Blanco River Hotel — Hotel in Blanco

This review is especially for those considering booking a block of rooms here for a wedding or other event. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. That’s much easier said than done because it is the only hotel large enough in the area (you probably found the hotel on an internet search because of its location in the first place) – Dripping Springs would’ve been a 45 minute / one hour drive for our wedding guests to our venue and the Holiday Inn hill country vacations place wasn’t very inspiring either. As for the actual review…THE GOOD: Josie is super nice and really does try her best with what she’s been handed. Working with her was literally the only bright spot, so I just want to give credit where it’s due. I wish her nothing but the best. THE BAD: where to start? For the entire wedding planning process, working with the hotel and nailing down the room block was the most stressful part of it. In what world is the room block the hardest part of wedding planning?? Maybe because our other vendors were so great to work with, it made this hotel seem inept, disrespectful and downright negligent, but I think the Blanco River Hotel actually was that bad. From the beginning, they failed to live up to almost every single promise and deliverable. It took 6 months to even get a contract – and when we did, it was one that my wife and I had to write ourselves and get them to sign because they dragged their feet so badly! While dealing with the hotel, it went through no less than 4 management changes because every new team that came in saw what a crapshoot it was and quit. With management constantly shifting, scheduled renovations were constantly pushed back as well. In fact, when we did finally get a contract, the room prices were increased approximately 50% because the hotel committed to having all the renovations complete which would’ve added a full bar and lounge area on top of a redesigned foyer and new furniture. Six months before the wedding, I got the sense that our guests would end up walking into an active construction zone. Of course, management said that there was no way they would allow that to happen and everything would be totally good to go. They said this multiple times over the next six months. And yet, when my wife and I pulled up the Friday before our wedding to drop off things for the hospitality suite, there is scaffolding on the front of the building with workers climbing up and down and doing construction. And half the parking lot was full of shipping containers. No full service bar and no new furniture either. It was also a miracle any of our guests were able to book, because the hotel’s phones are so messed up that when you call, it’s a 50/50 shot anyone will ever know you called in the first place because the call isn’t transferred! We had a number of rooms to reach in order to receive shuttle service, and we missed that number because guests chose to stay elsewhere after losing confidence in hotel management. Management of course responded by saying that they’d be happy to take the guests back but would hold us to the room count. They missed the point that guests TRIED to make reservations but no one even answered the phone! The guests at that point didn’t want to stay there. And sometimes, guests were able to get in touch via phone, but were told that either there wasn’t a room block in our name or that the room block was full. Why not just use a code online? Yeah, our question too – but because of the constant management changes, they couldn’t get their booking system set up for room blocks via...

In this small town of Blanco, this seemed like a great place to stay.. arrival was great along with check in. BUT little did I know our whole weekend would be ruined come that evening. I was a bridesmaid in my best friends wedding, had been looking forward to a weekend with old friends and some time away with my husband for an entire year due to covid! We had reserved one of the blocked off rooms for the wedding guests back months ago. I was told it was a suite with 2 queen beds. Ok, great! Well sure enough, it was a room with 2 queen beds, nothing else. The night of the rehearsal my sister, sister in law, and niece decided to drive to Blanco because they were the hairstylist responsible for hair and makeup for the wedding party the next morning starting at 7am. They would have had to leave by 4am Saturday to make it by 7am to Blanco. I offered them to stay in our room in the extra bed my husband and I had in our room since they needed to drive up that night. We got to the hotel about 1:15am from rehearsal dinner. Went upstairs, realized this “suite” had no pull out couch or anything so my husband went back downstairs to get a rollaway bed and a blanket for our 5th person. (2 queens will hold 4 people, we had 5.) The wife of the “owner” told us it would be $25 extra, great, we were good with paying. Out of nowhere the “owner” comes out and says “no, you cannot have a rollaway” “you say 2 guest, now you have 5. Not how it works.” Proceeded to tell us if we had more guests it would have been more expensive. So we asked “are you charging per person or per room? We paid for a room.” He told us not to question him. “Do not interrogate me!” We asked what the price difference would have been for 4 guest vs 2? We were told $189 instead of $169. So again, we offered to pay that extra $20 plus the $25 for the rollaway. Immediately he told me “no, you cannot. Not how this works.” We asked for another room, he said they were booked, none available. So I asked him what our options were if he was NOT accepting our extra payment, (now that it was about 2am), and he immediately told me “you need to take your business elsewhere, I do not want you here. I am calling the COPS!” Calling the cops?!!!! I was so blown away. I could not even process the situation. Immediately 2 cops come walking in to ESCORT us off the property. We were literally put out of our room at 2am! Called 4 different hotels in a 30 mile radius recommended to try by the officers, and of course no rooms available. We then drove back to the wedding venue to SLEEP IN OUR CARS! We had to sleep in our cars because we were refused a rollaway bed when we OFFERED multiple times to pay the differences and the $25 for the additional bed!!!! There was never any arguments, no raised voices, NOTHING! I made them give me a print out stating we would NOT be charged for our room. I will forever stand by this review. It ruined a great weekend for a lot of people. The only positive taken away from the whole chaos were the polite officers that were called that night! You could tell this was a frequent call they get from this hotel by the look on their faces. They tried their best to help us find a place to relocate to and we truly appreciated it! I will NOT recommend this hotel to anyone! Call the RV park down the road, with cabins, and a great...

An absolutely abysmal experience.

We stayed here for one night. Upon check in they charged a much higher rate than my reservation that I made months prior. The individual at the desk stated only a manager could look at the booking details (I would hear this many times in my repeated contacts with this place).

That night we were woken by the fire alarms going off at around midnight. We were advised that it was a false alarm and "probably someone smoking". Upon returning to our room we were then treated to the sites and sounds of a group of firemen smashing open the ceiling of the room across the hall. This went on for 45 or so minutes before they presumably found what they were looking for and departed.

After finally trying to relax and fall asleep we were again woken by fire alarms going off at 4-5 am. Again we evacuate, again we are told "false alarm".

Upon speaking to a manager at the front desk to check out, she was fairly nonplussed by our experience and complained about how she had to come into work early at 7am and deal with a destroyed room. Presumably she was not woken multiple times in the night so I found it hard to feel very sympathetic for her? No offer of compensation for the night of no sleep or hassle of overcharge.

I finally got refunded the amount a couple days later, but then was charged again twice the amount of the refund. After calling multiple times and being told only a manager could investigate the issue and apparently none are around except for a couple hours each day, I finally got ahold of a general manager who sounded apologetic and assured me within 10 days I would get a full refund and likely some credit towards my room rate as well. She promised to email me as soon as the refund was complete.

2 weeks later I again reached out, as I had not received any communication or refund, and was again forced to leave a message for a manager. A day or so later, I finally got a refund for the second overcharge, and no further credit, or communication was ever extended to me.

The room was ok, the bathroom was dirty, and the breakfast lacking.

I strongly advise against staying at...