La Villita Inn — Hotel in San Antonio

Another deserved 1 star review. it is important that people know about the customer relations of the hotel staff/owners or whoever is in charge of operations there.||I arrived on Saturday at 5.00 pm for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll marathon that was taking place on Sunday the next day, December 3, 2017. I chose the hotel for its close proximity to the River Walk and the starting line/finish line to the marathon. Little did I know I would rue the day I booked the hotel! I wish I had read the reviews before I booked the hotel and I am blaming myself for not doing it.||Everything went smoothly in the beginning. I got checked in by the lady at the desk and she asked me what I was there for. I told her that I had come for the marathon. I then went to the room.||The marathon was starting at 7.15 am the next day. I went to the office at 6.30 and handed over the key. I asked the same lady if she could hold my bags for me as she had insisted the day before that the checkout would be at 11.00 am, latest 12.00 pm or they would charge a late fee. She initially was reluctant to hold my bags and said something about not having enough space. I almost laughed but I realized that this is a small owner business so I held my horses. She obliged and held the bags for me. She did find space after all. One carryon suitcase and a laptop bag. I was taken aback as many hotels will hold bags no questions asked for guests who have to check out of rooms early if leaving and are not sure they'll return before the checkout time. I have seen and done this in the numerous hotels I have stayed in and many staffers are only too willing to hold the bags. They just inform you that the person manning the office may be different by the time you get back. Anyway, no big deal.||I got back from the marathon at about 12.30 pm as there was a long long line at the marathon finisher jacket pickup tent and this delayed my arrival to the hotel. I asked the gentleman at the office whether he would allow me to take a shower (10 minutes tops, I am a man) as I had just come from the marathon. I immediately offered to clean the bathroom spotless. I was in my full marathon gear and bib and he could obviously tell that I had come from a marathon. He flat out refused and insisted that I pay full price for one extra day if I wanted to use the shower. Mind you I had been a guest at the hotel so I was no stranger. He also had my bags. I asked him nicely to reconsider this and told him to consider my situation, human to human but he did not budge. He said that he was 'just a worker' and said something about the 'use of water!' He gave me my bags and cracked a smile as he was doing so.||Let me just say this. The hotel industry is called the hospitality industry for a reason. Travelers have unique requests they make due to the nature of their visits. You cannot win in the long term with rigid rules and lousy customer service. I could immediately tell that he was punishing me and enjoying every minute of my agony. Word gets around. A person staying for a marathon should surely be able to take a shower at the same hotel she/he stayed in the night before if the person gets back in reasonable time. If I had come close to their 3 pm check in time for other guests, then I would understood his reluctance. It was 12.30 ish at that time and I left before 1.00 pm. I have run numerous marathons and the staff will accommodate you in one way or another. Staff will anticipate the nature of their guests' visits and adjust accordingly. I see why they have a lot of bad reviews. I know they'll leave their usual generic responses to my review but if they want to be in the hospitality business, they have to cater to customer requests. Otherwise, they'll keep losing business to other hotel establishments close by. ||About the rooms, the entrance is a bit dated and the carpet needs replacing. The carpet to the room (at least the one I stayed in) is dated and needs to be replaced. The room did have a fresh coat of paint, I give them that. I was willing to overlook this since I was a solo traveler with no frills but I believe this lack of updating is related to their lousy customer service. If the gentleman had allowed me to take the shower, I would have been back last year and I would have written a decent review. Now, here I am ranting and raving over an issue that any intern in hotel management would have resolved in no time. ||You can hear noise from outside the room but thankfully that night, it was quiet.| ⁃ The cable box shows high definition channels but they are not high definition. Just pointing that out.| ⁃ You have to press the power button to the TV to get it to work. It is a knob behind the TV. I couldn't locate it but thankfully the lady in the office showed me the power button. The management should make sure that the TV can be powered on using the 'universal' remote as the remotes have that ability. Just makes it easier instead of manually turning the TV on and off all the time when you need to watch TV. A mild annoyance that may or may not be overlooked.| ⁃ They have a sheltered parking garage and the rooms are upstairs above the garage.| ⁃ Their wifi is not strong and can be spotty, so I opted to use my regular cellphone.||In closing, a hotel/inn this close to the River walk, walking distance to downtown should be competing with the known brand names that are not too far from it. It's location is ideal. There is a restaurant next door and the HEB grocery store 0.6 miles away but their customer service is going to be their Achilles Heel if it hasn't happened yet. There is no way this many people can be wrong about an establishment. Customer service is lacking and if they don't address it soon, they'll go the way of the dinosaur. Maybe they don't care... The customer service headaches are not worth it. Just go elsewhere. There are numerous other hotels close to the...

Another deserved 1 star review. it is important that people know about the customer relations of the hotel staff/owners or whoever is in charge of operations there.||I arrived on Saturday at 5.00 pm for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll marathon that was taking place on Sunday the next day, December 3, 2017. I chose the hotel for its close proximity to the River Walk and the starting line/finish line to the marathon. Little did I know I would rue the day I booked the hotel! I wish I had read the reviews before I booked the hotel and I am blaming myself for not doing it.||Everything went smoothly in the beginning. I got checked in by the lady at the desk and she asked me what I was there for. I told her that I had come for the marathon. I then went to the room.||The marathon was starting at 7.15 am the next day. I went to the office at 6.30 and handed over the key. I asked the same lady if she could hold my bags for me as she had insisted the day before that the checkout would be at 11.00 am, latest 12.00 pm or they would charge a late fee. She initially was reluctant to hold my bags and said something about not having enough space. I almost laughed but I realized that this is a small owner business so I held my horses. She obliged and held the bags for me. She did find space after all. One carryon suitcase and a laptop bag. I was taken aback as many hotels will hold bags no questions asked for guests who have to check out of rooms early if leaving and are not sure they'll return before the checkout time. I have seen and done this in the numerous hotels I have stayed in and many staffers are only too willing to hold the bags. They just inform you that the person manning the office may be different by the time you get back. Anyway, no big deal.||I got back from the marathon at about 12.30 pm as there was a long long line at the marathon finisher jacket pickup tent and this delayed my arrival to the hotel. I asked the gentleman at the office whether he would allow me to take a shower (10 minutes tops, I am a man) as I had just come from the marathon. I immediately offered to clean the bathroom spotless. I was in my full marathon gear and bib and he could obviously tell that I had come from a marathon. He flat out refused and insisted that I pay full price for one extra day if I wanted to use the shower. Mind you I had been a guest at the hotel so I was no stranger. He also had my bags. I asked him nicely to reconsider this and told him to consider my situation, human to human but he did not budge. He said that he was 'just a worker' and said something about the 'use of water!' He gave me my bags and cracked a smile as he was doing so.||Let me just say this. The hotel industry is called the hospitality industry for a reason. Travelers have unique requests they make due to the nature of their visits. You cannot win in the long term with rigid rules and lousy customer service. I could immediately tell that he was punishing me and enjoying every minute of my agony. Word gets around. A person staying for a marathon should surely be able to take a shower at the same hotel she/he stayed in the night before if the person gets back in reasonable time. If I had come close to their 3 pm check in time for other guests, then I would understood his reluctance. It was 12.30 ish at that time and I left before 1.00 pm. I have run numerous marathons and the staff will accommodate you in one way or another. Staff will anticipate the nature of their guests' visits and adjust accordingly. I see why they have a lot of bad reviews. I know they'll leave their usual generic responses to my review but if they want to be in the hospitality business, they have to cater to customer requests. Otherwise, they'll keep losing business to other hotel establishments close by. ||About the rooms, the entrance is a bit dated and the carpet needs replacing. The carpet to the room (at least the one I stayed in) is dated and needs to be replaced. The room did have a fresh coat of paint, I give them that. I was willing to overlook this since I was a solo traveler with no frills but I believe this lack of updating is related to their lousy customer service. If the gentleman had allowed me to take the shower, I would have been back last year and I would have written a decent review. Now, here I am ranting and raving over an issue that any intern in hotel management would have resolved in no time. ||You can hear noise from outside the room but thankfully that night, it was quiet.| ⁃ The cable box shows high definition channels but they are not high definition. Just pointing that out.| ⁃ You have to press the power button to the TV to get it to work. It is a knob behind the TV. I couldn't locate it but thankfully the lady in the office showed me the power button. The management should make sure that the TV can be powered on using the 'universal' remote as the remotes have that ability. Just makes it easier instead of manually turning the TV on and off all the time when you need to watch TV. A mild annoyance that may or may not be overlooked.| ⁃ They have a sheltered parking garage and the rooms are upstairs above the garage.| ⁃ Their wifi is not strong and can be spotty, so I opted to use my regular cellphone.||In closing, a hotel/inn this close to the River walk, walking distance to downtown should be competing with the known brand names that are not too far from it. It's location is ideal. There is a restaurant next door and the HEB grocery store 0.6 miles away but their customer service is going to be their Achilles Heel if it hasn't happened yet. There is no way this many people can be wrong about an establishment. Customer service is lacking and if they don't address it soon, they'll go the way of the dinosaur. Maybe they don't care... The customer service headaches are not worth it. Just go elsewhere. There are numerous other hotels close to the...

Stayed here recently and really regret it. I could overlook some grime at first but the cleanliness was not ideal, but I figured I could deal with it for a few nights. Then the fridge froze all my food. Everything. Just a block of ice. Still, I let that slide.

But then came the bugs…

Once I saw them crawling around the room, that was it for me. Absolutely disgusting. I saw at least 7 roaches in this location.

The place also smelled deeply of water and mold, had to get an air freshener just to stand it. The place just felt dirty and poorly maintained, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Check out the pictures and decide for yourself if you want to risk your health.

(Cannot directly reply to owners response. But this review was indeed in good faith. I have no doubt in my mind that the rest of the rooms are of similar condition, quality, etc. I can deal with some grime and we dealt with it for a while. But the bugs didn’t reveal themselves until after a few days. In which I asked for my money back. In which I was refused at first. I had to directly go through Expedia support to even get any form of refund. The hotel basically told me I was out of luck and were going to force me to pay for the rest of my stay initially. This place is gross if you have any value for health I wouldn’t recommend. This is an accurate reflection of the situation. I would have no reason to complain and to want the downfall for a local business. But want to accurately describe what I dealt with...