Gatlinburg River Inn — Hotel in Gatlinburg

Oh man. Where do I even start? I booked this place last minute on one of the busiest weekends in Gatlinburg after the 7 other places I called were booked. The fact that they had rooms should’ve been my first warning sign. I called the day prior to our stay to request a 2 o’clock check-in time, and they agreed.

When we arrived, it was 3:00. I walked in and could tell I had interrupted the front desk agent from the game on his phone. I got no smile, no friendly ‘hello’, just a short “check-in is at 4!” I explained I called the day before to request an earlier time and once he found my reservation, he somewhat simmered down. The building itself looks NOTHING like the pictures and is very out dated.

We got to our room and while the room itself wasn’t terrible, it’s nothing to brag about. There is no warmth in the room, no carpet, limited decor. It feels cold, bare, and utilitarian. The furniture is scuffed, pictures are hanging sideways, and everything just looks used. The baseboards are dusty, ceiling corners had spiderwebs. And bring an extra blanket, the beds have limited bedding and are cold. I HIGHLY recommend bringing a sound machine as the walls are thin and you can hear every car that drives by. The bed also “pops” at the foot of it due to the cheaply thrown together metal frame.

I also hope that you don’t need more towels during your stay. They don’t clean your room and when I called the front desk to request more towels be sent to our room, the front desk agent said, “carry your dirty towels down to the front desk and then you can get new ones.” Okayyy, odd but I did so. Upon carrying down our dirty towels, the desk agent proceeded to open every towel to “check for stains” while 3 other groups were around. I was mortified.

Now… the breakfast. While it might be included in the cost, save yourself and go somewhere else. The breakfast itself was tasteless, the coffee tasted watered down, and options were very limited. The best part of the breakfast were the oranges… which was ironically the only thing that wasn’t made by this place. The eggs tasted like they were made from powder and the sausage was sitting in luke warm water and rather than REPLACE the tray with the few pieces of sausage left with a new tray, the breakfast attendent just dumped more sausage into the luke warm, old sausage water… food safety issues at its finest. The breakfast area is TINY and it is HOT and stuffy to the point my glasses were fogged up the entire time. The scary part is, the 35 minutes we were down there, the breaker blew 6 times. Breakers blow because the circuit is overloaded and having to reswitch the breaker every 7 minutes (NOT an exaggeration) is a major fire hazard. The first time it happened, another guest looked at me and said, “don’t worry, this happened a lot yesterday morning, too!” The breakfast agent and front desk agent BOTH were taking turns flipping it back on.

The owner checked off boxes saying it has a bed, desk, fire place… but it’s all dated, it’s all put together poorly, but they charge like it’s a 4 star hotel. The owner needs to have more concern for quality and actually take pride in his/her establishment. The few staff we came across were cold and unfriendly. The front desk agent was very rude, the breakfast attendent didn’t speak when spoken too.

The motel is as far out as it can be to make it ‘walkable’ but it does have a trolley stop nearby, but each time we attempted to get on the trolley it was full so we ended up having to walk. For anyone who requires assistance, has children, or doesn’t want to brave the rain to get into the main drag of Gatlinburg, don’t trust the trolley to get you there.

Next time we make our way back to Gatlinburg, we will ensure we don’t wait until the last minute to book a room… we truly left sad that it was such a horrible stay and the high cost was not worth it.

To the owner: do better. MUCH better!!! To the staff: treat your guests with...

We walked in with no greeting, I had to say we were checking in for the guy to acknowledge us. Room 321 was not the cleanest.. There were cobwebs on the lights by the coat hanger and also on the ceiling by the balcony door. There was an odd brown substance, soda maybe, splattered on the wall above the TV. Most of the ceiling had, what appeared to be, mold spots. You could clearly see there had been (or still might be) a leak running down the wall next to one of the beds. There was hair everywhere. The floor felt/looked dirty, I ended up spraying it with lysol and cleaning it myself. The towels were VERY dingy and every single one had stains. There was a half used roll of toilet paper left in the bathroom.

Also, we checked out a day early well before check out time, but ended up turning back because my fiance was sick. I talked to the girl at the front desk and asked if we could check back in. I guess it wasn't possible to get us back into the same room even though we had left maybe 45 minutes prior. She got us into another room two doors down and luckily we didn't have to wait to check in at 3. It was much nicer compared to the other room. Only thing was the shower didn't have a shower curtain and the toilet was messed up. Everytime we sat down/stood up it made a clanking noise. Needless to say we ended up leaving before the morning.

I checked my bank account after we got home and still had been charged the full amount, plus the "new" reservation we had to make. I contacted the property and explained to them we checked out early only to have to come back to get another room. Steven White, the manager on duty, informed me that I canceled my reservation so per their cancelation policy I was getting charged a cancelation fee. By the way, I couldn't find the cancelation policy anywhere on their website. The only thing I received with a cancelation policy was an email after booking that stated we had two days prior to arrival to cancel or we'd be charged the first nights stay. It doesn't say anything about checking out early in the policy. So essentially they charged us twice for one night from two different reservations. I asked for the number to talk to whomever is over him and he said there wouldn't be anyone to talk to for 10 days because the general manager was out sick. He didn't know the GM's last name either which makes me suspect his credibility, especially if he's...

We stayed in April 2025. Be sure to know when the Rod Run is happening in Pigeon Forge before planning your arrival time. Traffic during that event turned the last few miles before the hotel into an extra hour. That whole Rod Run weekend seems to be pretty in Gatlinburg.

The location is the draw for this hotel! Such an amazing experience to stay that close to a river. You feel like you're almost on top of it! If you like the sound of constant white noise or pouring rain, you won't be disappointed! It's not too loud inside the room with the door closed, but on the balcony it's pretty loud. Too cool! The sound of the roaring river lulled us right to sleep every night.

We were told that the hot tub was out of order for the day upon check-in, but we're told the pool was up and running. The hot tub appeared out of order for our entire stay instead of just one day. The pool needed to be cleaned, and the water was also very cold. It was 85 degrees outside, and swimming would have been nice, but the conditions of the pool weren't welcoming.

Room 308 pros: nice full length mirror outside bathroom, local artwork, love seat that was also a pull-out sleeper(which we didn't use, but it's a nice amenity you don't see everywhere), ample , well-positioned electrical outlets, king mattress in a zippered protector; no bugs- thank you! No weird smells or anything like that inside the room. Two chairs on balcony. TV with enough channel options to suit. Shampoo, conditioner and body wash dispensers in the shower.

Room 308 cons: Broken secondary lock on door to hallway(The door felt secure with the first lock, but second lock was hanging on by a thread). No weather stripping on the door to the balcony. No table on the balcony. Half the light switches didn't do anything in the bathroom(the light and the fan worked no problem though). Cigarette smoke smell from people actively smoking was hard to avoid on the balcony. Not sure where it was coming from though. The area hallway outside the room smelled like motor oil, but the smell was contained there. TV remote took a few button presses to make something happen. Removable shower head was a nice thought, but there's not enough water pressure to accommodate...