boutique» hotel. It hardly is a boutique hotel. It was more like a YMCA or a hostel. Pretty basic accomodations but clean and relatively quiet.

Update: I heard from the management and they are making some changes. I like a place that is responsive to their guests’ needs. Although I no longer live in the area, I hope someone will write an updated review.