Comfort Suites Alamo/River walk — Attraction in San Antonio

The entire experience was disappointing, cheap, and quite frankly insulting in the way it demonstrated how little consideration or regard the hotel has for their guests with the number of things that were downright unpleasant that wouldn’t have to be if just the most basic expected level of consideration of a guests experience from a hotel in this price range was evident. It wasn’t. From the very beginning, things were going wrong. First, check in. The desk attendant was slow to be alerted, slow to complete the check in steps, lacked awareness of our very apparent state of tiredness and disinterest at the late hour we were finally able to arrive as he droned on about hotel features we didn’t ask or care about. When we got to our room on the third floor, the key cards didn’t work. After going downstairs to address this and then back to the room, they still didn’t work. We called down to the front desk from our cell phone. The attendant said he’d come up to see what the problem was. He never appeared. Eventually, we decided to keep trying the key cards, just because, and tried all the ways we had before. To our surprise, finally, on one of the many attempts, the door light flashed green, and we were finally in.

The room seemed okay but obviously old and outdated. Fine, not unexpected. But the pillows. Usually, there is an extra one or two somewhere in a drawer or closet. Not here. They were tiny, unsupportive, old and lacking adequate structure. They had a terrible smell. I don’t know what it was, but it was very musty in nature. The TV was very small. Fine. Whatever. Not a smart TV. Disappointing, but whatever, fine. I think it’s ridiculous for hotels to not keep up with modern entertainment basics while advertising their outdated-by-a-decade television offerings as an actual amenity, but I digress. But then even the channels advertised wouldn’t even work. All but a small handful displayed a connection error of sorts. So cheap. Whatever. We gave up and went to bed, it was late anyway, but we usually like to have some sort of comfort show as background noise or to go to sleep to.

The next day, basic condiments were missing from breakfast. I wanted my morning coffee with cream and sugar. Not happening. Okay. Fine. Go to take a shower. And there is no. Hot. Water. I waited for nearly five minutes, and the water only turned from almost warm to freezing cold when I thought the almost warm meant it was finally warming up and began my shower.

The most basic simple comfort expected from the most affordable of accommodation options, a hot shower, was not accessible. Worse, the situation resulted in a most uncomfortable cold shower, leading to an even worse experience.

Upon calling the front desk, which was difficult, as there was no phone in the room, we were told no one else complained and was I sure I let the water run for long enough? I assured them, yes I did. They offered to allow us to switch rooms. I asked, are there separate water heaters for different parts of the hotel? Or is all the water coming from the same place? Were they sure this was an actual solution, or were they willing to have us go through the motions and hassle of switching rooms only to have the same problem? They said they’d call me back. They never did. I never had a missed call on the cell I used to call them. They claimed they called the room phone. How?? There was no room phone!!

The next morning, there was again no hot water. When going downstairs to complain in person this time, we overheard another guest complaining about the same thing to the front desk, and very distraught over the impact this was having on her and her small children. A second guest chimed in that they had complained about the same problem the day before (so we were lied to when told no one else complained, as if that changed anything in the first place.)

There’s more little things, but honestly I’m tired of typing, and I’ve said enough to show how dismally upsetting the hotel’s condition and service was. I’m still so upset I had to actually pay for an experience that literally ruined my...

I dont ever write reviews for anything but I feel that this one is needed. My family of 5, husband and I, and our 3 kids (ages: 6,4,3) booked a room for 6 nights with the express deal on Priceline. Upon check in- 'manager on site' was very vague. She seemed tired or very aggravated about something. She hurried to collect my information and advised of a $16.24 parking fee. I was not informed of any parking fee when I booked the room. She stated that anything downtown is going to charge a fee to park...which was false! There is a subtle amount of parking spaces in the front of the hotel, but most of the times- they were completely full. Which lead us to park under the freeway bridge. There are not any security cameras to monitor the vehicles that have parked over there, and the security guard was only there on Fridays and Saturday; could be due to the fact there is a bar right behind the hotel, that plays loud music until 3-4 am. I feel like it could have been advised, especially with little ones, that the bar was on that side and offer to get a room elsewhere. Our room was booked as: Double Queen Suite (supposedly all rooms have sofa beds)) Most Suites have a separate room separating the living room from the bedroom or kitchenette. Don't get your hopes up with this "SUITE." It's just a regular room with double beds...and the sofa bed was a no-go also no kitchenette. During our initial check on the room, we noticed that the mini fridge door would not shut completely. Immediately we called down to the front desk and told the front desk attendant. She did have sympathy and advised that she can't do anything tonight due to not having a maintenance man on duty for the night. The pool was still open, so we decided to take the kids down to relax after a long drive. There was floating evidence that someone vomited in the pool earlier that day and it wasn't cleaned. We then informed her about the vomit, and she again had sympathy for the incident. At this time, she asked would we like another room due to the fridge; I told her of course because we had 6 nights with 3 kids. IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW! She then said she would "note it" for us to move to another room in the morning and would look over our booking to see if she could give us some kind of discount due to the inconvenience. Because of the mess in the pool, we went back to the room. Told the kids to go ahead and take a shower, first in was my daughter, the bathtub was so slippery, she slipped and fortunately didn't hurt or break anything. The cable entertainment was also terrible. There was maybe a total of 10 channels that you could actually watch, and the other 60 channels were only audio. My husband went back downstairs, and as he was on his way down... the front desk clerk was on her way to talk to us. She told him, she would take the parking fee off for the inconvenience. Here it is day of check out and it still has not been refunded to the account. The next morning the water that we did have in the fridge was slightly cold but could have been colder. The way the cabinet is, the mini fridge sits inside a space at the bottom and the door that shuts the fridge into place actually held the door shut to the fridge, but the door on the fridge still didn't close all the way. My husband put a rolled-up towel between the two doors, and that seem to keep our fridge shut. There was never a maintenance man that came to look at the fridge, nor did we get into another room. The free daily breakfast was mediocre. Every day the hot breakfast was powered eggs, rolled or flat sausage, and waffles- with ONLY 1 maker per size, one was for small waffles, and the other was a Texas shaped maker. There was also a choice of bread/toast, bagels, cereal, some muffins and a choice of fruit available. The drinks were coffee, apple and orange juice, and milk. We were not allowed to cancel, but after calling around you could get a better hotel at the Drury Plaza (ON RIVERWALK) for the same price, and they offer breakfast, lunch, and free...

I want to preface this review with 2 important caveats.

1st, the front desk attendant, Michael, was very friendly and helpful. Although he was the only person working during our stay, he was genuinely kind. I want to be clear that any issues I mention here are not related to him.

2nd, I’m not the type to write negative reviews. I appreciate how challenging it is to run a business, and I typically let minor inconveniences go. However, after paying a hefty $265.84 for one night in a downtown San Antonio hotel that felt like it was stuck in some forgotten, dilapidated past, I felt compelled to speak up. This place charges a rate that suggests quality, yet the experience was akin to staying at a run-down roadside motel. The fact that it’s in the heart of San Antonio should mean access to certain standards and conveniences, yet what we encountered was plain bad.

Here’s what $265.84 got us:

Upon check-in, I learned that parking would cost an additional $16 to leave our car under an overpass in an unlit, unsecured lot. Signs warning of thieves lined the area, and the perimeter fence was full of holes large enough for a person to walk through. Not great.

After parking, we followed a trail of cracker crumbs down a dimly lit hallway and waited for the only working elevator, which moved glacially slow as it cycled through every floor. When it finally arrived, we rode up, hopeful that the room might offer some comfort.

Upon entry we immediately noticed a loud club next door blasting bass-heavy bro-country music until 2AM. The bass was so intense we could feel the vibrations in our windows. While the noise level was awful, the view from our window wasn’t much better: it looked directly out onto a congested interstate. Exhaust fumes, which in combination with the music, created an ambiance of sadness. And no, the used earplugs in the closet weren’t an appealing solution.

The room itself looked and felt neglected. Above the bed, wallpaper was peeling off in large patches, and the bed itself had a metallic clank each time we got in or out. The pillows and sheets were visibly worn, with several stains. Adding to the charm, we found food crumbs from a prior guest left on the bedside table.

Hoping to cool off, I went down to the pool. Unfortunately, it was like an ice bath — as was the hot tub. No warm water in sight.

When I returned to the room, I wanted a shower to freshen up. The shower tile had mold growing behind it, and the curtain was frayed, barely hanging onto the rod. Water was lukewarm at best and lasted only a few minutes before going cold, which didn’t exactly instill confidence in its lack of legionella.

morning, we made our way down for breakfast. I followed yet another hallway trail — this time, of someone’s discarded underwear. The sole working elevator had developed an aroma resembling scrambled eggs, setting the stage for the stale and uninspired breakfast spread awaiting us. Ironically, breakfast was probably the highlight of our stay, and that’s saying something.

We left as quickly as we could, with no plans to return. I feel embarrassed to admit I was lured into paying for this experience. Had the room been around $50 a night, I wouldn’t have minded. However, the reality was far from what the online photos promised. For this price, you can find far better hotels just about anywhere...