Manhattan Hotel Salida — Hotel in Salida

I will stay here again. The hotel is a modern twist on a 120 year old hotel. Its first asset is location, location, location. It is right on the Arkansas River in the heart of downtown Salida. Shopping, dining, recreation are all walking/biking distance. It truly is a perfect location for a visit.||The rooms have a small balcony for watching rafters, bikers, and others going about their recreation. We enjoyed some wine from the store downstairs while watching people playing in the 50 degree water.||The room itself is comfortable and clean. It more modern style with simple furnishings and a shower/bath. It was fine for a couple. The room had two queens that we were in. Everything worked and we enjoyed the character.||There is a pizza place on the same level as the rooms with outdoor dining. It was not a problem and we were at the end adjacent to it but in the summer with your door open maybe you could hear it.||Downstairs is another restaurant and an ice cream parlor. We enjoyed both. ||The hotel is "self-service", which basically means that there is no front desk. We booked through Expedia and the code for our room did not arrive as expected. I called the number and Penny sent the info right away, no big deal but do check with her if you do get get a text with the code.||As was previously noted, the stairs are not up to current code for depth so be mindful, we travel light so it was not a big deal for us. My only suggestion for improvement would be for the hotel to find a spot for a bike/ski storage room. There are bike racks outside by an outdoor bar but our bikes are too costly for me to feel comfortable locking them there. The parking is across the river in the public lot, it says no overnight but it was explained that it refers to campers.||It had been too long since we stayed in Salida and I am glad we stayed at the Manhattan, walking access to everything was nice, especially...

The best part of this hotel is its location – is reason we have stayed more than once. But the experience could be so much better. First, a complaint I have with many hotel rooms is the person that designed them clearly does not stay in hotels.

This is clear in the layout of these rooms. First, while there is more than adequate room in the bedroom area of the units, some of this space would have been much better used in the bathroom. An extra 12 to 18 inches in the vanity area would allow one to easily spread out one’s toiletry bag. Now, one’s toiletries are clumped together with no room to spread out. A shame as the extra area in the bed area would never be missed.

The shower leaves much to be desired. Why must one get sprayed with cold water to turn the show on? Again, the person designing the shower must not use such showers.

Then not certain if the shower head is dictated by the state but what a wimpy water flow. For the price of the room, the vanity area and shower leave much to be desired.

Not everyone staying in these rooms are only a tourist not needing a desk. No idea why the rooms do not have a desk for those wishing to work on their computer.

These could be awesome rooms given their location if some additional thought was put into the room. Is a shame the opportunity to be great only turned into a mix of excellent and mediocre. Improvements, a desk and better shower head, are still possible of ownership is...

Room #1 has many windows facing F street and all rooms have a nice little balcony facing the river which is great for watching people walk, run or bicycle across the bridge. You can watch bike riders and runners on Tenderfoot Mountain or dogs fetching sticks in the river. Room #1 also has a nice stained glass window. It looks as if there were two at one time, possibly before the remodel. The two people we happened to interact with, Luis and one other (who my wife thought looked kind of like Mike Rowe from the “Dirty Jobs” TV show) were very nice and accommodative. The automated check in and check out were fine. On the downside, the the bathroom had a spill stain on the wall below the towel rack. There was also a stain on the wall to the left of the bathroom mirror. The shelves and desk were dusty. That being said, the location turned out to be the best feature of the Manhattan. We parked along the west side of the park and did not move our car for two days. We walked along the river, around town, and to the Salida museum. We ate ate a little too much at Pizza Rio while watching people, dogs and the river, then departed through a door that connected directly to the hallway to our room. Last but not least, we got ice cream at Chill Salida (a hot fudge Sunday for me) and crossed F street to enjoy it at the park. So, I would say, we spent a very pleasant couple of days that could have been better with a little more attention to...