My husband and I stayed at Casa Madrona on March 18th. I had originally booked a hotel in Tiburon, but the week before our trip, I decided to cancel it and I booked our room at Casa Madrona through TravelZoo because I had heard Sausalito was a nicer place to stay. Had I looked at the reviews on TripAdvisor like I normally would, I would NOT have booked this hotel. That would have been a HUGE MISTAKE. This hotel was by far the nicest hotel we stayed at on our vacation (we stayed at 6 different hotels on this trip, and most were fairly nice places), and likely the nicest hotel we have stayed at ever. It was a great all around experience for us. The only negative was that we only stayed there one night. My husband, who is extremely picky when it comes to hotels, wanted to know if we could just cancel our rooms in Napa and Sonoma and just drive back and forth and stay here for a longer period of time.

Anyhow, to my review...I am very, very confused as to the experiences that other recent guests had, as ours was nothing like that. It may be all about the room and we got a great one; although the service was also exceptional.

We were greeted upon arrival by the valet and a bellman. I left my husband with the car and went in to check in. The front desk person was so very nice, asked how my day was going and told me they had upgraded our room to one of the best rooms in the hotel (the Artist's Loft) which may be considering how we felt about the room. The bellman came in with my husband and took us up the elevator to our room. He opened the door for us and put all of our bags in the room and even asked if we would like him to fetch us some ice; which we declined (that is something we could do ourselves).

We were immediately shocked at how awesome the room was, what character and taste and personality. The balcony had a wonderful view (I have attached a picture), with two chairs facing out. We unfortunately did not get an opportunity to sit out there. The bed was huge; likely bigger than a normal King, with about 15 pillows on top, a wonderful blanket and super comfortable mattress. Best bed we had all trip too. The bathroom was beautiful with stone all around and a really nice shower. We did not have a tub, but wouldn't have used it anyhow. The fireplace had a log and matches ready to go, so my husband did make a fire, which was a nice touch. They had wine glasses to use instead of just your normal regular drinking glasses, which was just a nice little touch.

We did not try Poggio as I had made reservations at Scoma in Sausalito. Scoma had wonderful food; however the service was very slow; it took over an hour to just get our dinner to the table.

Upon check out, the valet brought the car around, asked if we needed any recommendations or had any questions. We asked about the directions to Napa that I had from MapQuest, he gave them back to me basically verbatim, so I knew he knew what he was talking about and then proceeded to go back inside the hotel to get us a wine country map and brochure.

As to the last review of it being haunted. They do run tours for that in the hotel that I saw listed on their website, which we did not take. I was a little creeped out by this idea of a haunted hotel, but to our knowledge, we did not experience anything out of the ordinary.

We did get a great deal on the room, but would have paid double if we could stay in that room again. We have already recommended it to one set of friends who are headed out there in May and will highly recommend it to others.

my wife and I called to get a discount price for our Anniversary. They gave us a very good rate, plus an upgrade for our special day.
Our room was on the 4th floor, room 546. I could hardly believe the value we got. The room was fabulous, with a hugh double tub, that my wife and I filled with body wash lotion the hotel gives for bubbles and we both took a hot bubble bath together . The bathroom also has a large glass incased shower with levelors that open to the bedroom so you can see inside or outside to the harbor. Two French doors opened onto a nice sized balcony with two reclined wood chairs and a spectacular view of the Harbor. The bed was a full king , with two nice sized Chairs and a scrolled type chair for full body relaxing and hasic. There is mini bar with refrigerator inside in the room, with some snack but that cost extra. We did not have a need for the snacks.
The room was clean and fresh. It has a TV concealed inside a pullout console, and a radio < CD player beside the bed. I went out onto the balcony late at night, around 3 AM . It was as quite as a mouse and the harbor was enchanting, with the moon light reflecting off the water and some small boats anchored out in the water with blue lights blinking randomly. I sat in the d chair and drank a glass of wine slowly thinking . What a memorable experience THAT was !
Totally private , no one distured us. The parking is $24 valet for a full day in and out as much as you like , they will bring the car to you at the front door.
All of this room was a mere $129 promotional rate. The usual rate for this room was listed with 12% hotel tax at around $300.
We went to a very nice restaurant in San Francisco, Cafe Sport, which I have been going to since the late sixties.l They still have the best Italian Pasta Con Pesto in the world perhaps, I have never found any restaurant of any class that compares to this place for this dish.
Well if your celebrating a romatic event, this is the time to jump on a promotional rate. Call in the day time and talk directly to the hotel reservation department;
Pogies restaurant is directly below on the ground level . We looked inside and it look quite nice, with some find dishes displayed on the tables, but we had our heart set on Cafe Sport on Green St,. in San Francisco this time.
OK, well thats my review.

Avoid this place at all costs! We had heard this place was haunted, but, didn't pay much attention to it. Now, we're not supersitiious people. We were enjoying a bath, then all of the sudden the phone picked up speaker and dialed a person who said "she's unavailable indefinately". Then the phone picked up again and dialed the front desk. Very very odd. Needless to say we freaked out and got out of there as quickly as possible, but...this is after an entire ordeal of going to the bar, being completely sober on the night of my birthday and being refused a drink by a grumpy bartender named Tony, who claimed I was too intoxicated to have a drink? Excuse me but he was way out of line. Anyway, pretty views, nice room actually if you stay on the new side. But, too much wierdness happening. Def would not go back there.

The view from Sausalito looking over the bay to San Francisco was incredible and the town itself was a nice little town with a number of shops and people were very nice. The hotel itself wasn't what we expected from the hotel's web-site. The rooms that have the full glass and appear to be in the hill...are actually the classic rooms - which we were thinking were the 'contemporary' rooms. While I had read the other reviews, when I spoke to the hotel I was told that the bad reviews were specifically about some of the classic rooms that were dated...but after seeing our room - I'm scared to think what the classic rooms are like!

We were told that we had one of the nicer rooms (a deluxe king harborview)...The soaking tub was incredible and the room looks pretty close, however, the view shown in the picture:
http://www.casamadrona.com/Accommodations/contemporary.cfm

is misleading...while you do look at the harbor...you actually look down on to a street and across a block or so and over some trees lies the harbor...Guess I was just hoping for something more romantic. We did have a nice time and the bed was comfortable but room was definitely dated. The balcony was small but okay and it was still nice to have as part of the room. I heard about 3 people complaining about their rooms while I was waiting for Nancy the conceirge. They were short-staffed and Nancy was helping out...she was a very capable and good conceirge and I'd call upon her again.

Not sure I'd stay here again for the price we paid (I think $369+)...but choices are limited in town.