Hallowell Rooming House - Hallowell, Maine

Deborah B.

The Hallowell Rooming House is a safe, cozy comfortable, extremely clean home away from home. I have stayed in a variety of rooms, of various sizes, and in other owned properties for the past three years. Beds in all rooms are extremely comfortable.The shared kitchen in the rooming house is well supplied with a pleasant environment. In addition, there is a small and adequate gym, and meticulously clean sauna, and hot tub on the premise. If you are interested in staying in an environmentally conscious setting, this is your place. In addition, the house and other properties are within a very short walking distance to the town of Hallowell that has great cuisine, two art galleries, and unique small locally owned shops. Vaughn Woods, which is an absolutely stunning and a well-maintained walking forest is also within walking distance from all properties. Andrea, the owner, is very pleasant and very responsive to questions and needs. She takes great pride in maintaining all properties. This place is a treasure indeed.

Cory D.

What a quaint diamond in the rough. The owner called me at the check in time to make sure I was ok and still coming. It was a nice personal touch. It is self check in. The place was very clean and cozy and I wish I had longer to stay to take advantage of some of the amenities. The automatic lights were very helpful to find my way up to my room and again to leave in the wee hours of the morning. I’ll definitely stay again!

Dick M.

Extremely Horrible experience! cameras are everywhere although they will deny it.Owner was so rude and mean. She freaked out when she saw our dog (we suspect an in room camera) when we advise her that our dog was a Federal ADA certified service dog we even provided her certification card we tried to explain that our service dog is allowed accessed to any place of business. she did nnot care and was totaly rude. |the furniture was old and shabby. they must have pickthe furniture up at multiple yard sales. You’d be advised to carefiully read the RULES they seem to be written by someone who trusts no one.

Erin M.

Absolutely perfect. In the center of town, 5 minutes from the capitol, neat and clean. Love it!

Anne H.

The listings for this place are confusing and misleading, as a result we were very disappointed.

To start with, it's not a rooming house per se. It's more like a residential building divided into 2 or maybe 3 apartments - one on each floor. We were given one bedroom inside of a 2-bedroom apartment. We had no idea if someone else was staying in the other bedroom, so that was very uncomfortable. When one thinks of a rooming house, they imagine a place where all of the bedrooms open onto common hallways, and typically there is an owner or caretaker living on site. That was not the case here. In this place you are locked inside of a private apartment with a random stranger and expected to share a very small bathroom with them.

And we had no key for our bedroom, you could only lock it from the inside. So if you leave the bedroom - say to take a shower - you have to leave your belongings unsecured. We found this arrangement to be very unsafe for both ourselves and our belongings. If you're alone do you have to take your wallet and laptop into the shower with you? Although in the end there didn't seem to be anyone else staying there with us, we never knew that for sure and the many, many signs everywhere made it clear that the two bedrooms were set up to be rented out to separate guests.

The apartment itself is in an old house, which is to be expected in Hallowell, but the subsidence was so bad there were places where the floor bowed 6 or more inches. It was actually quite shocking. It was furnished with a lot of old, shabby second-hand stuff. We love thrift shopping, but this stuff was shabby without the chic.

But our biggest problem with the furnishings was the clutter. It bordered on a hoarding situation. There was virtually no place to set down any of our things so we had to leave our bags on the floor. We didn't dare unpack or use the closet as it didn't inspire a lot of confidence. The whole place reminded of us our off-campus student housing days - but not in a good way.

We were glad that this was only a short stay. (And we're also glad that we only brought our small car with us. As others have noted, the parking is very tight and if we'd brought our big van our our trailer we never would have fit in the assigned space. Just another example of how the advertising for this place didn't prepare us for what we encountered.)

S B.

I've been staying here on my business trips for over 3yrs now. Down to earth, clean, great shared space. Plenty of restaurants within walking distance.

colleen C.

This small business is one we will be visiting again. The owner was very attentive and knew that we would be showing up late~ and tried to make sure we had the right unlocking info for the building ~ unfortunately between her emails and booking.com we had a little issue. Fortunately at all came together and the room were beautiful and very personalized in the them/décor of the owners liking ~ well done.||She had little goodies for the guest, sunscreen, Advil, night mask, vanity kits, Purcell maps, etc.||She had little notes on everything ~ so cute. From the windows, the bathrooms, the kitchen etc.||off the beaten path ~ quiet. Rent multiple room within the same house and feel safer than multi room in a hotel.

Katie M.

We tried to park our rental truck in the appropriate spot from our confirmation email. However it was so tight we felt our rental would be damaged if 3 more vehicles parked back there, as one already was parked. We called the owner and her phone went straight to voice-mail. we decided to leave town and cancel the booking. She then only called back after the booking qas cancelled and told me I would not get my money back because she's a "small business owner." She proceeded to say I was in room B and could have parked in the front of the building where there was more room. she said "I'll even check the email while you are on the phone with me. Yup I had you in room B. I have someone else calling." she then hung up on me. I checked my email right away and confirmed that my confirmation email stated I was in F and not to park else where because it causes issues for other guests. I tried calling back multiple times and did not hear back. once home from vacation I called 2 more times and have emailed her without any response back. She was not professional in any aspect and I do not understand how someone can run a business when their phone always goes to voice-mail and they only return calls to tell someone they won't get their money back due to being a small business. It was pathetic and I hope this saves someone from the same issue. We stayed here due to good reviews, however all of the reviews about the terrible parking situation were dead last.... ironic. I think not.