We were a little nervous about staying at this hotel after reading the reviews. I must say, our experience there was GREAT. The location is AMAZING and, unlike many (all) hotels in Berkeley, you do not have to climb over homeless people to get in the door.
Yes, it is a slightly older hotel, but the beds are new and wonderful which I think is the most important thing.
Yes, there is a "gong" that goes off in the Marina, but it IS NOT as bad as these people are claiming. We were in a Marina balcony room and were not bothered at all by it. If you turn on your AC (we just turned the fan on low) you cannot hear it at all. Believe me, I am a light sleeper and I was nervous about the important exam I was taking the following day, but I never heard it. SERIOUSLY!
Finally, I HAVE to rave about the room service!! We wanted to stay in and didn't know what would be good, so we tried a number of things on the menu. Honestly, everything was GREAT!!!! The food came after 20 minutes, the guy who brought it to the room was super nice and refused a tip. The BEST part was, he called our room 30 minutes later to make sure we were happy with everything!
Our menu recomendations:
The seafood chowder was awesome (my fiance is from Boston and he loved it)
The caprese salad (maybe the best I have had outside of Italy)
Cookie sundae (yum)

We visit Berkeley often to visit family and sometimes choose to stay in a hotel to give them a break. This time it was the Doubletree and we were quite pleased with our four day stay at Thanksgiving. Sure, it was showing some signs of age, but a major rebuild is underway. And, it would be good to have free internet in the room, instead of in public areas. But, the staff was extraordinarily friendly, the restaurant quite good (and fairly priced as these things go), there was a great pool just yards from our room (that opened very early in the day, therefore making it possible to avoid kids) and, well, one simply cannot beat the location: easy freeway access, wonderful walks by the bay, sunsets, the whole nine yards.

From the minute I walked in the hotel the staff was friendly, security escorted me to my room.

Room service was excllent, hot and fresh. The morning breakfast buffet was made to order.

I jogged along the ocean first thing, and it was refreshing.

I recommend this hotel!

My girlfriend and I got a pretty good rate online and were pleasantly surprised. The hallways look old and in need of paint and new carpet so we were a bit disappointed walking to the room. However, the room and furniture were clean and did not look old. It was nothing special,
but worth the money paid. Great location but it is away from stores and restaurants and you need a car to go anywhere. My biggest complaint is that it was one of the worst sound-proofed rooms I have ever stayed in. Although the "bong" that many complain about did not bother me at all (we faced away from the marina), I could hear doors being slammed closed about five rooms down from mine, the water running on rooms above, people talking in the hallway sounded as if they were inside the room. Basically I felt as if we had no privacy at
all. We found the beds too firm and awoke with back aches, but some people seem to prefer this. They mention a balcony but it's nothing worth mentioning. Hardly any room to stand on. No in-room movies which is surprising for a hotel of this caliber (if they do have, it was not working in our room), we had no luck with internet either. We wanted to order room service, but the menu was missing from the room guide. We tried their Sunday champagne brunch but were not impressed with it. Low quality food items and not worth the price. Our waiter was not at all friendly. The staff were friendly at the hotel though. It is nice to get warm cookies at check in, but if you are allergic, beware that they have walnuts. Although they have a warning, it is in the back. They should have it on the front. Better yet, since cookies are supposed to show their hospitality, have no nuts so that more people can enjoy. Unless I could find a similar or better hotel for the same rate, I would stay here again, but would not want to pay much more than I did.