Hotel UMass — Hotel in Amherst

We stayed the first weekend in November, and initially planned to stay only Friday night. Upon check-in, we opted to stay Saturday night, as well, and they were able to accommodate us. ||The room is not super big, but it worked for us and our dog. The ac/heat had a delay and sometimes the room was hot and sometimes cold. We also had issues logging into the wifi. We were not receiving the text confirmation needed to complete the log in process. This was alleviated by calling the front desk. They gave us different log in credentials and we had no issues after that. The bed is pretty comfortable, but the water in the bath could be hotter for showers. The hotel was super quiet at night and we got good nights rests both nights. ||The hotel was a great place for us to stay while visiting our daughter, who is in her third year at UMass. We've always stayed off-property, in Hadley, so it was great to not have to continually drive to campus. We enjoyed a glass of wine in the lobby each night before going with our daughter to Wocester Commons for dinner. The wine was good and reasonably priced. The lobby area was comfortable, and we loved having our dog there, too.||The hotel offers a continental breakfast, and I have to say I was very impressed with the gluten free options. Gluten free bread, bagels and muffins were individual package and labeled, and there was a dedicated gluten free toaster. UMass Dining does an amazing job with dietary issues and their hotel is no exception. ||We checked out around 8am on Sunday, November 3rd. I noticed a charge for $50 each day for our dog and questioned the student at the desk. The bill said Pet Fee - $50 per stay and that was how I understood the policy. That we would only be charged once. She said it was per day. I questioned her again, since "per stay" would not indicate that. She said it was in fact, per day. I told her that they should change the wording on the bill to "per day" if this was the case. She said she would pass my feedback on to her manager. I then questioned her one last time if she was sure it was per day and she said it was. ||Once I got in the car I looked the website. It clearly states; ||Is the UMass Hotel pet friendly?|Pets are welcome at Hotel UMass with an additional one time pet fee of $50. No fee will be charged for service animals.||Non-refundable fee: $50 |Max weight: 75 lbs |Max Size: Large |Pet Policy: $50 (1-4n), $100 (5+nights); 2 pets Max |Excessive Pet Damage Fee: $250.00 per room||I called the hotel and spoke with a different person. She acknowledged that the printed policy was correct and that she would connect with her manager to have my excess charge reversed. She took my phone number and email, and I have yet to hear anything. ||I understand that students are working at the hotel as a way to learn real-world, practical skills as part of a hospitality degree program. One of the most important lessons should be to ask someone else if they are not sure about something. I would not have thought any less of her for double checking about my inquiry. Conversely, I think much less of her for just bluffing, letting the wrong charge to stay and making me jump through hoops to try to get my money back. I hope the manager sees this and addresses it with her. This student needs additional customer service training before she...

While planning a visit for my college reunion in Northampton, I booked this hotel for a total price of $302.09 for three days. Each night was about $98. I figured that the price was very low because it's a modest hotel in an inconvenient location, so I didn't question it. You need to walk through a campus center at a public university to check in and out, and it feels very much like a hostel.||Upon arriving, I was told that the price that I was sent on my receipt was an error. They said that their website hadn't been working properly, and that they would only be able to charge me the $98 for night one. They said that I would need to pay over $500 for nights 2 and 3 - a 5x increase. I asked how that was possible, since it didn't match the receipt and reservation confirmation that I was given. The front desk worker stated that their manager, Anna Bernstei, had emailed me and one other person that this error affected twice to try to correct the issue. I searched my email inbox for her email address; the employees typed it in for me. I had received no emails from her. They asked me to check my spam folder; there were also no results. I gave my phone to the employees so that they could check for themselves. They took photos of the screen showing that there were no results, and said that she must have typed my email address in wrong.||They stated that their prices were still the lowest in the region. It's true that many rooms were going for $500 or more due to graduation weekend, but I was able to use the Hotel Tonight app to find one last minute room nearby in Springfield for $145, and then I called that hotel to extend my stay. The next two nights were about $300. However, the hotel I booked as a replacement was very modest and would normally cost about $100 a night or less. My new hotel also said that their prices were a bit higher due to graduation, but the main factor was that a large wedding party had also reserved a lot of rooms. I think if I had advanced notice that the prices here would have been so high, I would have booked a modest hotel or motel in Springfield in the first place, saving me about $500. I was systematically checking hotels farther and father away from Northampton, and only settled on this one because it was such a bargain, but Springfield is almost an equal distance from Northampton.||The employees at my replacement hotel informed me that this is a common trick employed in the hotel industry. They said that hotels will realize that it's a busy weekend and attempt to retroactively raise prices on people who have already booked. They specifically mentioned that Hotel UMass does this all the time, and that they also intentionally overbook for busy weekends.||I would avoid booking here altogether. The fact that they only use their own website for bookings gives them the power/excuse to claim a price change at any time. If you book a hotel through a third party website, there is at least an official process that the hotel would need to go through to change your reservation. If you are arriving during college graduation season and need to save money, look at chain hotels/motels and places in Springfield, MA. You can plan to rent a car, take the PVTA, or take Ubers, which were actually very cheap...

The good:

The staff were very nice and lots of food options downstairs. But at 6pm the food court closes and then there is a little convenience type store open for few more hours. Nice view. Clean. Bed was comfy. Convenient if you are attending a conference in the hotel.

The bad:

Overpriced for a hotel that on the outside looks like a prison or an alien apartment building that needs a good power wash.

Sometimes the shower did not get too hot. The bathroom is tiny. Fine for a regular sized person but a really large person may have trouble using the toilet which is closely wedged between the shower door and sink.

No instructions for temp control but after several pokes at the temp pad you may get it to adjust.

There are no usb outlets and the regular outlets did not all work.

No info sheet in the room about hotel amenities, their hours, any changes and other pertinent guest info. Up to date info was not even available online. Can’t they make this a job for students?

There is no fridge or microwave but you can rent a fridge for a fee if there are any left. Even if you reserve far in advance they don’t honor that. It is first come, first served for whomever wants one on any given day. In this day and age they can’t figure out a program that keeps track of fridge reservations and it is first come, first served according to reservations and after that there is a waiting list????

No room service.

Can hear toilets flushing and voices through the walls. One day some guest posted a handwritten note in the elevators that people should keep room conversations down at night. 😂

Took a bit to figure out that a floor lamp switch was at the base but there was a chair in front of the lamp that had to be moved first. Weird.

The breakfast they talk about is basically continental with some options for hot and cold cereal and a...