Definitely Not Worth the $$$
THE VIEW
We paid top-dollar for a balcony room with a Riverwalk view. What we got is a 4th floor room overlooking a dirty, busy street. The only way to see the Riverwalk was to go to the edge of the balcony and look straight down. We complained, and they moved us to the 2nd floor. Better, but still not a great view.
INTERNET
It wasn't clear that we were going to get it for free, and I'm not sure what the stipulations for getting it for free are. When you try to use it, it says it's going to charge you $10 per day. We asked the front desk and they said it was included for us (not sure if they were just throwing it in because we had complained already about the room or not). Even so, it was doggedly S...L...O...W....
GUESTS
I really don't understand how a hotel that charges so much money could end up with so many unruly, loud, obnoxious, and unkempt guests. Our "shared" balcony was full of beer cans and cigarette butts every day we were there (and the hotel is supposed to be 100% non-smoking). Other guests we encountered were just plain rude and, well, unpleasant to be near.
HOUSEKEEPING
I was a little bothered that they didn't seem to pick up any trash in the room. Maybe they're instructed to leave anything that is not in a can. The hotel manager sent us a bowl of fruit on the first day we were there and by the 2nd/3rd day, the fruit had molded and the cleaning staff didn't bother taking it away. Also, they didn't bother putting the pull-out sofa bed back into a sofa either. It's as if they came in, dumped the cans, threw in some towels, and then took off.
THE POOL
Seems odd to me to close a pool at 10:00PM in the summer months, especially on the Riverwalk. People are generally just getting back to the hotel at this time. At any rate, the pool water was murky and had the consistency and temperature of used bath water, so we only went in once, very briefly.
BILLING
On check-out, we noticed we were charged for a bottle of water that we had never consumed. It was a good thing I went over every charge. They removed it, but the process of removing it took a good 10 minutes at the front desk.
RESTAURANT
We only went once, for breakfast. We had to wait about 15-20 minutes to get a seat, even though the restaurant was only about 10% full. The vanilla pancakes were delicious and the coffee was top notch.
SERVICE
Everybody who worked for the hotel was friendly. They addressed our initial concern about our room in a very friendly, accommodating way. They hired a mariachi band to play pool-side for an hour or two one of the days we were there, and it was fantastic.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The hotel isn't too bad, although the guests staying there can be. However, I don't think it was worth the nearly $300/night we paid to stay there. We paid that same money in Dallas for a hotel room in the Arts District that was spacious, with beautiful furniture, fantastic view of the city, separate living room and even a dining room! When we go back to the San Antonio Riverwalk, we'll probably book at the Contessa next time (we stopped in while we were there and the guests were nicer, rooms are cheaper, and the pool looked perfect).