The Woods Cottages & Cabins @ Russian River — Hotel in Guerneville

We were a party of two on an American road trip and spent three nights in a cabin here. Tranquil, relaxed vibe with cats sauntering around and a low-key feel. This place has all the components for a great little resort - private cabins around a nice pool, a beautiful garden which is clearly a priority for the owners, and sunny privacy for guests to relax in. ||But it would need a lot of love to make it great. It feels like the place is winding down. A lick of paint, if not more, is needed to bring the place up. The red traffic cones mentioned in another review from some years ago are a permanent fixture and highlight trip hazards, cracked concrete, and the famous plastic pool cover. Lots of punitive signage was another lowlight - 'don't dive', 'do your dishes or pay $50'. The guests are getting in the way, it seems.||About which…. we were staying in the height of summer - in fact the hottest days so far of 2024 - but this pool cover goes on at 6pm nightly until midday the following day. For a pool resort mid summer that seems just ridiculous. The stated reason was that otherwise the pool would lose its solar heat! But this protective approach to the pool doesn’t extend to actually cleaning it - the ring of grime another reviewer mentioned also seems to be permanent. When we asked for the cover to be removed a little earlier in the day, it felt like we were making a serious imposition even as paying guests. Other patrons seemed to walk to the river for a dip outside these hours, and this may be why The Woods’ direct competitor, 30 yards down the road, is clearly doing much better trade with a younger crowd and better vibe. ||And yet - this place could easily be turned into something stunning under more energetic management. In its heyday it must have been an...

The outside grounds are quite rundown, but the cabin was nice, though for $273, it was extremely small, had zero chairs, just a bed and two bedside tables... and a dresser (who the hell needs a dresser for a brief hotel stay, but again, NO chairs). The kitchen was a great feature, small but well stocked with full size fridge and freezer and oven and sink. ||Why two stars?|Because we booked the room on Hotel Tonight, an app that doesn’t allow you to specify how many people are staying at the hotel. Previously, showing up with our two year old daughter to other hotels booked through the app didn’t require any extra charge, but at this hotel, they made us change rooms (to a significantly better room, which makes me wonder how ridiculously small the original room we booked was), and they charged a $45 “extra person fee” because we had our two year old daughter with us. The original booking price was $145, but with the room upgrade and extra person fee, they charged $273, damn near twice the original booking price. They explained that the reason for such unfriendly policies towards children was because they used to be a gay adult-only resort and only started accepting children because they had hemorrhaged so much money from the pandemic that they needed to fill the rooms by any means necessary. I have no problem with what the place used to be (gay predominant, adults-only), but if they are going to allow you to have a two year old child in your tiny room, they shouldn’t penalize you by charging almost twice as much as you originally booked...

This must be a summer destination if all the other positive reviews are correct. I went in Oct and the place is really neglected. I understand COVID and the nearby wildfires may have affected the economy here, so perhaps that’s why it’s so rundown?||- the basic rooms are good, newly remodeled and true to the pictures on their website.||- just a couple blocks to the Main Street with restaurants (though a lot of them were closed up)||- the pool was unusably dirty. I saw cats drinking water from the pool. ||- the courtyard pictures must be from some previous time - see attached for what I saw||- it looked like there was construction ongoing in the cabins||- the street it’s on was dark, lonely, nearby hotels were deserted and we saw what seemed to be vagrants/homeless right outside the hotel - some visitors may find this setting uncomfortable||- some loud people (not sure if they were guests) took over the outside fireplace area at night and were loud until like 3am - did not see hotel managers doing anything about it||- check-in: there’s a little bell to ring and it may take some time for someone to come check you in. ||||Guerneville in general was rundown and deserted...