River Terrace Inn — Hotel in Napa

On a positive note the hotel is right on the river and the view of the river and mountains from the rooms (if you buy a view) and the back patio are stunning. We ordered a hot breakfast in the room each morning and that was very nice. Ok, that is mostly it on the positive side. Now my reasons for 3 stars...

The hotel is nice but it is just a "hotel" not a Napa resort. There is no spa, no pool, not really anything to justify the $700 price tag we spent per night. Other hotels in the area (Archer, Westin, Napa River Inn) offer many other things like a pool and spa and are comparable in price. It is really a Hampton Inn for $700/night.

When we first checked in, we realized the room AC was provided by a wall unit like you would find in a motel. Now when I spend $700/night I expect an advanced climate control system.... not a wall unit. It was rattling so loud that I had to have a repair tech fix the unit when he came up to fix my 32" 15 year old flat screen TV that wasn't working.

Going back to the view from the room, it is truly stunning... if you don't sit down. If you sit down you will be staring at a wooden railing that is basically a 2x6 plank. You cannot move your chair back to change the angle because the balcony is so narrow. The balcony is very dated (more than the room) with spider webs, etc and looks like it hasn't been painted or cleaned in 15 years. You also have to turn off the AC unit in the room while sitting on the balcony because it is so loud you cannot hear the quiet.

Housekeeping was horrible. We had to ask to have our coffee mugs and wine glasses replenished daily. Every day they would clean the room and take our tray and glasses, but they never replenished them.

There is a restaurant on site, but I would describe ALBA as very "coarse" and "unrefined". Now those words describe the service and food. However, the setting is very nice and right on the river with an open and airy bar area and a nice outdoor seating area. We both ordered the Salmon salad cooked medium - It was served rare. How do you mix up rare and medium with fish? They did fix it immediately but no manager stopped by and no consideration was given. Sadly raw salmon was my first experience at the hotel.

The front desk didn't follow through on multiple request and they really didn't know anything and always gave me a "general" answer to any questions. I asked for places to shop for souvenirs and they said Wal-Mart! I asked for the amount of time to allow for rush hour traffic on Monday am when going to San Fran airport and they looked like a deer in headlights and made up answers of "maybe 2-3 hours?" - without a clue.

Bed comfort was another issue and not more than 3 out of 5 stars - not a good sleep.

My final reason for rating this hotel 3 out of 5 stars was my experience with reservations. When I called to reserve I told them exactly what I wanted in the room and I was told the ONLY difference between the deluxe rooms and the luxury rooms with one was that they were a little smaller and basically didn't have a fireplace. Now, I arrive and check in and notice the loud wall-unit AC system and I called the front desk. I was told that only the top luxury rooms were renovated and had a new climate system, not a wall unit (we were the 2nd highest luxury room) and they only had 8 of these top level rooms. I mentioned about booking the room and that they had told me there were virtually no differences in the two rooms except for the fireplace and the front desk corrected me and told me there were MANY differences. I was told only the luxury rooms are new, with hardwood floors, new climate control systems, obviously the fireplace, an updated new balcony, new bedding, and more space. Had I known this I would have IMMEDIATELY booked the luxury room. I am VERY disappointed in the guidance when I called to reserve my room. The picture on the main home page of their website showing the room with a fireplace, and wood flooring? Um, yeah that is only 1 of 8 rooms out of their entire hotel -...

The location of the hotel is very convenient/ walkable to Oxbo Market, Model Bakery and downtown Napa (.5 mile). We were gven a few “buy one, get one free” coupons upon check-in for coffee or house wine, so that was nice. We booked a standard double queen room. It had a small balcony that overlooked the drive/parking lot (which I expected so no big deal). The room itself was pretty plain (i.e., not a lot or charm or high-end features), but clean. The rooms overlooking the River certainly would have had a better view but I didn’t think k it was worth the increased cost given we don't spend much time in the room. Elevators were slow and unfortunately, it seemed that both the housekeeping staff and guests use the same elevators so that’s not ideal. ||The shower was a little weird in that it was hard to get the right temp and water pressure wasn’t great. But I have to say the hotel towels were "the worst" I’ve ever had. I've never found it necessary to comment on towels but these were like sandpaper, literally. I would think it’s an embarrassment for a hotel that bills itself as upscale would provide such awful towels to guests. Maybe not a deal-breaker for me to consider another stay, but I’m hoping the hotel sees this and upgrades their towels. We didn’t eat in the restaurant but the bartender was nice and the outdoor terrace with fire pits by the River was a pleasant place to sit with a glass of wine. (Hard to use the rocker/ glider over gravel however.) I would recommend Model Bakery or Loveski at Oxbo Market for breakfast. We also enjoyed Don Giovanni and Morimoto for dinner. However our splurge was Auberge for lunch, which was fabulous! Obviously there are tons of wineries (we reserved 2 per day with lunch between) but our...

This hotel was beautiful. The room was clean and the amenities were great. However, our experience with check in was very disappointing. We had a very late arrival due to our flight being delayed. We arrived at the hotel a little after midnight, parked, and hauled our luggage to the front doors of the lobby only to find the doors were locked and no one in sight. A sign next to the door stated they close the lobby at 11:30pm and the only way to enter is with a key. There was no doorbell or other way to get a hold of anyone. I called the hotel with no luck. Thinking we couldn’t check in, we hauled our luggage back to the car and went next door to the Westin to see if they had available rooms. The Westin’s front lobby wasn’t locked, and they were very sympathetic to our situation but they were at 100% capacity and could not provide us a room. Before heading over to another hotel in search of a room, I decided to go back to the River Terrace Inn to try our luck again. After knocking on the lobby door a couple of times, a gentleman appears from a room and opens the door- no hello/welcome… he looked very annoyed and was SO unpleasant. He proceeded to do the check-in with awkward silence. It was a discouraging experience, especially after a long day of travel. Perhaps this hotel could add a sign with a doorbell or camera for those who are checking in after hours, and have a more pleasant/courteous person to work the front desk at night. The rest of our stay was great, the day shift front desk staff and housekeeping staff were very nice and...