St. James Hotel, 1875 - A Historic Hotel of America — Hotel in Red Wing

The hotel itself is beautiful. The food and service at the Scarlet Kitchen & Lounge were excellent. Chatting with the chef was a highlight of our stay. This is more or less where the good ends.

The room we were assigned was very small, seemed like a full and not a queen like I reserved. The shower curtain rod was falling off the wall and the coffee and water cups provided were dirty.

We booked well ahead of the event we were in town for and used the non-refundable option to secure the best rate for the 4 night stay.

Family plans changed, and we called ~2-3 months before arrival to see if an exception could be made and if a couple of the nights of our booking could be dropped or if the booking could be refunded so we could re-book for the new amount of nights needed at the higher rates. We were told this was not possible. No big deal, I knew we signed up for a non-refundable reservation.

Fast forward to the day of our arrival and I receive a notification that the entire payment for the 4 night stay had been refunded to my credit card with no explanation from the hotel. I called and was told this was a mistake and that my reservation was still active and assured I would receive the agreed upon rate. They said they were not sure what happened or why it was refunded. Seems as though my earlier request for a reservation change or refund could have been accommodated?

Then we get an invoice under our door the morning of checkout, and it was not at the original agreed upon pre-paid and mysteriously refunded rate. I was told at the front desk I would have to wait for the manager Madeline(?) to get in as she would be the only one who could take care of it.

I call Madeline and explain the situation. She said the original refund was because my charge was placed onto another customers credit card, which was not true as I told her the original payment posted to my account in June and the refund was on my banking app. She asked me for the quoted per night prices from my original reservation, added for tax and said she could refund x amount for me. This was not the full amount of difference from the new charges and my original prepaid reservation. She said she didn’t know where the difference was coming from and tried to make me feel small for questioning a $10-$20 difference. She was generally rude and acting as if I was the one causing issues and inconveniencing her. Maybe others would not care, but I am not going to pay for mystery charges that can’t be explained. Not sure if I will get the full difference or not. I guess we will see.

I thought this would be the end of it, but after getting off the phone with Madeline I noticed the pending credit for the original refund for all 4 nights was no longer on my pending transactions and had not posted. I called again and was told I would need to call my credit card company. I guess we will see how many more phone calls I’ll have to make to finally get this resolved.

I have never had so many issues with a hotel reservation and payment. The staff could do a better job owning up for their mistakes and not placing blame on the customer or expect them to eat unexplainable costs.

Can’t say I’d recommend staying here. I would go check it out, have a drink at the port bar or dinner at the scarlet - but there are other lodging options for much less money and hassle.

I would probably give one star if not for the novelty of the historic building and fantastic...

The St. James Hotel is a flawless integration of a benignly haunted, authentically historic, and up-to-date modern property. I stayed in the Admiral Room that had 2 queen beds, 2 beautiful bay windows with Mississippi River views, 2 Wing back chairs, a vanity with an antique chair, a Keurig, a 5 Drawer Chest, a flat screen TV, a nightstand, a full size iron, a hairdryer and 2 robes. The walls are covered with patterned wallpaper that I would never choose but fits well with the date of build. The details on the woodwork, ceilings and corners all make the historian and the architect sit up and take notice! The beds were firm enough to be comfortable and had a nice softness to them. But the sheets! So soft...the bottom sheet was the softest brushed cotton but thick like on brand new sheets. The softest vellour-style-ish blanket was then in a sheet sandwich of these awesome soft, thick sheets making the MOST PERFECT blanket on Earth. Then the beautiful white bedspread was on top of that. The bathroom is dated, as is appropriate for the rooms. The toilet and sink fixtures are new. The bathtub was perfectly clean but definitely not new. There are two soap dishes built into the wall, one high and one low. It is a two knob system to get the temperature of the water correct. But there is a brand new quiet fan that worked beautifully. The provided toiletries are high quality and great smelling. There were 2 terry-cloth lined robes provided for our use. Being a women's shirt size XXXL, the robe only fit about 98% around my chest. The hotel is CLEAN, well-maintained and clearly driven by a customer service orientation. They will help you find the historic entrance, lobby, library and there is a self-guided tour if you are interested in everything that the hotel has to offer. The front desk agents are personable, cheerful and helpful. The room service agents are efficient and a pleasure to deal with! Speaking of room service, the food, OMG, the food from Scarlet, so amazing! (Review for food is under Scarlet Restaurant.) For my stay, I parked in the parking ramp that is behind the hotel. On Level B, I came across a very long row of handicap parking spots on one side of the concrete, so I figured I was on the best level to be on. When I approached the door, it had "lanterns" to either side. Opening the door, there was a choice of stairs or an elevator. Needing the handicap spot and a mobility Service Dog, I used the elevator. The Lobby level is listed clearly as such. After getting off the elevator, the Scarlet Restaurant is off to the back left but there is a long straight expanse in front. This leads you through a display area where a miniature St James Hotel in Gingerbread could be found (for Christmas). There is comfy seating for many! And there is also a split staircase with a chandelier. Pass all this and at the end, the front desk will be on your left. This is directly across from the current street entrance. Just passed this, on the right is a hallway. This goes to the historic street entrance. This area will be of interest to those looking for ghosts. The front desk is not original but the columns, the steps and the entrance are. The library allows anyone to practically hear the men swirling brandy in their snifters, puffing on their cigars and discussing the state of the country today. It is a...

My fiance and I were married on the morning of the 28th of July and stayed at the St James the night of the 28th and we also made reservations at the Scarlet kitchen. The gentleman that checked us in was very pleasant. We got our keys and proceeded to our room. The room did not look like the one I had reserved. You could see some of the river but definitely not upstream or most of the river and it was supposed to be a Riverview Suite. Also the bathroom looked nothing like the one in the photo is very outdated compared to what the photo shown. Even in the room description that said new bathroom vanities and fixtures and so on and so forth which there was nothing new in that bathroom. Seeing that our dinner reservations were about 30 minutes after we checked in my fiance and I decided to watch some TV while sitting on the end of the bed by the footboard. While sitting there one of the boards gave out at the end of the bed and i wouldn't say that were over weight I'm 6' and 250lbs and my wife i know is under 160lbs. Because of the bed bord the bed was unusable. So we made our way down and talk to the attendant at the desk it was the same person he was very nice again and told us we he would have a new room ready by the time we were done with dinner. I figured the new room would be just as good or better than the one we were in. Because it was not our fault the bed broke I am 40 years old and I'm not wrestling around like I'm 20. Going to the Scarlett's kitchen evidently had to be a problem too. We did make reservations at the restaurant as well upon putting down that it was our wedding night. We ordered drinks,appetizer, and our entree. The drinks came a bit after ordering them. Then we proceeded to wait of over 45 minutes for our entree to come. We were able to completely eat are entree before our appetizer got to the table. Yes the waitress did comp our appetizer. But does it really matter seeing that we didn't even get to eat it like comping it was doing something for us. And since at the room we had at the St James Hotel doesn't have a refrigerator in it we couldn't keep the stuff to go anyways. After being frustrated and heading back to our new room I realized once getting in the room that it was the room below the one we had before and there was almost no view of the river whatsoever. One side-faced part of the building and the parking ramp. And the other window facing the people eating and buildings and trees. Also the bathroom was as big as a small closet. You could have literally pooped and brushed your teeth by turn your knees to the left. There was barely enough room for my new wife to even put on makeup. It was nothing like the picture that I had seen based on how I chose my room. I have lived in a studio apartment when I was a teen with a bigger bathroom than that. This was supposed to be one of the most important Days of Our Lives and it ended up being an utter disappointment staying and eating at the St James Hotel. Paid close to $300 for this disappointing...