Gatlinburg River Inn

“Nice hotel with a great balcony.”

Nice hotel close to the main strip. Nice view great balcony. walking distance to restaurants and shopping. Nice hot tub pool was closed for the season at the time we stayed. Close to the Great Smokey Mountains. Excellent continental breakfast too! We will definitely visit again in the near future.

“It was sufficient, but won't stay here again (unless it's free)...”

We went here for a BFF getaway and had a great time! THE GOOD: The rooms were clean and turned daily (lots of towels, made the beds, swept the rooms, cleaned the bathrooms, etc.). Staff was friendly. The breakfast was good and included in the room cost. Scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits & gravy, … Mehr

We went here for a BFF getaway and had a great time! THE GOOD: The rooms were clean and turned daily (lots of towels, made the beds, swept the rooms, cleaned the bathrooms, etc.). Staff was friendly. The breakfast was good and included in the room cost. Scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits & gravy, waffles ("make your own"), cereals, fresh fruit, juices, coffees. The little Cafe seemed to have plenty of seating (we never had a problem getting a chair) and was quiet. We asked for a room with a fireplace upon check-in and were 'upgraded' to one. They are the flip-switch electronic kind and oh BOY do they put out a LOT of heat! We left the fireplace on pretty much all night for ambience, and used it in the early AM for heating up the room. The actual heater in the room was sufficient - but - kind of noisy (it's old). Sitting on the balcony over the stream was quite a fun memory!!! We were both tired from walking so much (over 50 ladies), so sitting with a glass of wine with our feet up on the balcony, shouting MERRY CHRISTMAS and waving to the long line of cars coming in on Parkway Blvd was lots of fun. :) It's walking distance to all the good things! We walked up to Airport Road at one point to shop. Walking distance to the little shopping area where the Pancake Pantry is (and the Irish pub, Camron was a ton of fun as our flirty bartender), wineries, candy stores. We didn't try the hot tub - it looked VERY clean - but when we put a hand into it to test the heat level, it just didn't feel hot enough to justify running to/from the room in bathing suits (even tho it was 59 degrees outside). Parking is ample! No worries about your car (even w/ the 'bear warning', I wasn't paranoid about my car being damaged). THE BAD: The beds... ugh. They are ROCK hard. If you are like us and used to a pillow-top or foam mattress? Your back will be KILLING YOU for days afterwards. There were 4 pillows per bed (queen sized beds); so my BFF used 3 of hers to kind of lay on top of (to make her own pillowtop). I would recommend to staff - PLEASE put a few more pillows on each bed! I'd say around 6 per bed vs. 4 would be great. ALSO - the bedspread themselves were thin. I'm talking like thin blanket vs. a real bedspread. Most of the planet needs some type of weighted something on top of them in order to sleep good (especially when the bed is so hard). Either invest in getting actual heavier bedspreads for the beds, OR - have blankets in the closet for those of us who need the warmth and the weight on us at night. The room itself was definitely outdated, as other reviewers have said. The floor was really worn and in bad shape (but, clean; running around in white socks proved the floors were at least swept and cleaned daily). SUM UP: I feel like $200 a night was definitely WAY too much for this hotel. The saving graces (the balcony over the stream; the walking distance to attractions; the good, free breakfast) may be enough for some, but those rock-hard beds really made it difficult to give anything more than a mediocre review for this hotel. Next time my bestie and I come back to Gatlinburg, we'll stay at a different hotel (or rent a cabin up high). All in all, the trip itself was great because we made the best of it, but that's how we roll. Our backs still hurt.....

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“Not great”

The room was nice and Megan was great. The day clerk wasn’t so nice and the room above us made noise for 2 nites we didn’t get much sleep. So we didn’t enjoy our stay , I ask for extra blanket there wasn’t any. Breakfast wasn’t bad and our phone didn’t work so we couldn’t call front desk and the da… Mehr

The room was nice and Megan was great. The day clerk wasn’t so nice and the room above us made noise for 2 nites we didn’t get much sleep. So we didn’t enjoy our stay , I ask for extra blanket there wasn’t any. Breakfast wasn’t bad and our phone didn’t work so we couldn’t call front desk and the day clerk didn’t have much to say when we said anything about the noise above us .

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