Berkeley Ymca Hotel

Good: the location can’t be beat in terms of proximity and convenience to downtown, the BART, and campus. My room had a mini fridge, so I saved by getting food at the local trader joes. Rooms were clean, but a bit, um, monastic feeling. Think super low rent dorm. The bathrooms and showers are single stall, gender neutral.
Bad: while the price is still better than surrounding hotels, $ 60 ish a night felt a little too steep for the quality.
Ugly: desk staff. One of the cleaning ladies had to buzz me in when I arrived, and the desk guy was totally AWOL for around half an hour. No apology or explanation when he got back. None of the desk staff were particularly friendly, some were straight up weird, and all of them typed slower than sloths. Check in and out took forever.

Parking
The YMCA hotel offers no free parking. If you are in need of parking your vehicle during the day, before 6:00pm, you will have to pay for parking. The Allston Way Parking Garage is nearby. It is best to arrive after 6:00pm, that when parking meters go dark. You can park in the street until 9:00am, after that you will have to pay .05 cents per two minutes, to maximum of two hours of parking.
If you move your car into the parking garage before 9:00am, it is $ 11:00 for all day parking. However, you need to move your car out of the garage before midnight on Mondays — Thursdays, (2:00am on Fridays and Saturdays) or your car will be trapped behind steel gate.
If you fail to do so, the parking fee will instead be $ 17.00 for the first day and automatically be $ 17.00 for following morning.
There is additional discount offered, if you arrived at garage after 4:00pm, the fee will be $ 5.00 until midnight (or 2:00am). Weekend daily maximum is $ 7.00 per day. The only reprieve is that street parking, free all day Sunday.
Hotel
First of all, leave your large items in the car when you first arrived. The front door is located on Milvia Street. You have to push the button to talk to front desk clerk, so they can buzz you in. The registration desk is on the third floor and you can’t take the elevator, because you need a fob to activate it. Please pace yourself as you climb the narrow stairway. It is ok to stop and rest, really!
At the front desk, don’t expect speedy check-​in process. Your room was selected on the day you made your reservation. You do not have a choice of rooms. You are given a FOB and key. Wi-​Fi is free, but the further you are away from the front desk, the weaker is signal.
The single size room is smaller than dorm room, but function. There is a refrigerator, desk, oversized chair (that won’t fit under the desk), closet, dresser, mirror, medicine cabinet without shelves. There is no AC, but there is a window, but it has two positions, closed and wide open. Expect street noise to fill in the room.
Speaking about the noise, if your room is next to communal bathroom or shower, you know what to expect. Also, if your room is located on the three floor, expect to hear a loud disco like sound thumbing through the walls. The woman’s gym is entire second floor underneath, so be sure to have your dancing shoes on by 10:00am.
The shared kitchen is large and well equipped, but can get crowded because guests like to socialize there. What was missing is an ice machine. There are three commute computers with Internet access, but do not expect private space when using them.
During my stay, all of the water closets (bathrooms and showers) were out of service, first thing in the morning. I really needed to use the restroom. So I clearly asked the front desk clerk where I could find a bathroom. Instead, he replied, in automated tone, that service would return in about hour. I had to fight to urgent not to do a manual reset on the android. I repeated the question. The humanoid suggest I could go the YMCA gym, next door.
After I agreed, he slowly fills out paperwork for one-​day membership. While I waited, the android told a female guest it would be one to two hours for service to return. Off I went to ground floor, outside and around the block to the gym. Once inside, waited in line, then the clerk took my paperwork and buzz me in. I could not find the bathroom, but lucky an employee pointed me in the right direction.
I typically returned to hotel at about midnight, and then on Friday night I first saw, Subore, the graveyard clerk. A tall, thin male wearing black shoes, pants, shirt, jacket with a hood (pull over his head), and dark sunglasses, leaning back on a chair when his feet on the desk. I was not sure if he was sleeping or passed out. The reason I suggest the latent was that there was a glass, beer size bottle with a screw on top, on the desk. It contained either apple juice or beer, inside. I saw the same size bottle each time I came in. I would have to give that a creep factor of 9.0, because he is in a position of responsibility.
The hotel and it’s location work well me, peculiar the room rates. Unless I find gainful employment, I would return to the hotel, but would have to budget parking fees on my next visit.