I love the location of this hotel. It's on the river, but in a quiet area about half a mile from the downtown section of the River Walk and a mile from the Pearl Brewery complex and the San Antonio Museum of Art. It's a nice walk in either direction, or you can hop on one of the Rio Taxis that run along the river on a regular schedule.
This hotel is beautiful. It's on the National Register of Historic Places and maintains much of it's historic character and charm. I loved the wooden staircase and the beautiful wood floors. For an older building, the rooms were a nice size. We had a Queen Suite, which also had a small seating area, and there was more than enough room for the two of us. The bed was comfy and the ceiling fan would be especially nice during hot San Antonio summers. I also really liked the fully stocked Smeg refrigerator in the room, in lieu of a typical hotel minibar. Free and easy to access wifi was also a very nice and welcome touch in an era when many hotels still charge something outrageous for it.
Since this is an older building, it does have some drawbacks that are inherent with such a structure. The floors creak. You can hear people walking along the hallways outside the room and on the floor above. The rooms are not well-insulated. We could hear every word of the conversation the couple in the room next to ours was having. (Every word. Not good.) The rooms do not have closets, or even wardrobes. There are hangers in one of the drawers, and a pretty, but not really functional hanger thing on the wall behind the door. The bathrooms are very small, and in ours the antique mirror over the sink was so "antique" that it was not really useable.
All of that being said, I would probably stay here again because I loved the hotel's bar/restaurant - Ocho. It consists of a basement level bar and a lovely upstairs lounge area with outdoor seating overlooking the river. We spent much of the afternoon out there enjoying our drinks and some wonderful chorizo con queso. After wandering around the River Walk for the evening, we even came back to Ocho for more drinks and dinner. The service is good, very attentive, and efficient, and the food is excellent. Even if I were not staying at the hotel, I would come hang out at Ocho.
I would probably give this hotel 3.5 "stars" due to the noise issues in the rooms, but I love everything else, so bumped it up to 4.
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