Jamestown Railtown Motel

I should have read some of these reviews before staying here. The first room we were put in had a broken toilet. We were switched to another room that had a sink with a switched hot and cold faucet. I can live with that. What I can’t deal with on vacation is waking up early to get ready for Yosemite, turning on the shower and having no hot water. The «proprietor» said to leave it on for 20 minutes and it would heat up. She didn’t say that it was switched around also until after I had already taken the fastest cold shower in history because we were on a busy time schedule! Then she had the nerve to tell my husband, «You’re a contractor, you should have figured that out!» Seriously? He wouldn’t have installed the plumbing like that in the first place. She offered me a discount the next time we stay there, and I said there will never be a next time. I forgot to mention the blanket had stains on it and the bottom sheet wasn’t big enough to fit the bed so it kept coming off. Worst $ 70 I have ever spent. Avoid this place at all costs. Thank goodness the beauty of Yosemite at the end of our trip took away from some of the ugly experience of this motel.
Update: I forgot to post this after I wrote it. I’m hoping EVERYTHING has improved since we stayed there.

The rating is for their cancellation policy, never stayed at this hotel.
I booked this hotel through Orbitz and it had the label «FREE cancellation» next to this hotel. I knew I may have to cancel the trip, that’s why being able to cancel the reservation was important for me. And I assumed I will be able to cancel by 3pm on the day of check-​in or 24 hours prior to check-​in. (Yes, I didn’t pay much attention to the cancellation policy at the time of booking)
So I logged in to Orbitz last week to cancel my reservation as it became clear I don’t need the hotel stay. And I was glad I didn’t wait till the last minute to cancel the reservation. My reservation was for Fri, May 8^th. And this was their cancellation policy — «Cancellation must be made before Tuesday, May 5^th, 12.01AM». It’s 3 days before the check-​in date, and it’s not even FULL 3 days. If you notice the time its 12.01AM, you have exactly 60 seconds to cancel the reservation if you had waited till May 5^th. Very deceptive. If it had said May 4^th, 11.59PM, I wouldn’t have bothered writing this review.

I was happy till they used my card without my permission I won’t be returning… those that do use cash only!

Very nice rooms! They look like clean business suits. Not real fancy, but quite comfortable & had a microwave. We loved the spa bath. It was nearly the size of an actual jacuzzi. Spent over an hour in it before bed. Before we left, we went on a walk on the downtown strip of Jamestown. Loved it & would reccomend it if you have a little extra $.
I read all of these reviews before we went & half expected this hotel to be dirty or not nice at all. I’m glad we choose not to listen to them. There was no «tired» furniture. The furniture looked pretty new to me. The lamp had a usb port in it. Couldn’t be that old. & the water stayed hot while filling the enitre jacuzzi tub. I don’t understand where all these ugly reviews came from. Maybe they have new managers now? lol but they are definately nice rooms.

This motel is 4 star because of the great management and location. Face it – it is next door to the gorgeous Willows Restaurant – one of the best seafood and steak restaurants anywhere for unfussy real food in air conditioning. The motel has comfortable mattresses even if the sheets may or may not fit the new, deep mattresses. There is no granite. So what. You have an old-​fashioned modular sink counter. Everything is well maintained. Management is extremely accommodating. They have air conditioning that works really well! Most places in town cannot say that. It is the only place in old town that actually has a swimming pool. What I want to do in Jamestown is to get cool, eat well, and go to or from Yosemite. That is all I care about in this middle of nowhere town. This place at the junction of Sonora and Yosemite, makes my trip work easily. I say take a few inconveniences, like finding coffee in the morning, and go for it!

Good for a night if you are in the area.
The location is in downtown Jamestown, and is quiet.
do not expect anything fancy there, as most Equipment are old, but I have to admit that the bed were comfortable.
Rooms are clean.
The tenant was really nice and helpful.
It is quite pricey for what you get.

My husband and I were very excited to stay in Jamestown. We researched this little town beforehand and thought it would be a nice place to stay before moving on to Yosemite the next day. Jamestown is a quaint, historic little town. We had to request a late check in as we were leaving after I got off work. We were especially looking forward to the «jacuzzi tub».
Our stay began at 11pm and ended shorty after 12am. We were at this hotel for little over and hour, after a horrendous experience.
Upon entering the room, it looked nothing like the pictures. The room had a definite musty aroma. Before setting our things down, I examined the bedspread and found suspicious, whitish stains. The «jacuzzi tub» was disgustingly filthy. There was mildew around the edges of tub, and upon closer inspection, I found short curly hairs in the tub itself. It was clear that it had not been properly cleaned. If I were a betting woman, I would probably say that the owners are so cheap they clean it poorly themselves, rather than hire a cleaning staff. I thought maybe we could look past all this just because we were tired after the two and a half hour drive and had to leave early, so I decided to run the water and hopefully take a shower. Low and behold, there is no hot water either. At this point I wasn’t even surprised.
I went to explain the situation to the owners. The female who answered the window was rude and gave me a key to the next room over. We went in and guess what? This room was just as dirty. AND… No hot water!
I then went back to the check in window and she very rudely told me I could go to another hotel or get a room in the back. I asked about the hot water and she told me this room would be the same. I asked for my money back and that we were leaving and she told me she would not refund my money and to call expedia.
Jamestown is out in the middle of nowhere, so we used the motel phone to call expedia. The owners told us they would not answer the phone for expedia. They would not refund our money and told us we had to leave. They cut the phone off on us 3 times as we were trying to speak with expedia, who had recommended this crap hole to us. Finally we left and went to another motel, I was on the phone with expedia another 45 minutes, the owners finally answered the phone, claimed they were super nice to us and told expedia they were very accommodating. LIES! The owners said we were rude, not them and that they would not refund our money. Expedia did refund our money completely in the end but we didn’t even make it to bed till 3:30am. What a horrible night, all because of that horrible little motel and their a-​hole owners!

It’s a hotel, old, clean

This motel was cheaper than most (of the online ones I found) in the area and had vacancies (which many didn’t). I booked by ‘phone and did indeed get a cheaper rate than I’d been quoted via the travel web sites (Travelocity, Expedia, etc.).
The motel looks reasonably well kept and is very well located, being right next to a nice restaurant and the main street (but not on it; which is good).
The young man who took our booking and who booked us in on arrival was friendly enough and lent me a cell-​phone charger when I asked.
The room was clean, attractive, as well furnished as any in this price range and included a fridge and microwave. The air conditioner worked well and wasn’t too noisy, but the thermostat didn’t seem to work, so we had to switch it on and off perodically. No coffee maker or breakfast, but the so-​called breakfasts at hotels in this price range are usually rubbish anyway so we didn’t miss it; they do have free coffee available in the «lobby» though.
Only thing of note is that the doors still have keys (not key-​cards), which could be duplicated. This is something that they should update. They doors do have dead-​bolts too, but these only work when you’re inside of course.
All in all, a pleasant stay and a bit less expensive than the competition.

Call directly for a better price. If you book online, you get charged a substantial higher price. Good location; the town’s main street is just steps away from the door. Room had a refrigerator and microwave. Bedspread looked new, but the old blue blanket underneath certainly wasn’t. Bed mattress was old and hard. My back was killing me in the morning. Ill fitting sheets. Furniture looked relatively new though. Older tube TV. Sink drained very slow. Faucet was mounted crooked. Shampoo was provided in a packet you had to rip open. Soap was small and cheap. Front door rubbed and you had to kick it open. Free wi-​fi thankfully, because the Verizon wireless here is sporadic 1G service. Overall, it was clean, and a good basic place to stay if all you need is a place to sleep and you get a good price.

Clerk was friendly, but room was very tired. Old worn out furniture. Went to get coffee from the office at 8:00am but it was closed. Originally reserved a room at Miners Motel up the road but when checking in they said they were booked and had made a reservation for us at this place. Wish we would have asked for our money back and went elsewhere.

Run do not walk away from this motel. First, take a look at their website and find their «spa» or jacuzzi in their pictures. Guess what? No spa there when we arrived. Other reviews are true. Management could care less about you. Totally rude and reviews are totally right, bed lumpy, service sucks and clientele that chooses to stay here scary and questionable. You get what you pay for and here you get much less.

I called a few days in advance and made a reservation for 1 night for a room with 2 beds. The rate was great and I was expecting a middle of the road room. We got out of town late with a 400+ mile drive ahead of us. As a courtesy, I called the motel to let them know we would be in much later than we expected and to make sure there wouldn’t be a problem. I was assured they had our reservation and there would be no problem. We got in a little after 2 am after driving for 10 hours and there was a «no vacancy» sign lit up on the marquee and a «no vacancy» note posted over the night bell. I rang the bell anyway as I was assured we had a reservation. The clerk came to the window looking a bit confused and I reminded her of our phone call. She explained that we might not have a room since we had arrived after 12 midnight — that their policy allowed them to charge us and still release the room. In the end, our room hadn’t been given away. However, this is something that should have been explained in advance at the time of the reservation and/​or when we called to confirm our reservation and late arrival. The room was great — nothing fancy but I didn’t expect that. It didn’t smell like smoke at all either which I appreciated. We were there for about 5 hours — basically gave us a place to crash and shower before leaving in the morning again.

The manager’s are truly the rudest I’ve ever encountered. I rented a room for my daughter and son-​in-​law and was planning on driving back to stay at my boyfriend’s in Stockton that evening. We went out and I had two margaritas so since they had a double room thought I’d spend the night. The managers called the room and said they would need more money and that my dog would cost in addition taking the same room from $ 70 to $ 100. When I went to pay them I asked why they were so rude on the phone and the woman tells me it is because we were liars. I explained that I had planned to drive to Stockton etc and she says the registration says you are from Oakland. I then explain that’s true but I was going to Stockton for the evening. She turns to her husband rolls her eyes «Oh My God» intimating I am lying to her. Forget this place unless you’d like to explain your life’s story and the rooms are shabby with crappy dirty towels and lumpy beds. The next morning at 9am the complimentary coffee was also gone without any offer to make more. The town is delightful and most people there are wonderful.