O Brien Historic Riverwalk, an Ascend Hotel Collection Member

Great little old school hotel. Serves small breakfast in the am and has parking. One block from the Riverwalk. Not fancy but solid and has a nice staff, free wi-​fi and great location.

Cool place in a prime riverwalk spot. Friendly staff and a comfortable room. Historic building with a unique vibe. Worth the price. Recommended.

Great Historic Accommodations!
Our room was on the second floor with a back door leading to the outside balcony. The balcony is shared by several rooms with a table and two chairs for each room to relax outside. The room
had a queen bed, a desk area, a refrigerator, and a comfortable chair. There was a wonderfully spacious clawfoot tub for a relaxing bath. The coolest amenity was the provided bath robes. I really liked the interior corridors. There was a sort of historic comfortable feeling as you walked to your room.
Breakfast was provided each morning. Items included three hot items such as hash browns, bacon, and eggs. There was also yogurt, toast, and a waffle maker. Everyone was very friendly and the service was awesome!

I want to say our stay was pleasant overall. The room was clean and the complimentary breakfasts were welcome. It was also actually pretty quiet for a room that faced the street, which I appreciated greatly. There was only one thing that I found negative in our stay.
As other reviewers have noted, parking is limited — a problem in downtown San Antonio in general — but as inconvenient as that is, it was the employee response to a particular parking situation that marred our 3-​day stay. I shared the following information with the manager of the hotel via email. It has been nearly three months now since that contact (and several followup requests for contact) and I still haven’t had a callback, despite one being promised.
Here’s what I related to the hotel manager via email:
«When we returned to the hotel on Saturday night, we discovered that my vehicle was blocked by another car (in the small parking lot in front of the building). I had plans to meet with someone for supper that would require my driving so I had to quickly call and rearrange plans to meet elsewhere — some place within walking distance for me – with my dinner guests. This was an inconvenience to them and myself.
When we returned to the hotel after supper, we learned that such parking is allowed and that the desk had the ability to move the car. This was not something I was aware of and can recall no one mentioning it or reading about it on the website, so I made what I believe to be a reasonable assumption: That without a formal valet service and with in-​and-​out parking privileges that anyone parked in such a manner, blocking other vehicles, was parked illegally and that it would require the calling of a tow truck to remedy the situation.
As I’m sure you understand, making new arrangements quickly was my priority at the time so, no, I did not immediately inform the desk. I would have certainly have made a different choice had I been aware of the situation, which is to say that I believe it would be a good thing to stress the parking circumstances with future guests up front so that they know that alerting the desk will resolve the issue.
All that said, in the end, my biggest complaint wasn’t so much with the parking situation, as I was able to work around it in the end even if it was a hassle, but as to how I was made to feel when we returned to the hotel after supper.
Upon addressing the issue with the desk clerk working that evening, I was informed at that time about the parking expectations and received a response along the lines of „just so you know, they’re allowed to park like that“ and then it was pointed out that I’d been gone an hour an a half. The former came across as defensive and was definitely worded poorly, making me feel as though another guest’s convenience was more important than my own, while the latter was completely unnecessary and insinuated that since I was gone an hour and a half, I must not have been that inconvenienced.»
But other than this situation, which I believe more a personnel than facility issue, and lack of fulfillment of a promised callback for months now, I did not find our stay unpleasant. The room was clean and the price reasonable.
Would I stay here again? Probably, due to affordability and convenience of location to the Riverwalk and convention center (just a couple blocks walk), but there would not be a third stay if I encountered similar issues.

Really nice hotel. Very clean. Really friendly staff. I would stay here again in the future! Complimentary breakfast was so nice and convenient. Location was close to everything. Price was just right. Again, staff is very friendly! I love Texas! :) also right on the river walk. Great experience.

Dirty, dusty, dingy and gross! Horrible room — nothing was clean. We left as soon as we arrived.

The staff is so amazingly friendly and helpful. I’ve been in a bunch of hotels, but none has had the level of service this hotel provided, Just nice people. However the parking is a bitch. they don’t have enough spaces for the guests, but i guess that makes sense considering its near the river walk. But like i said, the staff is great, and they let me know when a spot was free so i didn’t have to continue to pay for parking. The room was nice, smelled a bit old, but whatever, it was nice. You can hear the street so it made going to sleep a bit challenging but to be so close to the riverwalk for such a low price i was more than happy.

Can’t beat the location of this place. It has some quirky issues for sure but it’s worth it.

A no frills affordable boutique hotel located steps away from the river walk. I booked the room on Expedia as it had solid average reviews on Trip Advisor and from other Expedia guests. Also, it was steps away from the river walk, could be cancelled after booked within a timeframe, and included breakfast and parking. I was not disappointed I felt that Expedia had accurately portrayed the hotel. The staff were extremely friendly, the rooms were clean, complimentary coffee from a machine at any time, and a nice lobby area on each floor. My friends and I had rooms located on the third and second floor. Around 2am every night there was some street noise on the weekend, but not enough that I couldn’t sleep. I can see how the first floor would not be a good place to stay here because of the noise and I would probably call in advance to confirm I wasn’t on the first floor. I didn’t wake up early enough to check out the complimentary breakfast. But from my experience at other cheaper options near the river walk this has been the best so far.

The hotel is in a good location. The lady on the front desk was very helpful and kind. But the room service was bad: for two days, we were either not offered clean tower, or the dirty tower was not taken away. AC malfunctioned. Bad wifi connection.

I’m currently sitting in my hotel room as I write this…
I’m here on a business trip with two other individuals. All 3 rooms were booked at the same time and for the same rate but I was the only one put on the 1^st floor. I usually don’t have a problem with this, only my window leads to creepy parking lot. The windows were once working windows but there is now one small screw at the top to keep it from opening. Even if the window seemed secure, which it totally does not, having a secluded parking lot right outside my window is still very unsettling. I went to the young lady at the front desk thinking it would be an easy and quick fix to move me to another room. First she told me that because it was booked through a 3^rd party there was nothing she could do. When I told her the other 2 people who checked in with me had their rooms booked along with mine, she said they must have been booked prior to mine, I later verified they were all booked together. She continued to give me the same excuse about it being booked through a 3^rd party and the rate was for the 1^st floor. I told her I did not feel comfortable in that room and not in a «me bed is uncomfortable way» but in a its creepy and scary way. I told her I would pay the difference to get me into a room on a higher floor. She said all the rooms on the higher floors were full and there was nothing she could do.
So… here I am, in this room which I dread nightfall to come. I’m sure no serial killer will come through the window at night to kill me but I just could not believe that they would not do a thing to make me feel more comfortable in their hotel.
Stay at your own risk!

Ok. Very limited parking. Room was right on street level and loud. Tub was nice, but sinking into the floor.

Location, location, location! We rented a room for NYE and I must the balcony was spectacular! The rooms are meh and the customer service is ml as well! If your looking for convenience this is a great hotel! The have a free coffee bar in the lobby which I thought was nice!

I had looked for a room in San Antonio and everything along the riverwalk was booked. I kept looking through the hotels listed on Google and ran across this hotel. The room were reasonable priced. The parking was across the street, The location on the hotel was a block from the riverwalk. The only complaint would be maybe that they needed to pay more attention to the house keeping. Counters were clean, but the floors could been vacuumed or swept a little better around the corners. Other than that minor detail, I would go back again. I would probably make this my new go to hotel for the area.

This is the worst hotel experience of my life! We bought a Living Social voucher for a weekend night to include free parking, rose petals in the room, whirlpool tub and a bottle of wine. Sounds like it would be a pretty romantic experience right?
Not at all! We arrive at 12:30. The hotel registrar wasn’t friendly, just told us the room won’t be ready until 3:00pm and here’s your free parking pass, «since that’s what you got on your Living Social and you have to pay for taxes so I need $ 13.» First red flag.
We go to the Riverwalk and enjoy a beverage while watching the river taxi’s.
Went back at 3:00pm and they had the room ready. She told us we are on the first floor and you will have wine and roses in the room. Our room had 6 roses wrapped in plastic on the bed and a warm bottle of cheap wine on the dresser.
The room was the closest to the street with buses and motorcycles roaring by. We were here for our 19^th wedding anniversary and just wanted to take a nap before our dinner reservation. The noise from the street sounded like we were sleeping in the middle of the highway.
Then the hammering starts. They had new carpet installation happening in the hallway next to our room. It was the loudest thing with pinging and hammering. My husband went to talk to the front staff and their answer was, ‘it will stop at 5pm.” No apology, nothing. This was at 3:45pm-so traffic and hammering. Lovely.
My husband goes to ask for another room. The front desk person calls her manager who isn’t at work anymore and the manager says she can’t move us to the quieter side because, «you paid for a room with a whirlpool tub and that’s what you got. We don’t have anyone here to clean the room and we’d take a loss since we can’t book that room now.» What!!! I have never had such poor customer service in my life!
We decide we’d be better off checking out and going back to Austin to sleep. The front desk person hands me my check in paperwork and says, «here’s your paperwork.» That’s it, no apology, nothing.
I had had it at this point and said I want my $ 13 (Living Social will be notified too) back and she said she couldn’t do that only the manager and if I wanted to call the manager I could. Total attitude. I said,” you can give us a refund, hotels do it everyday.” She told me I needed to be quiet and that I was being «very unprofessional.» OMG really?! Then she said it would come out of her paycheck if she gave me a refund. I told her you didn’t even apologize for situation and she said, «I already apologized to your husband.»
I told them this was the worst experience of my life and we travel a lot! She said take it up with the manager. We left. Atrocious customer service. Arguing with a customer? Giving us a room next to the road? It doesn’t get any worse than this!!!

We got a very good rate on line for the O’Brien on line .by joining
. The location is perfect if you want to explore the San Antonio river walk area. We arrived 2 hours early and the room wasn’t ready. We were able to park the car in the O’Brien lot. We then walked a short block down to the river walk and took a boat ride, a great way to be oriented to the area. We returned to the hotel and the room on the third floor was ready. The hallway was decorated nicely. Our room faced Navarro Street so we hade no balcony but a view overlooking the city (see photo). The furnishings were comfortable and clean, including a flat screen with many channels. Breakfast was sufficient and offered a varied selection of items. The best was the fresh orange — most likely local. It was huge, sweet and flavorful. Make sure to try one. Eating breakfast involved going up to the second floor hallway area where 3 tables were found. Breakfast conversations must have been audible in the surrounding rooms — an unusual setup. The staff was very attentive and tried to be helpful in answering questions. The bathrobes were not cotton terry but a warmer «fuzzy» type fabric that is very warm (not good for summer months). In sum this is a 3 ½ star hotel in a 5 star location — thus it’s rated 4 stars. I would certainly stay here again.

Location is the only thing going for this hotel. They messed up our reservation, told us that free parking was limited, didn’t give us the champagne and roses we paid for, and were just rude. Would never go back.

Location is great.
Why would I rate it so low? It was dirty! Hair on the bathroom floors and carpet. They had not vacuumed — I mentioned that to the front staff and they still didnt vacuum. Our cards to our rooms had to be reset every time we wanted to get into our room. The sheets had stains all over them (they were washed but not bleached). The room was really noisy. The fan/​ac didnt drown out the street noise. I would never stay there again! Its worth an extra 30 bucks to stay some where clean

Because I live in Austin, I had a hard time justifying spending $$ to spend the night in SA when I could just drive home and sleep in my own (free) bed. But, my friends were excited to do the whole San Antonio weekend so we ended up at the O’brien Hotel. Long story short, I had a good experience and would book here again if I needed to.
Location is very central to all the big ‘attractions’ and the price is right for the amenities offered. My friends and I were able to walk to everything (La Villita, Riverwalk, and Alamo were all very comfortable walking distances from the hotel). Our room was clean and not cramped, and I slept incredibly well for being not in my own bed (although the margarita pitcher might have something to do with that :)…). It’s a small hotel, but the size lends itself toward a pretty chill /​relaxed feel overall, despite the somewhat chilly «vintage» furniture they’ve got decorating the floor lobbies. The staff even let us check in early (about 3 hours early) so that we didn’t have to pay for day parking by the Riverwalk or drag our stuff around until normal check-​in time.
Free breakfast in the morning was limited in selection but free, so I can’t complain. Yogurt, fruit, bagels, coffee/​juice/​tea/​milk, and the fresh Texas-​shaped waffles were a perk. Plus, the concierge staff were happy to answer my questions and were easy on the eyes to boot :).
Price to amenity /​location comparisons pushed my rating up to 4-​stars. Good deal.

OK place. It’s small — 3 stories, 40 rooms or so. Very, very convenient location, just a block off the Riverwalk. And, thus, a very decent price, compared to places right on the Riverwalk itself.
A balcony room is nice — the balcony faces La Villita, but you also get a few of a large parking lot, not so nice. It’s a large balcony, though, with plenty of seats, so a nice place to eat breakfast. That is, if you get your own breakfast; the free continental breakfast is rather limited, the highlight being fresh-​made waffles.
Room itself is okay, what you’d expect these days in an average-​price hotel. Clean, at least. Free wifi — gotta have it!
For the price, I’d stay at O’Brien Hotel again, just for its convenient location, with everything downtown in walking distance.