University Inn

Only stayed for one night but with very good experience. Staff were friendly. Room was clean with great view of the river. Breakfast choices were plenty.

The location is good and has reasonable pricing, the recent remodel is good but the rooms are not very clean and the beds are not comfortable.

Staff and service: ⁴⁄₅. When I checked in, Unilocal offered $ 10 off. However the staff didn’t know what that was and they didn’t grant it.
— hotel facility: ⁴⁄₅
— view on the swimming pool, the woods and the river is ⁵⁄₅.
— rooms comfort: ³⁄₅.

The University Inn is a great place to stay any time! The inn’s location is just down the street from the University of Maine and right in downtown Orono. The Inn is a sophisticated upper end hotel with good old home charm thanks to the owner. The new renovations bring the University Inn up to date with contemporary furnishings and comfy beds. The Inn is right on the river, it has a great pool and excellent view of the area. The girl at the front desk is pretty, and awesome too! I love staying here and would only consider the owners other property (the black bear inn) to spend the night while my bring my daughter to college here. Excellent place! The owner takes pride and is constantly updating. I appreciate her accountability for taking very good care of her patrons and her property! Thank you!

No. It wasn’t the Ritz but it was comfortable and warm. It didn’t have an elevator but it was nice.

The night employee Matt was incredibly rude to my wife and I as well as other guests which I was witness to. He knocked on our door at 2 in the morning claiming that we were smoking and yelling, when in fact my wife and I were sound asleep. He then called our room and claimed that it was accidental but really he knew that he was waking us up once again. I would never stay here again under any circumstances. He blatantly lied to us. He came to the door and claimed there was smoke pouring out of the room, like we were some college kids that would have been scared by his ridiculous tactics to scare us in the middle of the night. I’m not sure why he did this as we were in no way causing a disturbance. I think they are just used to dealing with the college crowd and as such the quality of service provided has gone downhill. I’ve stayed here in the past and had quite a different experience. I also waited to write this review after my first negative experience here to give them a second chance. I am completely dissatisfied and I will never come back because of the way we were treated by the staff. Go to the Black Bear Inn you’ll be much happier.

I’ve stayed at this hotel several times now as my daughter attended the University of Maine Orono. We just stayed for graduation weekend last week and had a truly wonderful time. The hotel was in gorgeous condition! The grounds had fresh flowers, daffodils and blue lupins. The beds were nice and firm and seemed pretty new. The bathroom had all the niceties. Everything was well stocked and worked great. It was too early in the year for the pool to be open or to use the canoes. But I was really happy with the renovations and the whole feel of this place.
Now I have to go on about the staff. I made my reservations for grad weekend last June 2013. The staff made sure that I had 3 river view rooms booked. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my parents’ room due to their health. Tracey Whitten and her staff made that easy and refunded my deposit in full. The front desk, housekeeping, and the breakfast staff were all pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful. They were readily available and responded to everything we asked for.
If you are a UMaine Parent, you should stay here. You will be well treated. If you are in Orono for any reason, the University Inn Suites is the place. Book early as it fills up on big weekends, like graduation in May and move-​in at the end of August.
P. S. the farmers market on Saturday mornings in «downtown» Orono is great! See you there.

Pros: Very friendly and accommodating staff. The floors creek with every step, so it’s very obvious how old the hotel is; however, the room that I stayed in was still very clean. You are right down the road from a cluster of restaurants which is nice. They are doing some renovations to fix some previous issues such as water temperature, so I’ve seen some improvements from previous reviews.
Cons: They started cleaning rooms at about 8:00 am. This is probably not uncommon, but it is a major issue if you plan to sleep at all past that time. The walls are paper thin, so you can hear any activity several rooms down. As they walk up and down the hallways and from room to room, it sounds as if there is a wrestling match occurring. The fitness center is clearly from the 60s. I’ve honestly never seen equipment that old in any facility, and I’ve stayed at over 100 hotels this past year. The heating system is also very antiquated, but it adequately heats the room. The wifi is not consistently strong, so it really depends on the hours that you are using it.
Overall, the hotel is overpriced for what you get. I would stay here again if the price matched the experience. Even if you are doing some work at the school, look at options in Bangor because it is so close.

I stayed here twice for a university interview and follow-​up house-​hunting visit. The University Inn is a perfectly adequate place to stay, and has a prime location in walking distance from the university and Orono’s restaurants. The staff are very friendly and efficient. The complimentary breakfast includes a variety of hot items, and is on par with anything you’d get at a low-​end business travel hotel; passable, not terribly tasty, but varied enough that you’ll find something to satisfy if you need to save some cash. There’s a nice view of the river, and a pool.
The rooms have been partly updated (mostly in the bathroom), but feel dated in other areas. My mattress was decent for my first stay but awful to the point of sleeplessness for my second visit, so make a point of asking for a firm bed. In all, it’s great if you have business in town or at the university, but don’t expect anything too special.

This is a very interesting independently run hotel. In general, I agree with many of Danielle A’s points, altho I think that the hotel deserves one more star. I do think Danielle’s observations on rooms, food and location are quite correct. In addition, My longest hotel stays have been in Hyatt properties, and by comparison I found staffing here to be top notch; they have ‘typical Maine’, and for the area a relatively diverse set of, local residents in a range of jobs making conversations with them a rewarding and enjoyable experience. They have a flexible enough staff to easily and cheerfully handle slow days and peak days back to back. In contrast with many small market hotels, WiFi at least in the pool area and in my room compared favorably with Hyatt’s, costly internet cafes, or the universities, such as UMich or UMaine, where I’ve logged on recently.
The heated pool is more useful than most that I have tried. Even after a day of heavy cold Maine rain, the pool was quite comfortable in 60 °F weather with no sunshine the next day. The owners say that they target an 82 °F water temperature level. While feeling crisp and invigorating, not at all like lukewarm bathwater as some warm swimming pools feel, the water temps often are closer to 84 °F, I am pretty sure that that’s true even in non-​summer days.
I could add more details, but perhaps I should once again reference Danielle’s positive comments from earlier this year as they appeared on 11÷4÷2011, most of which I strongly endorse.

My husband and I have stayed at this inn twice now both to move my sister-​in-​law into school and also for her graduation. Needless to say it was more expensive to stay there during graduation since the hotel is walking-​distance to the UMaine campus, but it was still under $ 200/​night during that peak time.
The rooms are very clean as is the rest of the inn. The fitness center is a little cramped and dated — but it’s a motor in that actually HAS a fitness center, so there’s that. The staff is super friendly and accommodating and there is always a complimentary warm beverage available next to the front desk. They definitely know their target market as they have lots of UMaine memorabilia on display and decorated for the graduation. Some of the tourist-​literature is dated (2008), but most people aren’t staying there for the tourist spots.
The highlight of the hotel besides the cleanliness is their complimentary breakfast. Most hotel/​motels in their class offer a standard continental breakfast of muffins, bagels, toast, cereal, yogurt, and fruit (that may or may not be stale). Not only does University Inn offer your standard fare — the breads are quite fresh and always checked on by the staff. The fruit was fresh — no bruises on the apples, bananas weren’t brown, fruit salad looked good. In addition to that standard fare — they also offer a good, hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, and what look to be homemade waffles with your choice of strawberries or syrup. None of the food is overcooked, runny, etc. In fact — the bacon offerings seem to range from floppy to crispy in any given pan, so they seem to be catering to all bacon-​tastes. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast both mornings of our stay. I would stay here again if I ever needed to stay in the Orono/​Bangor area.