From the website, this hotel seems charming and interesting. When you enter the hotel, it smells musty and smoky. Our room was located on the third floor and I should mention that in the hallway, there is no air conditioning. The room was musty, needed a good dusting and the bed was similar to that of a slightly padded cot on a flimsy metal frame. The room is surrounded with creepy black and white pictures of people that I am guessing lived in or around the property at the time when it was built. There are antiques all over the room that do not look clean. If you enjoy being scared then by all means, book a room her but if you would like a nice clean hotel, go elsewhere. Once we surveyed the room, we got out of there as quickly as we could.

On our first night at the Havana, we were placed in Room 306. Our first impression was that it was a charming, quaint, spotlessly clean room. Very soon, however, we noticed the road noise. The hotel is located on North St. Mary's, which is, we discovered, a major bus route in the nation's 10th largest city. Buses zoomed by every 3-5 minutes at full speed, making a very loud noise, along with plenty of other cars, trucks and motorcycles. It felt and sounded like the traffic was zooming through the room! To make matters worse, there was a light wind, causing the very loose windowpanes to make a loud pop every 15 minutes or so. But wait, there's more. There is also a nearby heliport from which helicopters took off noisily day and night. When we called to complain about the window and the noise level, the staff said they were fully booked and nothing could be done. They didn't even apologize or offer any compensation.

Unbelievably, it got even louder. The hotel has a rather nasty little "cigar bar" in the basement. If you like drinking in a cloud of stinky smoke with a bunch of 30-something accountants pretending to be cool in order to impress overdressed blondes past their expiration dates, you will love this place. Sadly, this is the only bar within easy walking distance for a late-night drink. Anyway, that night there were some extra-obnoxious bar patrons who must have been thrown out of the bar at about 1:00 a.m. They moved to the hotel parking lot--which is supposed to be exclusively for the hotel patrons who are stuck with a $10 per night parking fee--and proceeded to yell, sing and scream for another hour and a half. The most amazing thing was, the hotel staff did not care at all and made no effort to get them to leave or quiet down. The noise went on and on until the drunks apparently decided to leave of their own accord.

I have been coming to San Antonio for many years and have stayed in all kinds of hotels and motels, even some really cheap ones back when I was a poor student. I have to say that, without a doubt, this was the worst night's sleep I have ever had in San Antonio.

We did get moved to a quieter room, No. 208, the next day after someone checked out (probably in disgust over the drunks). While the room was quieter than the first, it was still pretty loud due to the traffic noise. A hotel insider later confided that the hotel got many, many complaints about Room 306 and that the rooms on the first floor were even noisier.

In short, don't even think about staying here unless you sleep like a hibernating bear. Also, be aware that, while the hotel is technically on the Riverwalk, it's a good 15-minute walk to the part of the Riverwalk with all the action. The walk over isn't bad, but the walk back late at night is through some rather marginal blocks, some without adequate lighting.

Someone has put a lot of time and money fixing up this place, and it's physically charming. Too bad they didn't spend a little more for noise-reducing windows, counter space in the bathrooms and some decent bed linens and pillows. Also, if it ever hopes to be the luxury boutique hotel it claims to be, the hotel needs to ditch the ugly, smelly bar and open a night spot with some class.

This past weekend I had to go to San Antonio unexpectedly for buisness reasons. Since my first stay at the Havana I am a true patrion. What I like most about the Havana River Walk Inn is the feeling I get when I stay there. The rooms remind me of when I was a kid, and spent the nights at my grandmothers home in Virginia. The Havana is not like spending your night at a Grand Hyatt, it's like spending the night in someone house. The rooms are not modern and contemporary, they are of vicorian decor and have a very "I'm at home" feel. When driving into San Antonio I placed a call to the Havana to see if they had any vacancies, where I've stayed each time I have to make a trip out here. Miss Wendy kindly helped me with every question I had and helped any way she knew how. I believe at least 50% of a guests opinion of a hotel will be determined by how well they were treated by the staff at the establishment they stayed. Miss Wendy goes above and beyond what, if I were her boss would expect of her, to make sure we, the guests, were content. Miss Wendy makes the grade A Havana an A+.

My husband and I chose the Havana Riverwalk Inn over other hotels, because we prefer old world style over modern functionality. This being said, we were immediately drawn to this step-back-in-time hotel. Our room was impeccably clean and charming with its Cuban Havana decor. We had been upgraded to a King Deluxe, and the bed was extremely comfortable, complete with down pillows and warm comforters. I cannot complain about any aspect of the room or its amenities. What I will say, is that our weekend was nearly ruined, when at the time of checkout, the woman at the front desk told us we had a balance of $40.00, when we did not. We had paid in full prior to our stay, for a King Standard, with the understanding that when we would check in we would only owe $10 in parking fees. When we arrived at the hotel, we were told by another front desk attendant that we had been upgraded to a King Deluxe. We were also told that we would have to leave $50 cash with her to cover the parking plus taxes, since our credit card was declined. This, she said, would serve as insurance, and the money would be returned to us at the end of our stay, minus the $10 for parking. To make a long story short, the front desk attendant who tried to get us to pay the extra $40 at the time of checkout, had been trying to charge us for the King Deluxe, not the King Standard. This to me, was not just, since we did not ask to be upgraded. Thankfully, we were refunded in the end, but only because we persisted in what we knew to be true and right. What offended me, was that she did not offer an apology or admit to her mistake, even when I showed her the receipt. At one point, when my husband asked for his money back, she had the audacity to respond with a smirk: "Well ... not all of it, anyway." My husband and I are not complainers, but in this instance, we just wanted other potential guests to be aware of this incident, so they know to be on the lookout for unnecessary charges.