Red Lion Hotel Templin's on the River — Hotel in Post Falls

PROS: The room was comfortable for one night and mostly clean. CONS: *We spent $140+ tax on a two queen bed room. One of the main reasons for paying this price and choosing this hotel was for the advertisement of it being “on the river” and for our family of five to be able to enjoy the pool and hot tub together. The view of the river from the pool room was quite disappointing as we noticed trash on the ground everywhere and not so much the sight of the river. The river can only be viewed by looking past lots of trees that are blocking it. The pool room: This room was VERY sketchy for $140+ a night. It has extremely dirty floors, lots of rust everywhere, an obvious lack of attention to sanitizing any of it whatsoever, broken lights overhead that were constantly flashing, and the worst part of all was …the BROKEN HOT TUB. Before unknowingly stepping in to test the temperature, my husband and I were both stunned to find it freezing cold, as well as the water grossly murky with a weird chunky film floating on the surface ;\ This was super disappointing for our whole family. *Back in our room we found that our remote needed new batteries because it was completely non-functional, and yet, when we walked from Unit B all the way to the front desk to exchange it for a second remote…the “new” remote’s volume button was broken. So, we were stuck with a high volume that could not be altered and ended up turning off the TV early on in the evening and just going to bed. This was also very disappointing for our family because one of the other main reasons we enjoy rare hotel stays is to be able to enjoy what’s on television as a family. *Though a hot soak in the room’s bathtub felt good after being let down by the broken hot tub, I couldn’t help but notice the entire time that these these long black hairs were floating to the surface and… no one in our family has black hair. This was more than a little gross. *We attempted to use the room’s phone a few times to ring the front desk and it just rang endlessly with no one to pick up on the other end to help us. **On a random note: You appear to have long term guests living here, which is what we noticed walking to Unit B from the parking lot. One of your guest’s curtains was wide open as we witnessed her obliviously walking around in her bra and underwear. She didn’t seem to be aware that there were families with children around that don’t wish to view her mostly naked body. This seems unprofessional for a hotel to be allowing. Conclusion: This hotel appears nice looking online and is advertised as “On The River”, but it’s false advertising when you charge upwards of $150 a night (after tax) because “you’re on the river” if this is the kind of poor quality and standards your customers can expect to receive. We won’t be recommending this hotel to...

We had a very poor experience with this red lion, and specifically with the owner Dominic. We won a $100 credit toward a night stay and showed up on Friday evening for a reservation we made four weeks in advance. We made the booking over the phone, and specifically mentioned the credit toward the night stay we had won and told that would be no problem.

When we arrived Friday night we confirmed this with Amy at the front desk, and while she said that the person who booked the reservation didn’t mention it in their notes, she did say that it would be no problem. The room booking was $97+ tax so we would owe, in total, $4.76. Amy warned us that there would be a $40 hold on my card (in case of room damages) and to check back in the morning with Dana to make sure we weren’t charged. She also told us she’d make notes for the morning crew in their conversation log.

The next morning I received an email from my financial institution showing that we were charged in full for the room. I met with Dana who was working at the front desk and explained the situation to her. She was understanding but did not know how to remedy the situation so she called the owner, Dominic, who told her he was suspicious of our $100 credit and to charge us in full. This was especially frustrating when the employee from the night before had told us it would be no problem and had she said it couldn’t be accepted for whatever reason we would not have stayed the night there — it wasn’t far from home. Dana told me the charges would remain in full, but she would look into it and I could call back in a few days to see if she had confirmed our voucher from her sales department so we left, frustrated that one employee promised us no charge and another charged us in full.

The entire situation felt like we were tricked into staying the night and got charged for it and so I called the hotel and requested to speak to the owner. His name is Dominic. He was rude. He yelled at me over the phone. He accused me of being a fraud and told me it didn’t matter that we were told our total was around $5 the night before because that employee didn’t know what she was doing and that we would be charged in full. It was honestly one of the most uncomfortable phone calls I’ve ever been on as I was accused of being a lowlife, thieving, scum of the earth by someone I’ve never met before.

We have since tracked down the source of the credit we won, it has been verified by a red lion employee who issued it, and a higher up in Red Lion is working on getting us our refund, but at the time of this review we still have not received it.

If you’re looking into staying at this hotel, there are likely better options with leadership who actually understands and appreciates what it means to...

The hotel has a great view out the back of their marina and the river. They have bikes you can rent out and see the sights of downtown Post Falls. They have a small room filled with goodies one can purchase like food, drinks, and a sewing kit. There is not breakfast. They serve coffee ONLY from 6:30 am to 9 am. (Doesn't that seem really super short?) The rooms are quiet unless someone is letting their dogs bark into Oblivion. No road noises, no marina noises. If you're on the backside you may hear the kids running around in the grass on the bottom floor. The main building has balconies in which you can lean on. They are perhaps 2'x4'. Painted a peeling brown. Rooms come equipped with a fridge with a freezer section that is the size of a water bottle. There is also a microwave but watch your food carefully if you use it. Beds are comfy. Best part is they provide one oversized bathtowel for a room for four. It is gloriously thick, fluffy just right, and it covers most of a body very well indeed. There is your TV. The hotel has WiFi that doesn't always work. In fact, I would say you're going to see a lot of drops in your service for wifi. There are no Ethernet ports to plug in a computer! More than one phone. The desks are beautiful, a two piece set on wheels. There is ample parking, lush green fields to hide your dogs poo in. The lawn is very well manicured. Oh, they have large bathtubs. By large, I mean double the size you will find in any other hotel! Sink into the glorious lukewarm water and soak in a fragrant what ever you want to bathe in. There are a LOT of places to plug in devices all over the bedroom. No one will feel left out if they want to play with their phones until 3 am without running down their batteries. The water pressure sucks. The temperature stinks too. Shower at your own risk. The staff is extremely disinterested in what is going on the higher up you go. If you want a manager, you're going to get someone who looks like they want to run and hide in their office and can't stand talking to you even if you're polite. The front desk is hit or miss on what attitude they have. Some of them are panicky, some are frustrated, some are bored, some of them have that customer service smile down pat. Housekeeping is nice. If you want something talk to one of them. There is a pool and a fitness center. Neither of them are 24/7. If you do an extended stay try to plan your day around that. The fitness center was inside the pool room, if I recall correctly. There is a place to eat inside the hotel but it's... Pricey, comparatively. You are however within walking distance of a bunch of...