O'Brien Riverwalk Boutique Hotel — Hotel in San Antonio

We stayed at the O’Brien Historic Hotel for about a week during our visit to San Antonio. At the time that we booked the hotel, we had read mixed reviews so we took a chance and booked anyway. I am going to provide as much information as I can for our stay as possible. The positives: The hotel is completely smoke-free so for non-smokers that is great. For smokers, sorry, there is no smoking in the hotel. We stayed in a king sized room. It was me, my husband, and our two toddlers. The room fit both of their travel cots and all of the paraphernalia that comes with travelling with toddlers very comfortably. The room was very clean, and the bed was very comfortable. The amenities we had worked just fine when we did use them. We were there for the San Antonio Rock & Roll Marathon and to visit family so we were there essentially to shower and sleep. The staff was simply amazing. When we did have issues, they were there on the spot to help us out with whatever we needed no matter what it was. Shout out to Rez and Arthur. They were very accommodating and tolerant of us when we were less than happy with the parking situation. The breakfast was a pretty decent variety of cereals and pastries, and it was available until 9 in the morning so we didn’t have to roll out of bed extraordinarily early to get breakfast. They also had "make your own" waffles. We brought breakfast up to our floor and ate at the tables in the foyer of our floor every morning since there wasn’t seating in the lobby area to eat. There was also coffee and tea available 24/7 so that was a bonus. The hotel is close to everything downtown. The Riverwalk is just a couple blocks down. The Alamo was a little more of a walk, but still within a few blocks. Hemisfair Park is just around the corner so the hotel is in a great location for the touristy type things in San Antonio. The negatives: Parking is atrocious. Corporate has done nothing to fix the awful situation that they have at the hotel. There are 25 locations for 39 rooms so if the lot fills up, you are out of luck. We found a lot just across from the hotel called Quality Parking System that is $10 for 24 hours that was really good. There are lots everywhere, but that one was the easiest one for us and cost the same as the hotel’s parking service. We ended up with a situation where we parked in the back lot, and we ended up having to play Tetris to get our van out of the lot. It was not a pretty situation. The manager is very willing to help, but when she gets flustered, she’ll throw the attitude out there and wonder why the guests are angry at her and giving her attitude back. It wouldn’t hurt to send her to some type of class on how to deal with irate guests. As far as the rooms, we were in one that did not have a refrigerator. I am not sure if some rooms have them and some don’t. We were on street side. We happened to pass a balcony room that was being cleaned and noted that it DID have a refrigerator so if that is important to you during your stay, it might be worth asking when you book your room. On that note, if you are a light sleeper, ask to be placed in a balcony room. The street side is very loud when the vehicles go by as the hotel sits right at the curb’s edge. The bathroom is very small. If you are looking for a bathroom with a lot of space to move around, you will not have that here. The door has just enough room to clear the toilet and close. The water was hot, and the pressure was good. However, the bathroom was very small for us when we were bathing our two children. It would be good for one or two adults who don’t require assistance to bathe. All in all, it was a great little hotel, and more than a great deal for the price we paid. I would definitely recommend this hotel, and we will definitely be staying here again the next time we...

Edit: The owner of O'Brien's reply to my review leads me to believe they thought my review was bad but in fact it was a great review. I loved my stay there. I give honest reviews. I apologize if I hurt any feelings, as that was not my attention. As much as I appreciate the lesson on refunds, that is non applicable in this case because O'Brien's told us there was a zero refund policy. It was a simple case of really bad timing on our part. We needed to stay home because of certain situations that arose and simply asked if we could get a refund and we were told NO! WE would have booked a week after Christmas at the O'Brien again but instead of simply donating the money we were forced to go anyway. It's not the O'Brien's fault we needed to cancel, or "postpone" our stay but, none the less, it would have benefitted us greatly. Anyway, if you're in San Antonio for the riverwalk, O'Brien's is a great place to stay. My review was honest, fair, and a great review.

The O'Brien is literally a stones throw from the river walk and even closer to a parking garage. The staff was friendly, the rooms were clean, everything worked.... This is a rarity even for large chain hotels. The O'Brien has 39 rooms. Ours was less than 100 feet from the front desk. The O'Brien offers breakfast for $10. Per person. Here is where the whole thing gets sticky... I have never had any luck finding good breakfast in San Antonio. It's pretty much a joke to eat breakfast out anywhere close to the riverwalk. As I said, the O'Brien offers breakfast.... You have one choice.... You get sausage, eggs, potatoes, cereal, apple, orange juice, milk, and toast. That sound amazing right? Ehhh....? The sausage is precooked patties from the microwave, the eggs are liquid eggs and tasted like they too were cooked in the microwave, same thing with the potatoes. Still, there was a lot of food for $10. Honestly, it wasn't any worse than any other breakfast near the riverwalk. The positives far outweigh the 2 negatives I have with the O'Brien. The 2 negatives are Breakfast There is a better chance to win hell from Satan in a hockey game than to get a refund on a cancellation at the O'Brien. If you book a room, you ain't gettin' outta payin, even if you're dead. Despite the zero refund policy, I would go as high as 4.5 stars if they had a...

AVOID this hotel! They are poorly managed and do not have your best interests in mind.

We traveled to San Antonio on a business trip to attend a meeting of an international organization we are members of. We booked a room at this hotel for October 22 which was a day before the event began and were supposed to meet other members that evening.

After a 14 hour travel day, the hotel called us as we were getting our luggage to inform us they were overbooked and they did not have a room. When we asked them for assistance in locating another hotel close by, they told us "you are on your own".

We made several attempts to contact their manager who was always "too busy" to take our calls. When she did call back, she left a voice message in which she blatantly lies. She advised she "blocked" the room that morning of our arrival so could not understand why Expedia would book the room. This is an outright lie.

We actually booked the room nearly 60 days in advance, so it was not a last minute booking. Expedia advised us the hotel is responsible for advising the inventory of their rooms, which this hotel did not. Expedia further advised their contract requires the property assist in placing customers at nearby properties at similar rates when an overbooking occurs.

The hotel denied they are required to provide any assistance whatsoever and refused any compensation. We were forced to book a temporary hotel far from the downtown location we needed to be. We incurred higher transporation costs and other additional costs. We were unable to complete our obligations that evening as the whole idea was to be able to meet on the River Walk with our colleagues.

In hotel managers flippant response in the message she left, specifically she advised regarding any compensation "ain't gonna happen". When we went by the hotel, the front desk staff advised the manager was somewhere on site but not answering her pages. The staff further said they new about arrangements with other hotels in the area to take overbooked guests, however they had not been trained to handle it.

I recommend you avoid this hotel as they demonstrated they do not care about their customers, only their wallet. Management does not care about their guests, only their...