Riverhouse at the Park — Hotel in Gatlinburg

We first stayed at the original Riverhouse Motor Lodge for our honeymoon several decades ago. I cried for a week when it burned down during the 2016 fires. Thank goodness they built the second hotel. ||They designed it to look like the original Motor Lodge so it feels like you’re staying at the original Motor Lodge. Every room at the original place had a balcony over the river. The Park location has rooms on the river and rooms on Ski Mountain Rd which is very noisy but not so bad when the doors are closed. Every room has a fireplace but the Park fireplaces are gas whereas the Motor Lodge had wood burning fireplaces due to changes in zoning codes.||They serve a continental breakfast of donuts or toast, orange juice and coffee. We skip this because of the great breakfast restaurants in Gatlinburg.||We didn’t get any pool time this visit because there were too many people in the pool almost all the time. But it’s a nice little pool.||They accommodate Service Dogs. This was our first visit with our Pom puppy Service Dog and he did great! The housekeepers loved him.🥰||We always stay at this hotel and plan to always stay there whenever we go home to the mountains. The rooms are clean and the river is so nice to sit by and rest. You can walk anywhere around Gatlinburg and walk to the quiet nature trail at the entrance to the national park from the Riverhouse.||This trip was unfortunately tainted on our drive up by a very traumatic experience we had at the Calhoun, GA, Buc-cees when an aggressive male staff decided my certified Service Dog wasn’t really a Service Dog and forced me to leave by threat of calling the cops and having me trespassed. He wouldn’t let me use the bathroom. I had to go across the busy road to the Love’s. See my Buc-cees review for details. The rest of the trip was affected by what happened. It was like a dark energy was hovering around us that continued even after we got home. But our stay at the Riverhouse was still...

We first stayed at the original Riverhouse Motor Lodge for our honeymoon several decades ago. I cried for a week when it burned down during the 2016 fires. Thank goodness they built the second hotel. ||They designed it to look like the original Motor Lodge so it feels like you’re staying at the original Motor Lodge. Every room at the original place had a balcony over the river. The Park location has rooms on the river and rooms on Ski Mountain Rd which is very noisy but not so bad when the doors are closed. Every room has a fireplace but the Park fireplaces are gas whereas the Motor Lodge had wood burning fireplaces due to changes in zoning codes.||They serve a continental breakfast of donuts or toast, orange juice and coffee. We skip this because of the great breakfast restaurants in Gatlinburg.||We didn’t get any pool time this visit because there were too many people in the pool almost all the time. But it’s a nice little pool.||They accommodate Service Dogs. This was our first visit with our Pom puppy Service Dog and he did great! The housekeepers loved him.🥰||We always stay at this hotel and plan to always stay there whenever we go home to the mountains. The rooms are clean and the river is so nice to sit by and rest. You can walk anywhere around Gatlinburg and walk to the quiet nature trail at the entrance to the national park from the Riverhouse.||This trip was unfortunately tainted on our drive up by a very traumatic experience we had at the Calhoun, GA, Buc-cees when an aggressive male staff decided my certified Service Dog wasn’t really a Service Dog and forced me to leave by threat of calling the cops and having me trespassed. He wouldn’t let me use the bathroom. I had to go across the busy road to the Love’s. See my Buc-cees review for details. The rest of the trip was affected by what happened. It was like a dark energy was hovering around us that continued even after we got home. But our stay at the Riverhouse was still...

First things first.

The staff, from the front desk to the maid service to the midnight operator are uniformly cheerful, friendly, and genuinely helpful. The price is extremely reasonable for a tourist town.

The rooms. Each room is large and has a jacuzzi-jetted bathtub/shower. The beds were plain but comfortable. Plenty of really great soft towels (as opposed to typical scratchy hotel towels). Lots of hot hot water. Each room has a balcony with a small table and several chairs, and indoors is a dinette table with two chairs, a love seat, easy chair, and even a fireplace!

The rooms had dated decor, were dark, and a bit worn. For example the carpet looks brand new, and the bathroom sink and commode look new, but the shower tile has mildewed grout and the mini fridge looked 15 years young. Everything was FULLY FUNCTIONAL and spotlessly clean. There is a microwave but don't let the "kitchen included" tag mislead you.

The amenities. The washroom had a washer and dryer that did a great job with one cycle. At $1 per machine that's a fine deal! The swimming pool is clean, good sized, and situated outdoors higher than the 2nd floor but lower than the 3rd floor rooms. The adjoining hot tub tower had the hot tub hole decked over...so no hot tub unless you get one of the rooms with the private ones.

Every morning you get complimentary breakfast. Continental breakfast. As in European breakfast. As in a cup of coffee and a croissant. In this case, you get a house made cake donut (or toast) and coffee (or OJ) delivered to your room when you are ready for it (just call). Extra donuts and coffee and a daily paper available in the lobby till they run out about noon. Yum!

All in all, if you don't mind a rustic, dated look, but insist on a clean, roomy, comfortable place, this is the value proposition of the century. I'll be back. You will want to...