Review: The University Arms hotel, Cambridge (Marriott Bonvoy)

This is our review of The University Arms hotel in Cambridge.

I last reviewed this hotel in 2020, during the pandemic, and I wasn’t totally won over. Whilst I never wrote about it, I went back twice in 2022 and managed – using Marriott Bonvoy ‘Nightly Upgrade Awards’ – to get lovely suite upgrades.

I was back in Cambridge for two weekends this month, taking my son to and from a summer camp. On the drop off weekend we tried the Graduate Cambridge hotel, which is now part of Hilton. We may do a review on this later.

On pick up weekend, I decided to try the University Arms again.

This hotel is very good with Nightly Upgrade Awards in my experience. I still had two left to use for 2025 (they are a Platinum Elite benefit, I explain them here) so this was a good opportunity.

What is good is that Nightly Upgrade Awards usually clear five days before arrival. My room (39,000 Bonvoy points) was cancellable two days before arrival. If my upgrade hadn’t cleared I may have cancelled and gone elsewhere, but there’s nowhere better in Cambridge if you want a suite.

The upgrade cleared. Note that, for the 2nd upgrade running, I was not emailed to say that my Nightly Upgrade Award request had succeeded. I only knew when I checked the Bonvoy app.

Without wishing to ruin the rest of the review, paying 39,000 Bonvoy points for a lovely suite in a five star hotel, with breakfast and a guaranteed 4pm check-out via my Platinum Elite status, is an excellent deal.

The hotel website is here.

The University Arms, Cambridge

The University Arms re-opened in 2018 after a whopping £80m refurbishment, which makes it one of the biggest ever regional hotel refurbishments in the UK. To be fair, this sum included substantial building work – replacing an ugly 1960’s extension – with the number of rooms increasing by 75%.

The interiors were designed by Martin Brudnizki, who dominates the London high-end restaurant and hotel design scene. Broadwick Soho, Annabel’s, Sexy Fish, the Rosewood, The Ivy Chelsea Garden etc are from his studio.

If you’ve ever been to any of these places, you will know what to expect – albeit in a tamed down version.

It has a similar feel to the ex-Principal hotels taken over by IHG – Kimpton Clocktower in Manchester, Kimpton Fitzroy in London and what used to be Principal York (now independent). Gleneagles has a similar look and feel.

The hotels is part of Marriott’s ‘Autograph Collection’ brand. This is a group of independent hotels which have chosen to use Marriott’s marketing and booking system. In return, they are required to take part in Marriott Bonvoy.

‘Autograph’ hotels have no fixed brand standards, beyond ‘high quality’, and they are more autonomous than other Marriott brands. You won’t find any Marriott branding on the door, except for a small ‘Autograph’ plaque.

Where is the University Arms hotel?

Cambridge is a small city. The biggest issue is that the railway station is very much on the edge, about a 15-20 minute walk from the centre. The good news is that the University Arms is on the ‘right’ side for the station, on the road which runs into the city, overlooking Parker’s Piece park.

If you divert into the park on the way, you can approach it via the view in the photo above.

As with many hotels of its age, it has taken over various adjoining buildings over the years. This leads to a slightly chaotic interior layout.

The ground floor contains reception and a spacious (and very impressively decorated) restaurant and bar, plus a ballroom. There is a gym but no pool.

My suite at the University Arms

I was chatting to a friend recently who spends a lot of time in Cambridge and she confirmed my own experiences – no hotel in the centre has genuinely good entry level rooms.

At the University Arms, the basic room is classed as ‘Cosy’ and is very small. A ‘Classic’ is acceptable but still not huge.

There is also the issue of park-side vs everything else. The rooms at the back presumably face into the nondescript building behind the hotel. A small number of rooms also appear to overlook interior light wells looking at the fire escape plan.

Basically …. the minimum I would accept here is a park-view Classic room.

My Nightly Upgrade Award cleared into the Virginia Woolf suite. This was identical to the Stephen Hawking suite I had three years ago. On the top floor are some more exotic suites, one of which has its bathroom in a turret / tower. My wife had this once and it is pretty cool.

This is what I got:

It looks a bit empty from that angle, but this angle is more realistic:

Whilst technically a suite, it’s really a huge junior suite because it is only one room, albeit with a divider.

It is very, very classily done. When you hire Martin Brudnizki, you basically get ‘total design’. Everything, down to the cups and saucers, seems to be specifically designed or chosen. Admittedly he had to compromise on the Krups coffee machine, but I’d never seen the kettle design used before, and your coffee capsules come in a specially designed University Arms box.

Martin obviously won’t allow you to have UHT milk either, with mini bottles of real milk in the mini bar. The suites seem to have free soft drinks in their minibars, whilst other rooms just have an empty fridge.

I won’t go on about sockets etc because it all just works. The only thing I found a little odd was that, out of shot in my pictures, four wine glasses were artfully placed on a side table. However, there was no wine – free or chargeable.

(My room also seemed to be missing a bottle opener, which is a problem when you have glass bottle of coke in the mini bar.)

Whilst you can’t see the titles in the photo, trust me that the books on the shelves in the room have also been individually chosen to project a certain vibe.

The wardrobe harks back to the Victorian origins of the hotel – it is a slightly odd look but definitely different:

The bathroom is full-on Victoriana:

…. with a bath:

…. plus separate shower:

…. and loo.

Toiletries are from Bigelow, almost certainly chosen to blend in with the look – this is a switch from the D R Harris amenities it had on my last stay. You still get individual toiletries here, but because Bigelow use aluminium tubes they are fully recyclable.

Here is the view over the (parched) park – the tent is from the comedy festival held last weekend:

Breakfast

We didn’t eat in the hotel in the evening, but did have breakfast in Parker’s Tavern. The room is beautiful – here is a PR photo which is better than anything I could take:

The buffet isn’t huge and is spread across two rooms, albeit not far apart. It has what you’d expect and nothing more.

You can, however, add an a la carte item for £7. You can choose from avocado toast, an omelette, Eggs Benedict, Eggs Royale, Eggs Florentine, a Belgian waffle or porridge. (Bit odd to see porridge as an extra – I assume it is made to order.)

The £7 charge will also apply if you get free breakfast via your Marriott Bonvoy status.

Unfortunately, the hotel made a billing screw-up which has not been fixed at the time of writing despite two emails (both ignored) and a phone call (no return call, despite a promise of receiving one).

Despite being told that my account was clear at the time of check-out, when I received my bill by email a few hours later it included the cost of two buffet breakfasts. This should have been free due to my elite status. They owe me £50+.

Conclusion

This is a bit thinner than our usual hotel reviews because I was in Cambridge to do ‘other stuff’ and was only in the hotel for one night, eating elsewhere.

That said, the more I stay there, the more I am impressed by the University Arms.

I’d go so for as to say that it’s one of the top city centre hotels outside London – as long as you get a larger and park view room.

If you’ve got Nightly Upgrade Awards to use, it is especially recommended. This is not only because the suites are impressive but because (unless I am just lucky on my last three visits) they have a good chance of clearing.

Pricing is all over the place. It was around £180 / 39,000 points for a ‘Cosy’ room last Friday, but this is out of term time. You can pay substantially more than this on a peak day, but if it’s expensive here then it will be similarly expensive at the Graduate (not as good, apart from the outdoor garden), the Hilton etc.

The University Arms website is here if you want to find out more.

PS. Booking for cash?

If you are booking the University Arms for cash, you can get extra benefits if you book via our luxury hotel booking partner Emyr Thomas at Bon Vivant.

He is able to access Marriott’s ‘Luminous’ programme which gets you:

• $100 food and beverage credit
• Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
• Complimentary breakfast for two
• Welcome amenity
• Early check-in/late check-out, subject to availability

You pay exactly the same rate as the Best Flexible Rate showing on the Marriott website, and pay at check-out as usual.

You can contact Emyr via the form on this page of HfP.