Hallowell Rooming House

"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.)"

"So many amenities! Coffee and the fridge in the room are a bonus. Respectful, friendly neighbors in the house and very clean. Laundry on site."

"Wow!! What a great place at a bargain"

"We had an issue with parking. Prior to finding a new place to stay that accommodated our rental truck we called the owner and her phone went straight to voice-mail. She only returned my called after I cancelled the booking. she told me I would not get my money back because she's a "small business owner." She then told me I had room B and not F and could have parked in the front of the building where there was more room for a truck. She then said "I will check the email right now. yup I have you in room B. I have another call coming in" and proceeded to hang up on me. I then checked my email to confirm we were in room F and parking spot F with strict instructions not to park any where else, which was the cade. I tried to call back 2 more times that day with my calls going to voice-mail and no return calls. once back from vacation I emailed and called again to talk to her about the issue and see if we could come up with a solution to fit both of us and I have yet to receive any word back. I have tried to make a review on booking and my account freezes every time. She was rude and not professional at all! Hoping someone sees then and chooses not to stay there!"