Bristol Harbor Inn

My company hosts our Christmas party at this hotel every year, and I’ve been coming for 2 years now. The rooms are a little old fashioned in my opinion, but I can’t really complain if I’m not paying for it. For those who are actually paying out of their pocket to stay at this hotel, the beds are stiff, the sheets are rough, the rooms are small, and the bathroom is pretty old. The one good thing is that you’ll be located near the water which gives you a pretty nice view. Thei restaurant connected to the hotel isn’t too bad either. I usually get the steak since our parties are catered. Beware, they do not restock their vending machines. After a long night of partying, we woke up thirsty for water but the vending machine was all out of water bottles! We were left with coke or sprite.
I personally wouldn’t pay to stay here, but you could do a lot worse.

Agreed that it’s «good enough.»
These pictures do not represent the room we had, 217. The pictures of the rooms on here seem to have a lot more character than ours had. Would love to see a few more little personal touches. The AC was loud and something (maybe the refrigerator in the room next door?) would start up and rattle the art on the walls, which we buffered with paper to stop which somewhat worked.
The lobby seemed to have it all. Free coffee down there. Free wi-​fi.
The housekeeping staff were really amazing and accommodating.
The window was painted shut, no fresh air and with showers, pretty humid. A view of the tavern next door. The continental breakfast was only okay, toast, cereal, very basic.
Had a look at the Bridal Suite, which was where the view was, a lovely little room at the end of the hall with an extra room in the suite that was used for the excellent light for makeup.
I still feel that if we were to come back, that I would look elsewhere and explore a little more.

Last weekend I had a super duper pleasant stay at Bristol Harbor Inn with one of my associates. Let’s get down to brass tacks: the best feature of this establishment is its location. It is situated in a quaint little corner of Rhode Island that puts guests walking distance from a handful of varied bars and eateries. Additionally, it is so close to the ocean that you might as well be on a yacht! How darling! Our room was neat and came equipped with a fireplace to keep us warm on a chilly autumn night. It also had an adorable portrait of a little girl above it (so precious!). I think in the busier tourist season the BHI might be out of my budget range, but for this colder time of year it was an excellent choice.

Bristol holds a special place in my heart. My husband and I met at RWU and returned six years later for our wedding! We were married under the waterfront tented deck at the Inn, and they did a fantastic job. The venue was gorgeous, we really didn’t have to add much to decorate, the place is naturally beautiful! Our guests enjoyed staying at the hotel and being right in the center of downtown. It’s within walking distance to everywhere they wanted to visit. Thank you for helping to make our wedding weekend perfect!

If you’re looking for a decent place to crash in the cute town of Bristol, you’ve found it. Looking for anything else? Ehh, nice try. To say that this place needs an update would be an understatement.
It feels like Bristol Harbor Inn has mastered the art of «good enough.» The rooms, good enough, although a bathroom light is out, the floor tile is cracked, and the air conditioner is so loud, you wonder if something recently died in there. The «free» continental breakfast, good enough, if you don’t mind picking at what’s left of mushy fruit and receiving a bill for an omelet that no one specified was not part of the meal. The parking, good enough, if you’re cool with walking a few blocks every time you come and go. The amenities? Wifi, of course, which is now standard everywhere.
The front desk staff is warm and accommodating and the Inn’s location is great. Bristol itself is a cute and lovely town, and totally walkable from this spot.
It’s the only game in town, anyway. See you there!

Visited the bristol harbor inn memorial day weekend. The location is perfect. Walking distance to everything. Be sure to visit the De wolf’s for coconut martini’s.
The service at the hotel is excellent. Extremely friendly and professional staff to meet all their guests needs.

So the BHI was completely god-​sent for my wedding reception at the adjacent DeWolf Tavern. Both sides of my family booked most of the rooms on the 1^st and 2ns floors and everyone I spoke to enjoyed their stay. Not the fanciest hotel you’ll ever stay at but all the rooms were clean and all the beds were comfy. I stayed in a deluxe room with a ‘sun room’ and beautiful views of Bristol Harbor. Really worked out perfect where once the reception was over, everyone could stumble back to the BHI and hit their beds. Free WiFi, complimentary breakfast at Dewolf Tavern and great views were all pluses. Again, don’t expect overly extravagant amenities but if you’re having an event at Dewolf or in downtown Bristol, BHI is a great option for an overnight stay at a decent price.

I’m not sure what the recent complaint that there’s «no wi-​fi in the rooms» is about. I’m typing this, in my room, using the hotels wi-​fi, which is both fast and stable.
My room is quiet and it has drapes that block all the light. But, there is a bar next door to the hotel, so you may want to request a room away from the bar.
Bristol’s a nice little town and you’re going to pay a bit of a premium to stay in the only hotel in the middle of a nice little town that does a lot of tourist trade. This is reflected in the price of the BHI, but it’s a really nice little place with well kept and comfortable rooms.
It’s well worth the extra $ 20 a night to stay here, where you’re within walking distance of everywhere you might want to go to.

First, the good:
1. The inn is perfectly placed in the middle of all things Bristol. You really can’t beat the location if you’re staying in the area. It’s right on the water (which has it’s negatives in terms of the the wind), which can be peaceful. There are plenty of opportunities to walk to the local shops and restaurants also.
2. The service was quite prompt and polite. From the front desk people to the housekeeping — everyone was quite nice and responded to any concerns quickly.
And then why I docked it:
1. For light sleepers, this place will be a nightmare. The windows are quite thin and let in quite a bit of outside noise. Worse however is that the doors don’t have a rubber seal at bottom like some of the modern hotels, so there is a wide gap between the door and the floor which means every sound in the hallway comes right into your door. Get a light night crew coming back from the bars, and they’ll easily wake you up. This gap also lets in a ton of light from the hallway and I had to roll up a blanket just to block the light.
2. No wifi in the rooms. There is an ethernet cable for those of you with that capacity, but for my money, I expect to get wifi in the room. There is wifi in the lobby along with a computer attached to a printer for guest use. But come on, it’s common place these days mostly everywhere and the management really should get with it. This was easily worth a negative star.
3. The bed was hard and the pillows mushy. This is a personal preference thing, and maybe you’ll love it, but it just didn’t work for me.
And that’s really it. The Bristol Harbor Inn has quite a few different kinds of rooms that you can choose from. The two taverns nearby have good food too.

There are so many reasons why I would like to give this hotel a good review. It’s in a great location. The property is new and well kept. The bed is great. There is a lovely gas fireplace in our room.
However, two factors combined to make my stay a less than pleasant one. If you are not a light sleeper or if you are lucky to get a different room than the one I got, these issues may not be important to you. First, the windows do not have drapes adequate to block light from the bright street lights outside. There are decorative drapes, blinds, and a sheer curtain but nothing adequate to darken the room.
Looking at the photographs on the hotel’s web site, it appears that some rooms do have drapes that would darken the room. Second, and most importantly, our room faced Thames Street where the music from a nightclub awoke me from my sleep. The noise got worse later as the club closed and loud voices invaded the parking lot on the other side of the room. To give the hotel credit, at our request, they did move us to a room on the other side of the property. I am not really sure what the hotel can do about the problem with noise from the club. Perhaps the persons or company that operates said club has more political clout that the hotel operators.
If I had gotten a room originally on the quiet side of the building, I am pretty confident that I would have written a review that gave the hotel a rating of «as good as it gets» but given my experience with the drapes and noise, I can’t do so.
I would like to make one last note about parking at the hotel which is odd compared to most hotels you might visit. When you arrive, there is a nice lot directly outside of the front desk but you can’t use that lot for more than a couple hours, i.e. long enough to check in, take your bags to your room, and get settled in. After that, you have to move your car to a lot that is across and down the street a few hundred yards. On an evening with nice weather, this is not a big deal for most people but if you are disabled or find yourself at the hotel on a frigid evening, you may not be happy about the parking.
My room had excellent wired internet via a jack next to the telephone but the wifi did not reach the room from the lobby. The front desk will give you a network cable if you do not have one, but if your device does not have a network jack, i.e. if you have ipad, you won’t be able to use the Internet except in the lobby.
Update:
We were moved to a new room that was quiet and had drapes. They also refunded half the cost of our second night’s stay so I am now a fan again but would never agree to a room facing the night clubs again. In case management is reading this, there were some small issues with our new room (225). The tub was discolored, a few floor tiles were cracked, and one of the drapes did not open and close properly. Also, the first room had a bulb out in the overhead lamp. This is something housekeeping should catch and report.

Great location and really sweet people… the place was pretty clean. Comfy rooms.

I stayed here 3 nights over Christmas 2011 when visiting family in the area. Great location and the room is clean, but fewer amenities than a Comfort Inn. Not even a coffee pot in the room, no way to have a cup of tea. It was a bit cold, and the heater was so loud and weak we opted to sleep in the cold instead of listening to the noise. There are a lot of bed & breakfasts in the area, for the price I would stay somewhere else.

My mother and I stayed here while meeting with vendors for my upcoming wedding and we had a delightful stay! The hotel staff were friendly and knowledgeable about the surrounding area, and the rooms were cozy and comfortable. The breakfast was your standard free hotel breakfast, but there were ample «cold-​food» choices and fresh coffee kept on coming, which in my opinion is crucial. I agree the rooms felt a little damp, but it was cool enough in Bristol the nights we were there to turn on our heater which sufficiently sucked the moisture out of the air. I would eagerly suggest this gem to anyone traveling to the Newport/​Bristol Harbor area. I even ended up booking a wedding room block for my guests because I was certain they would have a lovely stay as well.

We were up in the Newport area this past Labor Day weekend for a friend’s wedding. We decided to book at the Bristol Harbor Inn based on the amazing photos on their website.
We were not disappointed. The staff was helpful and courteous and the rooms were adorable. The bed was super comfortable and the décor was perfect for us.
I did feel the room felt damp, but I think it was just the air conditioning and it didn’t ruin our stay.
We loved staying in Bristol even though it was further from the wedding. We would recommend the Bristol Harbor Inn to anyone traveling that way.

We stayed here over the weekend for JP’s college friend’s wedding. I don’t have any major complaints like the other reviewers… the Inn is centrally located in Bristol, we could easily walk to restaurants, bars and the church where the ceremony was held so it was nice to park the car and not worry about it until we left.
The staff seemed helpful enough. Since we were taking a red-​eye I called the night we were leaving to inquire about an early check-​in for the following day. I was told «no problem,» and let them know we would be arriving most likely between 11 AM and Noon. Well, when we arrived our room wasn’t ready. We were tired and assured that the room would be ready within the hour. We decided to go find some food, but as we were walking out the front desk said our room would now be ready in 15 minutes. It was nice to see them make an extra effort to accommodate two weary travelers.
We were on the third floor which has a weird layout, walking past some «antiques» for sale to get to our non-​view room (we only paid $ 209/​night for the room, the view rooms were running more). The elevator is pretty scary, we stuck to the stairs. Room wasn’t huge, but not cramped either. Had a fireplace which obviously went unused with 80 degree East Coast days. Bathroom was a good size, but towels weren’t the nicest.
You receive a complimentary continental breakfast with your stay. I didn’t make it down but JP ran down one morning and grabbed a yogurt, english muffin and a bagel. Apparently they were already out of fruit, which you think they’d plan ahead with a sold out inn for the wedding.
All in all, we had a clean room and comfortable bed to stay in Bristol and enjoy JP’s friend’s wedding. I am sure there are tons of other much more quaint lodging options in Bristol if that is what you are after.

I think I’d probably recommend this place to travelers. I work in Bristol and only needed to stay when I had some car trouble one week. I don’t know what other places in Bristol cost (here it’s about $ 120 a night for a King bed), but it’s right on the water and you’re right in the middle of everything that Bristol has to offer, so it seems like a good deal to me.
I thought the staff was really nice, and they have fresh fruit and cookies at the desk for guests. I had a King bed room which was upgraded to a «better room» for whatever reason, but it was tiny as could be, probably the smallest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (and I’ve stayed in NY, San Fran, etc. who are notorious for teeny rooms). Though, for one person it was totally fine. It’d probably be fine to two people too.
I did however think the fireplace was super cute and the bathroom looked very pristine and luxurious with it’s little lion embroidered towels. The bed was very comfortable and all done up with good linens.
The «breakfast» is nothing more than your usual dry continental breakfast with some cereals, english muffins and pastries, but it’s not bad. The pastries were really good, I actually ganked some and brought them to work for my colleagues.
So yeah, I’d recommend based on location, and the price seems really good for Bristol.