The Westin Riverwalk, San Antonio — Hotel in San Antonio

I soooo wanted to give this hotel 5 stars. It sits on the best piece of Real Estate on the Riverwalk and is one of the only hotels that has balcony rooms overlooking the river. It's worth the extra $$ to stay in a room with a river view. Ask for a lower floor - you get a better experience being 'closer to the action' and the trees might block the view with a high floor.

The lobby was beautiful and the hotel had a very elegant and comfortable feel. Every staff member I spoke with (and there were many) were beyond polite and pleasant. Now, lets talk about why I didn't give 5 stars. The morning after my first night stay I was making the bed and found a woman's black t-shirt nested somewhere in the bed. I don't know how I missed it either but there it was. And it was not mine. I sniffed at it - (I know, gross) and yes, it had definitely been worn. Not teeming with B.O., but, definitely worn. Now, there's no way that the sheets had been changed between my stay and the person before me. The shirt was dirty so it couldn't have gotten stuck to the sheets in the laundry. And the shirt was black so there was no way it could have been overlooked if housecleaning had made any attempt to change the sheets at all. So yeah, GROSS. On my way out the hotel for the afternoon/evening I told the front desk. Quite politely, too. I know its not the front desk's fault that some rando's shirt was in my bed, unless it was theirs, which I doubt. They were apologetic and assured me the sheets would be changed upon my return. I returned at 11:30pm to find the sheets exactly as I had left them. Unchanged, and still cradling the dirty black mystery shirt that I left atop the comforter. So not only had the sheets not been changed, but room service didn't come at all, either.

Downstairs, I (still very politely, perhaps even more politely than the first time) tell the front desk which is now occupied by a different employee. I explain the mystery shirt debacle to the new guy and once again he was apologetic. I am given the option to switch rooms, or else they'd bring new sheets... but I'd have to put them on the bed myself because housekeeping wasn't there.

Now, I'm not even gonna go in to why any employee currently on staff couldn't change the sheets. Its not exactly a skill set that requires rigorous training. I get it, its housekeeping's job, but if I were manager on duty I would have changed the sheets myself out of complete embarrassment that this happened in the first place. But I definitely did not want a different room, as I loved my terrace view over the river) and also, I am capable of changing sheets so I said I'd do it.

It took 3 efforts for them to bring the right sized sheets. I first was given twin sheets. Do hotels even have twin beds? Is an employee bringing their personal laundry to work? I wouldn't be surprised. I call downstairs and tell them I need King sheets. They came 20 minutes later - with Queen sheets. Nope. They got it right on the 3rd try. Sort of. I needed another flat sheet. (You know, the one that they put on top of the comforter so that they don't have to launder it...) So, I guess 4 tries. Those 4 trips to bring sheets took over an hour. Through this whole process I sustained an unbelievable level of understanding; its not their fault that the shift before them didn't fix this the first time... And not that I expected anything, but there was zero attempt made to rectify this error with compensation of any kind. I REALLY loved everything about this hotel. Except the fact that I spent the night with someone else's dirty clothes. I want to come back, but good god, the unnecessary comedy of errors that took place is inexcusable. I'm being generous by giving this hotel 4 stars. It should probably be 3. But I'm gonna be nice. And shame on...

Sorry for the wall of text, but the things that went wrong at this place necessitate it. |Very disappointed in my stay here. Where to begin...arrival was fine, check was easy enough. Parked across the street to save $60 overall on the stay as the valet is $20 more per night for the same parking lot. No big deal. Bellhop was good and recommended places to go, great start. We got in the elevator and were greeted by the banging of the doors. But there was a note on the wall saying the sound was not an issue so no need to worry...|Upon entering the room, we were hit with a damp mildew smell. The AC was set to 65 degrees, but it was at least 10 degrees off based on the feel of the room. I set it down to 60 and set fan to on and that helped. |Then I went to the restroom, flushed, and then heard the toilet not refilling. Lifted the tank lid and it started to fill. The buttons to flush on top seemed to mess up the mechanism somehow and I had to repeat that process several times throughout our stay so the toilet would flush the next time it was used. When I went to wash my hands, I was surprised to see they still use little soap bars instead of gel type soap, if you're into that. The water pressure in the sink was one note--low. |Tried to plug in phone to charge...all the outlets were either loose or in the case of the usb port, torn out. |Laid on the bed and could feel the dampness on the sheets. Not wet, just...not right. |We at least had the sound of a street performer in the parking lot across the street drumming into the night to help us go to sleep. |The next morning, receipts from the day before were further evidence of the damp room. Paper in a humid environment gets that floppy feel to it, and that is exactly what happened to our receipts. |Upon taking a shower, the towels were super scratchy. |We also got to hear the loud sounds from pipes in the ceiling from what I can only guess was the room above us using the shower. It sounded like metal gears screeching against each other. |Coming back to this room after a long, hot day out exploring the Riverwalk, Alamo, and other attractions was not relaxing at all. The lobby was nice, and that was it. |Checking out was easy. They did not ask how my stay was and did not reach out for a review like everyone else does. I wonder why? |Finally, upon arriving home and unpacking, we found that unworn clothes still packed away were damp...I wonder where that came from.|I have stayed at many hotels in my life, none as bad as this. I stayed in the hotel with a giant orange out front in Orlando for $36 a night and it was more pleasant. Will not stay at a...

My husband and I booked this hotel for our honeymoon. While the service was amazing the hotel manager and , concierge were nothing short of wonderful, it’s very overpriced for what it is. We were upgraded from the double queen size bed that we originally booked due to the price being a little more affordable, to a king size room with a riverside view. However, the bed was really uncomfortable and the pillows were not great either. We woke up to hip and back pain each morning. One of the night stands outlets did not work well with only one plug actually usable. The USB ports did not work at all on that side. There’s only one microwave for guests throughout the hotel to use located on the 4th floor (we were on the 11th). There was one snack vending machine and one soda vending machine, the soda machine was out of order and the 12 oz cans inside Starbucks were $3.25 each. Our biggest complaint though, was the holds placed on our debit card without warning. We are regular middle class people, we have made payments for the hotel through Priceline throughout the 8 months of our engagement. When they asked for a card to have on file for “incase we use room service or any possible damages that may occur”, they did not explain that there would be a total of 4 holds placed on our card totaling up to $450. The first two holds happened the night we got there both being $75 then the very next morning upon waking up there was another $119. We went to talk to front desk and they reassured us that there would be no more holds placed and we would get that money back after we left. Then the morning after that we woke up to another $179 hold. Our bank takes that money out of our available balance in our bank account. Which was almost half of the money we had in total to spend for our honeymoon! Money that we weren’t supposed to get back for 3-5 business days after we check out and go home! However, once we met with the hotel manager and let her know that none of this was explained to us upon checking in and we were going to have to cut our stay short because we were afraid they would take out so much to hold that we wouldn’t be able to do much of anything else for our honeymoon, she was able to get 3 of the holds dropped that same day. We checked out yesterday and this morning we’re still waiting for the $179 to be back in our account. The manager was very kind, understanding and patient with us. Which helped us to feel less silly about not knowing that what we should have done was provided a credit card and not...