Calistoga Motor Lodge & Spa — Hotel in Calistoga

I'm sharing my experience so you can avoid a suboptimal experience.

TL;DR: They have the space and setting, but they do not have the staff or bandwidth to handle a busy long weekend. The theme of the weekend was "unfortunately we are out" and "it is not working." We felt like an inconvenience when we should not.

If you're looking for a romantic getaway and enjoy using the pool and hot tub, I do not recommend this place. The pools and hot tubs are small and overfilled with young kids, and it closes at 10:30pm.

Background: A group of 6 girlfriends stayed in 2 double queen rooms on the 2nd floor with a balcony facing the parking lot over MLK weekend to celebrate a milestone birthday.

CONS: they had a hard time understanding our requests for adjacent rooms and early check in because we had to make several phone calls prior to arrival and they still checked in the wrong room and deactivated card keys for another room missing glass of wine on arrival or reusable bottle that is promised in the resort fees Sergio at the front desk could not issue more than 2 card keys because they are "running low" and issues a key fob that does not work very well for our 3 day, 2 night stay having to ask for extra robes and towels instead of being offered shows lack of foresight and consideration (rooms can accommodate up to 4 people) one of the rooms has 2 lamps, one of which is non functional (checked to make sure it was plugged in and tried other outlets) the shower handle breaks off in one of the bathrooms--see photo (very fortunate none of us slip and fall and hurt ourselves) not enough pool towels available and having to ask front desk staff who have minimal interest in providing basic customer service restaurant on site, Fleetwood, was understandably busy on 1/18, but our server forgot to grab our second order of bread and still charged us. Definitely forgot about us at the end of the night as we had to walk up to the bar and ask for the bill correction and running our card. during check out, the manager was not available, and there were other unsatisfied customers who wanted to speak with management. There's only one woman working the front desk during checkout time. She helped us comp our resort fees when we informed her of the issues--shoutout to her the only water fill station near the front desk is out of commission all holiday weekend. It never worked, and on our first full day, the front desk lady stated, "There are many people using it this weekend and it is slow to refill." Fifteen minutes after my encounter with her, I passed by the water fill station and there was an out of order sign.

PROS: free parking convenient location reasonable price outdoor fire pit with cute string lights that look amazing at night (photo attached)

Suggestion: Spend the extra money and go to Indian Springs down the road. I continue to be loyal to Indian Springs because they know how to make their customers feel valued and...

This place has gone down hill. We have been coming here for over 5 years multiple times a year and I am sadly more & more disappointed each time. I tried to Give them the benefit of the doubt that they were building and under construction or covid but now that they’re done and Covid isn’t a big thing-there’s no excuse. I won’t be going back :( this was a family tradition and we are going to seek else where going forward.

Although the beds are super comfy, they changed their coffee from delicious equator to some local coffee that was not good. And the only give you ONE BAG that is single serve. Give two at least! Especially since I paid for two adults. (TIP-You can ask for more at lobby when you check -in)

The warm pool was cold. About 78 deg. And it was raining and cold. Turn it up to at least 89 for the cold season! The hot tub was not relaxing at all because there was a ton of kids in there with noodles blowing the jets out and splashing everyone and being loud. Where is the pool monitor or security to stop this type of thing from happening? The kids are technically not even allowed in the spa, which is in the written rules posted nearby. You think they’d have someone walking around to clean up all the soppy towels around and everybody’s drinks and also to enforce the rules. Dogs aren’t allowed either and there was one in the pool area.

The spa no longer does mud a la Carte. It used to be you can go in there and paint yourself with lovely French mud and it would get rid of my eczema! Now you have to pay for an overpriced facial or massage AND then you can only ADD ON a $100 mud paint on top of that. And I bet they switched to a cheaper mud that isn’t as good. The menu did not say anything about it being from France lol. This place used to be a more affordable option than it’s pricey neighbor Indian Springs and it is just like the rest now. Overpriced and over rated. At least Indian Springs makes it worth it. They used to also have a very cute board up of some retro games in the rooms and hula hoops, etc. and the board was very slim and sad. You can get games from the front desk now and they have a pretty good variety To pick from.

Location is okay. It’s a good walk to downtown and right now there aren’t sidewalks and tons of construction that also went all night long and kept us up at night and kept my dog barking.

The restaurant online menu was inaccurate. I really wanted Cioppino - which you would think would be perfect for this season but when I got to the Restaurant it wasn’t on the menu and they said it wasn’t available anymore. I wouldn’t waste my time going to this restaurant, I would definitely recommend Sam social club instead.

I’ll be staying at Doctor...

My wife and I were really disappointed with our stay. We only booked one night, which is good, as I wouldn’t have wanted to stay longer.

We booked one of the older motor lodge rooms, which - from the pictures and website description - we assumed were remodeled, clean, and well appointed. But while the room may have looked good from far, it was far from good. First, and the worst, was the bathroom. It wasn’t clean. The walls next to the sink were speckled with something… organic? It wasn’t a lot, but with something that gross even a little bit is too much. The grout in the floor was a dark brownish grey. At some point it had been white, and apparently someone gave up trying to clean it 5 or 10 years ago. There were broken and missing tiles in the shower floor, and the holes looked unhygienic. The toilet seat was straight out of the 1990s, and was so well used the finish was completely worn off in places. It wasn’t even a soft close seat. Toilet seats are like $20. There’s no excuse for a toilet seat to be in such poor condition. Then there was the hair dryer, with filters SO clogged with hair and lint it belched a noxious odor of burned hair and funk when it was turned on. Again, it’s like $20 to replace these things, and easy enough to clean. There’s no excuse for it to be in such poor condition. Not in a “4 star” hotel, and not for $500 a night.

The mattress and bedding were - at best - 3 star quality. As I lay on an abnormally fat pillow, I could count the individual springs pushing into my back in the mattress below me, and I tossed and turned all night.

To top it off, the linoleum floor inside the front door was ever so slightly sticky in places. Just enough to make us uncomfortable walking barefoot anywhere.

We also visited the Moonacre spa, and I have mixed feelings. Staff were amazing, but both the hot tub and steam room were out of order. The bathrooms & communal relaxation areas were small for the number of treatment rooms. So we had a great mineral soak in clawfoot tubs & awesome massages, but it would have been better with a steam and comfy seating to relax for a bit.

Hotel was quiet, and we had no problems with parking. “Snacks and drinks in the room are complimentary,” but in our room that was 2 bottles of water and single small bag of chips. In-room coffee was sub-par, and only included 1 serving of caffeinated coffee.

2/5, would not recommend. Seriously disappointed in this...