My boyfriend and I stayed at the University Inn for 3 nights in March because UW flew me out for a prospective grad student weekend. The hotel was pretty standard - I wouldn't call it extraordinary but I can think of far more good things to say about it than bad.
The location was great. I walked to Drumheller Fountain (central UW campus) in about 15 minutes and there is a bus stop directly across the street from the hotel with frequent buses that can take you right downtown, where we visited the waterfront and SAM. I think the hotel also has free shuttles until 7 PM but we didn't make use of those. It was an easy walk to the main U District shops/restaurants/thrift stores.
The coffee/tea/hot chocolate served all day and mini cupcakes in the afternoon were a nice touch. The complimentary breakfast was pretty standard and a little crowded. There was also a Keurig coffeemaker in our Double Deluxe Queen room along with a fridge and a microwave, which I found to be very convenient for restaurant leftovers.
We had a nice window, but the view wasn't anything special. The room and bathroom were about the standard size and quality you would expect and were very clean. The art on the walls was weird and bad but I'm pretty sure that's what hotels are for. The wireless worked great. I had some trouble with the TV in our room losing reception but that was the only real problem I encountered during our stay.
Some things about the University Inn were similar to what you'd find at any standard chain hotel for about that price so I'm tempted to say it wasn't anything special, but the service was very good - we had to check out by noon but we couldn't take our stuff to the next place we were staying till the evening and lugging our bags around with us could have ruined our day, but the front desk held our bags for us for no charge and generally the staff seemed really attentive and helpful.
If you need to be near UW, this hotel is a convenient choice.
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