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TX San Antonio Emily Morgan


tazzy
By tazzy,
in

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We just returned from our trip to San Antonio and our stay at the Emily Morgan hotel. I paid $88 a night on Priceline. It was well worth the $88. I'd pay up to $125 a night to stay there and still feel as if I received a great deal.

It's a beautiful, historic hotel, built in the 1920's or 1930's, according to the bartender. The queen room we stayed in was small, but I've come to expect that in historic hotels I've stayed at in cities such as San Francisco. Room size wasn't a priority back then. But the room was large enough for two people and our suitcases, a desk, armoire and a chair. The bed was queen sized and was quite comfy with a down comforter and a choice of four pillows - two soft and two firm - perfect for the picky traveler. I also liked that the room had its own thermostat so that the temperature could be easily regulated. None of that furnace/AC unit on the wall kind of thing that never works properly and blasts oh-so-loud.

We didn't eat in the restaurant, Oro, because it is closed for dinner on Sundays and Mondays, but we did order room service breakfast and it was well-priced and delicious. We also spent one evening in the hotel bar, and the drinks were great and the bartender friendly (but aren't all bartenders friendly?!) It's about two blocks from the Riverwalk, so a very short walk to all the restaurants and sights of that tourist attraction. And it's across the street from the Alamo. Literally. We jaywalked and were at the Alamo gate in about 10 seconds.

It's also just a block from a large shopping mall anchored by Macy's and Dillard's and that also houses an IMAX theater and an AMC theater if you're in the mood for something more laid back during your trip.

Overall, we were quite pleased with the hotel and found the $20 daily valet parking fee reasonable given that other hotels in the area were charging $25 for the same service. Our car never took more than 2-3 minutes to arrive and the hotel staff were very pleasant and friendly.

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  • 10 months later...

We stayed at the Emily Morgan this past weekend (7/10-7/13/08) with a winning bid of $85 a night and agree with Tazzy that it is a wonderful hotel, but have a few things to add.

First off, we were put in a similar small room, a "Business Queen" (225 sq. ft. according to their website.)

It was a beautiful room, but a little TOO cozy for us. (Obviously, for the price we couldn't complain)

However, there are those times you just need a room with a bed to sleep in after hitting the town all day and night, and then there are times you just want to chill in the room, order room service, etc.

Our weekend was supposed to be the latter.

SOOOOO, Friday morning i figured "it never hurts to ask" :)

A friendly front desk employee, Grace, upgraded us for $25 extra a night, to what must have been a "King Executive Suite" (505 sq. ft.) as it was more than TWICE the size of our first room, plus we were now on the 12th floor, with a nice view of the city with four 7-8 ft. windows. Price difference on their website appears to be $50.

we DID have dinner at the ORO restaurant and it was great, though there were only 3 other couples eating (at 8pm on a Saturday night). Don't know if it was a slow weekend (possibly a reason we were upgraded so easily), but i can't imagine the restaurant can survive with that little business.

Also, the valet parking has been raised to $24, but i knew that ahead of time, and know that is the going rate generally.

The staff was GREAT from top to bottom, even the valet guys asking every time we walked out if we needed directions anywhere.

And lastly, if you don't want the provided coffee in your room (i generally find it lacking), you can get a "cup to go" for just $2 at the restaurant. It was truly the best coffee i've had in a LONG time. I went down and got us some every morning.

later,

dougieieie

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  • 4 weeks later...

We're back from our stay. We were given a "spacious double" room instead of the "business queen" that we were in last time. It is listed as $10 more a night for the double but it was worth way more than that. It was a 320 sq. ft. room vs. the 225 sq. ft. of the business queen and that extra 95 sq. ft. made a huge difference in our comfort level with the space.

They didn't have any $25 upgrades available, it was $50 to upgrade to a king suite. We opted against spending that much extra. We were happy with the double room.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 5 months later...

Valet is now 26 + tax - steep. Rooms are nice. We stayed 4/12/09 for winning bid of 60 and when we arrived at about 10pm they upgraded up to a king suite which was roomy, 2 tv's (tube & small 25in - needing upgrade) - nice room. Next morning was hoping to bid and possibly get one on riverwalk so on the morning of 4/13 we bid again and won at 58 at the same. They wouldn't let us stay in the same room, said it would cost additional $30. Kind of a pain to switch rooms but got the double and it was nice enough as well. They said the king had wirlpool tub which was huge but not sparkling clean therefore we didn't take advantage of it. Was clean, just aged enough that I didn't want to get in, stuck with the shower. Our double did have whirlpool tub as well!

Overall good stay. Not on riverwalk, but a couple blocks away. Directly across from Alamo. The carriage ride horses line up outside the hotel at night...

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  • 6 months later...

Wow, I didn't know there were 2 Emily Morgan hotels in San Antonio. We stayed on the 7th floor - 2 rooms. As the elevator doors opened, the stench of the carpet odor almost turned me around and back to the lobby. Maybe the room smells better. One room was just ok, the other one smelled bad. Back down at the lobby, the guy tried to explain that "all the rooms stink until you turn on the air conditioner". Another guy behind the counter said "This is an old, historic hotel. You can't expect it to smell like a new hotel"! I asked for a new room and they happily gave us one. This one smelled better.

No flat screen TV's. I know, I know, who goes to San Antonio just to watch TV, right?

The room had 2 double beds and was advertised as 'family friendly'. I guess that means that when dear old dad bends over naked in the bathroom to take a shower behind the transluscent glass doors, all the other family members say "hey, let's go look out the windows at the Alamo!". Seriously, there were (4) floor to ceiling glass doors separating the bathroom area from the bedroom. I'm no prude but let's be serious. I'm just glad my mother was in the other room.

Delicately speaking, the toilet room (separate from the bathroom) was wonderful. Metal door, metal door molding, brown walls, brown molding, brown door, brown floor and nothing else. The room echo'd something terrible. It was like a rubber room in mental hospital without the rubber. It was void of everything.

We also got the whirlpool bath. As someone else mentioned, it was filthy. We agree that it was not something you'd want to sit on. The shower walls were dirty and the whirlpool bath was rusted and dirty.

Had to pay for WiFi. I guess I'm not used to paying at the hotel for WiFi. I wouldn't work in our room. There's a public computer area next to the lobby. Great! I can print our return flight boarding passes so I don't have to do it at the airport. For only $8. That's right, you pay by the minute and by the piece of printed paper to use the computers in the lobby.

$26 plus tax to park car each night. Here's the sign in the lobby. Valet parking, $26...Park yourself, $26. ???? I still don't understand that one.

Highpoints of the hotel? We got to see the roof of the Alamo from our hotel room.

Low points? We got to see all the great hotels of the city that we didn't win a bid at on Priceline.

I can't believe people are enamored by the use of the word 'historical'. The place was a dump.

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  • 5 months later...

We found this hotel to be a nice experience. We were hoping to win a hotel located right on the Riverwalk, but this one is a very short walking distance away from the Riverwalk and just steps from the back gate of the Alamo grounds, which we would cut through for an even shorter, more picturesque shortcut to the Riverwalk. After reading what the previous reviewer said about the hotel, I was a little apprehensive about staying here, but was very happy with our stay.

I called the hotel directly after I won this stay and asked about the size of the room under my reservation. I was told that it had one queen bed. I asked if we could get one with two queen beds and was told that there would be a $20 upgrade fee for that. I asked if there was any way they could waive this and the person I was talking to agreed to waive it this one time. Our room was very spacious, comfortable and clean. There was no odor of any kind in the hallway or in our room like the previous reviewer described. The beds were extremely comfortable.

I had read about the $26 valet parking at the hotel, which is in an uncovered lot near the hotel. I did a little research and parked in a nearby covered parking garage just a short walking distance away at the Rivercenter Mall garage for just $18 per night and had no problems.

I would stay here again and had a very nice time.....so don't worry if you win this hotel as it isn't nearly as bad as some reviewers say.

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