Courtyard by Marriott San Antonio Riverwalk — Hotel in San Antonio

If you’ve ever wanted to experience a hotel that makes you question both your life choices and the definition of "hospitality," allow me to introduce the Courtyard San Antonio Riverwalk. I spent three nights here, paid $1,100 for the privilege, and left wondering if I had actually checked into an overpriced endurance challenge. ||Let’s talk about the water situation, or as I like to call it, the San Antonio Shower Roulette—where every turn of the faucet lands somewhere between "refreshingly disappointing" and "just cold enough to ruin your morning." Day one, I turned on the shower and was greeted with water that was technically not freezing but still cold enough to wake me up in the worst way possible. I reported it, and by day two, things improved… slightly. It reached a temperature I’d describe as "reluctantly lukewarm." By day three, I was back to standing under what felt like a faucet set to “room temperature.” Not exactly what you want when you're paying this much for a stay. When I brought it up again at checkout, the front desk casually explained that they had to reset the water heater the first time I complained, like this was a normal part of hotel maintenance. If resetting the hot water is a daily ritual here, maybe it's time for a bigger fix? ||Then there was my room. I was placed in room 1715, which, lucky me, was right next to the elevator. As in, on the other side of my walls were the Elevators and their nice and loud moving cables. Two elevators shared my wall and I heard them take each and every trip carrying each and every person to and from their floor. I didn’t even need to set an alarm because the constant mechanical groaning and dinging took care of that for me. I genuinely wonder if anyone at this hotel has ever tried sleeping in one of these rooms before assigning them to paying customers. Between the lukewarm showers and the nonstop elevator soundtrack, I can confidently say I did not experience a single moment of relaxation. ||For comparison, just two weeks earlier, I stayed at the Residence Inn Marriott, which is an easy eight-minute walk from this hotel, for half the price and twice the comfort. That place had reliable hot water, rooms large enough that I didn’t feel like I was in a shoebox, and best of all, no elevator lullaby playing on repeat all night. In short, it was bliss. Who knew?||At this price point, I wasn’t expecting a spa retreat, but I also wasn’t expecting a cold shower endurance test paired with an elevator noise machine. I would have loved for the hotel to acknowledge the problem and offer some kind of solution, but instead, it felt like business as usual. If they ever decide to include hot water and silence as part of the amenities, I’d consider coming back. Until then, I’d recommend checking out one of the many nearby hotels that don’t treat basic comfort like an optional upgrade.||If you're wondering, the two stars are for the location on the river and...ironically for the fast elevators. ||Safe...

I would say this was a 3.5 stay, but I will bump it to 4 because there was more good than bad. We had a great room that had a balcony and looked out over the river and that was fabulous! The hotel was struggling with hot water issues when we stayed there. We had warm water and were never uncomfortable, but the water never got hot, especially in the sink. Also the valet takes way too long to get your car. There is not self parking and you have to use the valet or park elsewhere. I also will mention that the entrance is easy to miss and then you have to go around the block, so when you are approaching go slow. Right now there is scaffolding around the whole of the front of the hotel, so that may help you find it. If you choose to eat breakfast there, you order it and they bring it to you, it is nice, but not huge, and not a self service buffet. The bistro area is very spacious and well decorated and you can get good value drinks there and just hang out. As with many Riverwalk hotels, they need to bring you from the street to the river so the lobby is long and has lots of fun little places to sit. I would stay here again, but I didn't love every aspect. I can never understand why they build bathrooms with no towel racks and with the sinks set so far back! This is a terrible design. I feel like the whole thing is just for a photographic aesthetic and no one considers how difficult and impractical this is. I am 5'7" and I have to lean way over to use the sink. Anyone smaller than me must not be able to reach it well at all. And where to hang towels to dry? It is really awful. But the sad news is that so many hotels have this problem, it becomes next to impossible to find ones who have not installed sinks in this terrible way and have added towel racks so your towels can actually dry and not have to be washed every day. The other thing I will mention is if you are staying here, be careful you don't turn on the alarm clock and also that it is off before you got to sleep. The button on top can be pressed to turn it on and off and so it is really easy to turn it on. We were awake at 6 am the first morning and when I figured out how to turn it off and was trying to fall back to sleep, the alarm next door went off! As there were no people in that room, I had to call down to the front desk for someone to turn it off. And yes, you can hear that through the walls. I just mention these things for you to be aware, but I loved the room and the location and do think it is a good place to stay. They just need to work on...

The check-in on the 11th was the best experience we had. The young lady at the reception (sorry, I forgot her name) went out of the way to ensure that we got the kind of room we had requested during booking. At first, she had checked us into a different room and then when we told her that it is not the kind of room we requested, she immediately changed our room and also offered us free drinks at the bar for the inconvenience. It was such a great gesture and we were completely impressed and delighted by her customer service. Infact, that one gesture of hers made us think that people in San Antonio really knows how to take care of their guests. I would give that front desk lady a 12 out of 10. She was amazing, had a very pleasing personality and showed that you were happy to have us there!!

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for anyone else there. On 12th night, I noticed a cricket behind the commode in the bathroom and called front desk. The man there said he will send someone to take care of it, but offered no apology for this. His attitude was like why are you even bothering me for such a small thing. Someone came soon and took care of it though. However, no one called back ever to check if everything was okay or offer an apology. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth. Then during check-out, when we were asked how the stay was, I did make it a point to tell the ladies including the manager there (no, the good lady who checked us in was not there) that it was all fine till we saw a cockroach in our room. Instead of just offering an apology only reply I got was one correcting me "it was a cricket, not a cockroach!" Sadly, we left the place, determined to post our experience including the pictures on trip advisor, yelp and other sites so that future customers can be prepared what to expect from the staff and make the wise decision to stay away from this place if they could.

As a respected hotel chain, we expected the staff to be more sensitive and have better customer service. The hotel is on river walk so insects can sneak in. Agreed. But can't the staff take care of it by at least offering an apology or expressing some regret without the customer having to demand it or create a scene?

Apart from this, we went one night to use the pool and hot tub and both were completely dirty with something floating all over the water. There were others too who came to use the pool and had to...