Gatlinburg Inn — Hotel in Gatlinburg

The Historic Gatlinburg Inn is like stepping back into time staying with my Grandparents whom were born in the 1930-1940's. I am 33 years young, and remember the comfort of staying in my Grandparents home in the hollar of the Hocking Hills in Ohio. The Gatlinburg Inn brings back those wonderful memories or comfort and hospitality that existed as a child of the 90's. This hotel offers a nostalgic theme of memories and southern hospitality. It is an older hotel built in 1937, it WILL NOT offer the most modern appeal, however, you are walking into time and what life looked like in the 1960-1970's era, and as I am older I greatly appreciate it. We live in a world of disrespectful adults, children and much more. This place has amazing staff with again 'Southern Hospitality', extremely clean rooms that are aged to resemble the times it was established (NO gray or white walls here), the front porch of the hotel and the southern breakfast offered daily from 7am-10am are delicious. Yes, the walls are thin and you will likely hear other guest walking the room above you, again the building is 88 years old. Do you remember living in an older home and hearing every foot-step and the crackling of the solid hard wood floors? If not, you were spoiled and should likely go to the Hilton. Again at 33 years young, a REALTOR® from Ohio, I appreciate the older things and those that are built and have character, and The Gatlinburg Inn showcases character and history. While you are visiting, I encourage you to walk the hallways at the historic photos of when it was constructed and it was the only Inn/hotel/lodge on the whole strip, and read the history on how the Federal Government came and purchased the founding families land in the Smokie's to convert it into a National Park. History may rewrite it self, however, I am appreciative of this hotel still standing. The family and/or owners could have easily sold the land and pocketed millions of dollars to a billion-dollar chain, however the history is still standing. I enjoyed my second visit, and will always...

Disappointing Stay at Gatlinburg Inn

My stay at the Gatlinburg Inn was underwhelming, to say the least. Accessibility Issues: The hotel entrance is extremely inconvenient. You must access it from the main street, which requires making a right turn in notoriously congested traffic. Despite being able to see the hotel from the back street, we couldn’t enter from that side as it’s completely closed off. It took us nearly 45 minutes to navigate from the back to the front entrance—an incredibly frustrating start to our stay.

Outdated Amenities: While the hotel markets itself as traditional and historic, the amenities fall far short of modern standards. The room had very few power outlets, making it difficult to charge our phones and devices. The lighting was extremely dim throughout, giving the space an uncomfortably dark, dated atmosphere.

The room’s single switch controlled both the hallway and bedroom lights simultaneously, offering no flexibility. If you wanted subtle lighting at night without full brightness, there was simply no option. We resorted to leaving the bathroom light on just to have some ambient light.

Room Quality Concerns: Our “patio view” overlooked a storage area filled with scaffolding and broken AC units—hardly the scenic experience we expected. The bathroom lacked an exhaust fan, which was quite uncomfortable. Even the TV was problematic, with such poor picture quality that watching NFL games was difficult due to the grainy display.

Breakfast Layout: The breakfast setup was disorganized and inconvenient. Items were scattered illogically throughout a large room—cereal dispensers in one corner, milk in the opposite corner, coffee on one side with creamer and sugar 10-15 feet away. This made the breakfast experience unnecessarily tedious.

Final Thoughts: I rarely write negative reviews, but after reading so many positive reviews about this property, I felt compelled to share our contrasting experience. Unfortunately, our stay did not live up to...

We just stayed here from 7/22-8/24 for the Gatlinburg bigfoot expo. I payed over 500 for a “parlor suite” for the weekend. A parlor suite is not what I had in mind. Essentially it’s a normal room that has an extra sitting room attached, but it’s shared with another room on the other side. So unless you have both rooms, you could have random strangers walk in with you. That aside, I get what this hotel is going for. The quaint old historic feeling “inn”. They definitely nailed that objective, but to a fault. It’s a very clean and well maintained OLD building. The hallways are narrow, stairwells are steep, elevator is small. The room was clean and well appointed, but it was just too dated feeling. The floors were uneven and sloping everywhere throughout the hotel. And the furniture while vintage felt old and ready to break. The bathroom was the most updated part of the room. Endless hot water was great. Also the mattresses…they need to replace them ASAP. My wife and I, as well as our kids agreed it was like sleeping on plywood. And they were definitely full size beds, not twin queens.

This things aside, they front desk staff were lovely. The hot breakfast crew was delightful as well, and the food was hot, fresh and plentiful. Good variety also. There are several seating areas in the lobby and it’s a nice place to be overall. The location is the best part of this place. We were 60 seconds from the convention center and EVERYTHING. Made the downsides more worth it. It’s great because you have secured parking and can walk everywhere. The lot does fill up though, our second night I got the last spot left.

I would recommend this place. It does take you back in time, though I wish it left me wanting to stay longer. I hope they do some more updating in the future that helps match the customer service and other positives this place...