Americas Best Value Inn

First day checking in I saw s lady being slapped around by her pimp. Felt bad for her, house keeping they are lazy and only do half of their work. People are loud & rude in the middle of the night,

This was not my ideal place to stay but the staff was very friendly and helpful. Not the cleanest but definitely not the worst.

This place has changed so much for the better since ownership has changed and it became America’s best value Inn.. The employees are very friendly and professional, free coffee and breakfast in the morning… and it seems there’s less tolerance for shady motel behavior on and around the perimeter of the property.. For the money, it’s the best place to stay in Oakland.

Only giving this 2 stars because the service was great at check in last night.
Saturday night came to 109 $ including tax but to be honest after getting in the room, I wish we’d paid double for something better. The room is awful and round the corner from the hotel we learned is like homeless alley. Some rather odd characters floating around the area to say the least!
TV was good but the rest was all pretty crap!

When I first got there the tv didn’t work so they gave me another room in the second room it had dirty pillows on the bed the walk in closet had debris all over the ice tub was stained with dirt the shower curtain had mold and the window in the bathroom was broken I can go on and on but that’s it for now. i will never use
again because this is the second time they gave me a rundown hotel.

STAY AWAY! Zero star isn’t available. Rooms are filthy nasty. I felt dirtier walking out than walking in. Come here as THE last resort. Oh and woke up with a mountain view!!! 1 star..

Apparently my Sister doesn’t believe in reading the reviews before booking a place. This was a disgusting experience. Running late and finally got into the room after our first key card refused to work. No towels and when I went to go request some they said they would bring them. Waiting… waiting…nothing. The room was gross and beat up. Don’t stay here if you can help it.

If I could give them Zero stars, I would. This is probably the most raggedy place I’ve ever stayed. There Was Hair All IN The shower, none of the lamps worked. It was just a shitty room period.

One start because zero is not an option. I booked this hotel because everything downtown was booked. First night, TV didn’t work. I called front desk and they said help would be on its way shortly. No body showed up.
I left the room the next morning and placed the «maid service» sign on the door knob. I came back in the evening, my room key did not work. I had to go to the front desk to have it reactivated. I walked into the room, the room was not cleaned. I called to at least get a clean set of towels. I was told I would get them in 20 mins (no apology for not having the room done or the TV not checked). The towels were delivered in 20 minutes, so the one start has been earned.
On top of the unacceptable customer service, the AC unit and wifi did not work. Some of the guests were hang drying their clothes on the hallway. Just a bad experience.
I would say, leave this hotel as your very last options. I hope this helps…

Possibly the worst hole I’ve ever stayed in. Including on cross-​country road-​trips out of desperation. I’m pretty sure there are building codes being broken here. Electrical, at least. Two of the locks were missing from the door, the blanket was missing from one of the beds, the shower was downright nasty. I won’t guess what the huge stain outside the bathroom door was from. Splatters on the wall above the bed. And no, I could not switch to a new room. I asked. Oh, and the sheets weren’t entirely clean. Why I stayed is a long story. But, you know, I didn’t die or anything, so, one star.

I recently stayed at America’s best value inn, in oakland. It is located right next to the lake in the lake merritt area of town. I had a Great experience. The room was above par. The staff was incredibly accomodating, especially Chris, the manager.
This is a sleeping gem, walking distance to downtown and lakeside areas, great rooms, great service!

Full disclosure: Because of Berkeley graduation coinciding with our family memorial, we couldn’t find anything else in a 15 mile radius that was under $ 400). This is everything a one-​star hotel should be: thin walls, thin mattresses, postage — stamp size room and bathroom (the door almost hits the sink), unusually sized closet to shoot up heroin, strange smells, and few parking spaces. Did I also mention the drunk loud parties at 3 am yet? But general manager Chris Hill raised the rating by 2 stars for his excellent customer service getting our reservation fixed and making sure we had breakfast coffee filled regularly, in spite of what appeared to be a skeleton crew.

My first impression was that this is a budget hotel in a good location. The parking lot is fenced and clean. The staff is very welcoming and helpful. The location of this hotel is perfect for Oakland. Merritt Lake is across the street and it is just perfect in this regard. The room was somewhat clean but did have a musky smell to it. The shower was newly renovated and nice.
When I checked in I told the clerk that I was there on business and needed to make sure that the WiFi connection was good. He put me in a room near the office with the hopes that the location would help. The internet was great when it connected but dropped off unexpectedly for long periods of time. My connection (both on my phone and laptop) to the router was solid but the connection from that router to the internet was very inconsistent. I asked the office clerk to reset the router but he didn’t know the location of the router or how to reset it if he did know where it was. There were only two electrical outlets in the room, one behind the TV and one by the entry door. If you brought a hair dryer, don’t expect to use it in the bathroom unless you brought your own extension cord. There weren’t any lamps on the night stands because there weren’t any outlets for them to plug into.
Lastly — the bed. It was horrible and old. When you sat on the side of it it sank deeply. There was a large hump in the middle.
The location and the staff are the best things about this hotel. I WANT to stay here when I’m in town for business but the terrible internet and bedding, during this visit, will likely make me look elsewhere. :-(

I would give them 0 stars if I could. I booked some employees here since everything else downtown was sold out. The rooms were filthy. One of the guest changed rooms 3 times and they were all gross — some even had holes in the walls. It was also loud and he had someone knock on his door and asked to share the room. He finally found someone else he could crash with
You would think that management would at least attempt customer service. Nope. No discount. No apology.

Do NOT go here. I’d rather sleep in my car.

This place really gets no stars. I’m not complaining because you get what you pay for. Inexpensive and close to the San Francisco area. So I wasn’t expecting much.
The conditions of the shower in our bathroom was the most unacceptable part of our experience. Just look at the images I posted and you’ll understand. The best part of the hotel was the customer service. The guy at the counter was very friendly, kind and helpful. I’ve stayed at other ABVI and by far this has been the lowest. I’m kind of surprise to see the bathroom conditions like the one I found at this ABVI, usually all my experiences with this brand of hotel has been very good.
Btw: if you’re concern about staying in Oakland. The hotel is in a nice part overlooking a lake and the hotel has a security guard during the night hours maintaining the parking lot.

This broke down ghetto ass hotel is slow af it doesnt deserve a star. I should have paid a extra 50 $ and stayed in SF after i got out of court. This place ghetto the people that work here are ghetto. they have parking spots designated for the police :-/​. crackheads and ratchets all through the parking lot. You go from it being a nice area then once u pass E 16^th st this area turns into the hell. Lol wtf!!! i coulda stayed at motel6 for this kinda shit. They dont do that at the Le meridien or the Four Seasons lol. Jesus didnt die for this… Thats what i get for being cheap owell back to 5 star living tomorrow.

–1 star for almost being homeless for 2 days. I made a reservation 3 months in advance for my SF half marathon. They apparently did a system change so we weren’t in the system. I had my itinerary number and proof of payment. After the front desk worker (I think his name was Manny) asked his boss what to do, the boss said to give us a room even though they were at –1 rooms (Basically if all the guests showed up, the last guests would have been in the same situation we were in –without a room).
–1 star for the mini fridge not working properly. It would turn on and off so it got annoying.
It’s a convenient location because it’s not far from San Fran which has really expensive places to stay. It’s also close to a lake and I got to see a beautiful sunset.
Breakfast only has 4 selections of cereals: raisin bran, corn flakes, rice krispie cereal, and granola. There was white bread on Saturday and wheat bread on Sunday with jelly/​jam and peanut butter available.
Free parking and free wifi.
The front desk worker was really nice. Really good customer service.

If I had seen the reviews posted since my stay at this hotel (late July 2014) I wouldn’t have gone there. I gave them three stars, whereas two might be more suitable, to counteract the very bad reviews… it wasn’t so terrible.
I chose this hotel because it seemed, from other reviews here and on other sites, to be, yes, a cheap hotel with what comes along with that, but no shooting outside the door, this is after all Oakland, no bed bugs, no horrors.
The good: great location, no horrors, my checkin etc went smoothly, there is a not great but serviceable continental breakfast (cold cereals, toast, juice, coffee, tea), bed sleepable. For my purposes it was adequate and for the price (better with AAA AARP or other discounts) acceptable.
The bad: cleaning way below par. I wasn’t grossed out, but not what you want. On our next to last day we had a drink with seeds in it (kombucha) explode in our car for no good reason and we had to clean things off in shower leaving these icky seeds. I cleaned the best I could but without supplies not well. It was still there the following day and I felt bad for the next customers. The coffee machine broke and there was no coffee for two days. If I were the manager I’d have bought one of those Dunkin Donuts boxes but there was nothing. Noise can be heard easily and for the first 3 nights my next door neighbor, a heavy sleeper, was being awakened by his friends or coworkers at 4:30 AM… and so was I.
The front desk is run by some young people working hard to try to accommodate. There are travelers from all around and a little bit of the feel I had at Youth Hostels in Europe. We met over breakfast.
If you want a flawless stay go somewhere else, but for the price in the Bay Area I did not regret my choice.

First, the pros: great price, sleepable bed, big closet, a/​c, nice location (right next to Lake Merritt, not too seedy), and the room even had a big mini-​fridge and a microwave (something even many/​most 3-​star hotels don’t have). And the guy who checked me in seemed like a super great guy (very nice, professional, genuine). And they had a vacancy when ~7 other places I called first did not. And their parking lot was fairly secure with several security cameras.
Left at that, this would have been a solid 5-​star review.
Unfortunately, they royally screwed up my late checkout. Considering I checked in at 3:30am (I’m on a late schedule) and still paid the full-​day price, it was more than reasonable to request a late check out, which I did, and it was granted of course (note: by a *different* front desk guy, ie *not* the awesome one who checked me in). Default checkout time was 11am. He asked «Would 12:00 be ok?» Me: «Sure, thank you». Him: «Ok, you’re all set».
What ensued the next morning was 120% pure incompetence.
At 11:10 I get a knock on my door. WTF. Lucky for them, I happen to have just woken up a few minutes prior. I walk up to the door and call out «I’ve got a late checkout». Nada in response. I look through the peep-​hole: nobody. So I figure they left. About 1 minute later: another knock. WTF! I am in my underwear. So I crack open the door and have this conversation with a cleaning lady:
Me: I’ve got a late checkout.
Her: Oh. At what time, 12?
Me: Yes… they didn’t tell you?
Her: No.
So 1. Not only did she not apologize for bothering me after learning of the miscommunication, but 2. she didn’t think to ask the front desk before knocking on a door with a Do Not Disturb sign on it… twice! (And dodges the peephole and is hard of hearing and/​or shy too?)
Wait… there’s more! After I get out of the shower, I get yet *another* knock on my door at 11:40! *** Knock knock knock knock *** «Front desk!» I hear. Geeeezus are you kidding me?! I open the door and tell the guy:
Me: I asked for a late checkout!
Him: Oh ok, sorry to bother you. [at least he apologizes!]
Me: And you guys also knocked on my door at 11:10!
Him: Oh, was it a cleaning lady?
Me: Yes. You guys seriously need to improve your communication… this is not cool.
So, even the front desk – who granted the request in the first place – wasn’t aware?! The saddest part is that all this was 100% preventable. So hopefully somebody who cares will read this and fix this issue. Not everyone is on a «regular» schedule, and so the whole «knock first, ask questions later» strategy is highly inconsiderate. Please cease that pronto.
So, to anyone who may want a late checkout: my advice would be to either get assurance from the front desk that they won’t try to bust in on you anyway (you can mention that you saw this Unilocal review), or hand-​write a note and tape it to your door: «Late check out has been granted. Please do not disturb before 12:00.»
Other minor cons: one of the beds’ sheets were stained, bathroom was tiny. But that’s about it.
Overall a very good value. I would surely use them again in a pinch, especially if I was on an earlier schedule and/​or if I knew they had fixed this communication issue.