The Helendorf Inn is an old hotel that is in dire need of a facelift. While we found the rooms clean and the staff friendly, the building itself screams for attention. Most of it needs painted. The hotel sits on the banks of the Chatahoochee River and the first floor rooms have a patio on the river. There are railroad tie planters on this patio that have completely rotted in places. We "upgraded" from a Riverfront King to the first floor room and was charged an extra $10 per night even though the hotel was practically empty ( I must add, though, that their season does not begin until the end of May). One would expect a complimentary upgrade under those conditions.

We have stayed here twice and it is cute. If they remodeled, it would lose its old world style. The people who work here go out of their way to do things for the customers.
We do agree that there is an odor, but it is near the river and it is old. We happened to come on a weekend when they were replacing the mattresses and boxsprings. Hooray. We got to be the first to sleep on a new mattress with brand new sheets. Woo Hoo
We will definitely stay again.
If you want the Ritz, then don't stay here. If you can appreciate the town and the German style, then give it a try. It is the best location in town because you can walk to everything. (With the gas costs, it is worth considering)

We went to Helen to get away and celebrate my 50th birthday.I can honestly state that I would have rather stayed at home.Thank goodness I took my own pillow because the bed linen,pillows,and mattress were all very worn and had a musty mildew smell as well as the entire room.One would think your nose would get tired of the smell but not in the room we were so lucky to get.It was so pungent it just stayed with you.We even opened the doors to let it air out and did not help.For the amount we paid I would think you can find better rooms in the area for the price.In fact we have stayed in rooms that cost less and were really clean and odor free.We did have our small dog with us so I guess we were given a pet friendly room.It was anything but pet friendly.The smell was one of old urine smell,musty and mildew.I would advise not staying there....We will never go back.

Our room was old and run down. Smelly. Had mold on ceiling everwhere. Mold in the Bathroom and was dirty, floor was coming up in the bathroom. Carpet was dirty. Our room really needed to be redone. Worse of all the Bed had a BOARD between the mattress. We were traveling with a small 7lb pet but we should not have been put into a trashing room like this. AAA should remove them from the AAA Book because they DO NOT meet the AAA standards what so ever. Will not return to this place ever. We were also charged $125.00 a night and the room was not worth $50.00 a night. The location of the hotel was good but I would sacrfice the location for a CLEAN Room/hotel!