Garden Street Inn, A Kirkwood Collection Hotel

“Garden Street Inn - Cute, homey, and cozy!”

The Inn was very cute and cozy! This was stop two on a West Coast trip and couldn't be happier with the accomodations in SLO. The staff was very genuine and accommodating to all of our needs and question.

“A last minute new years getaway delighted me in SLO”

I booked a last minute excursion to SLO via Amtrak, and found the Garden Street Inn for a great price on Hotel Tonight. I generally stay at Madonna Inn but this place steals me with its walkability to downtown. I never felt like I had to walk more than 5 minutes to anything, and the festive atmosph… more

I booked a last minute excursion to SLO via Amtrak, and found the Garden Street Inn for a great price on Hotel Tonight. I generally stay at Madonna Inn but this place steals me with its walkability to downtown. I never felt like I had to walk more than 5 minutes to anything, and the festive atmosphere remained cheerful since it was the day after New Years. The room was spacious, beautiful and comfortable, with a massive spa tub and white tile bathroom, I was able to walk to Lush and get a bath bomb to luxuriate. In the mornings, the airy lobby hosts a friendly breakfast and fresh, hot special—chili crisp fried eggs with parmesan and arugula for day one and day two was bell pepper scramble with fresh pico salsa and tortilla. Always free coffee and tea, and in the afternoon a treat of delicious little chocolate chip cookies. The historic property has such welcoming charm, and the staff were smiling and friendly, even lending me a usb-c charger brick from my stay, since I forgot mine! I would recommend this place to anyone who wants to be in the heart of SLO and remain on foot for your entire stay. It was perfect, 10/10 would and will be coming back someday!

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“Charming house”

A very cute Victorian house, carved up into guest room rooms and a charming living room. The location, downtown near the historic district — cannot be beaten. That said, it was surprisingly expensive, especially given the basic breakfast with no choices. For that price, we could have gotten a beaut… more

A very cute Victorian house, carved up into guest room rooms and a charming living room. The location, downtown near the historic district — cannot be beaten. That said, it was surprisingly expensive, especially given the basic breakfast with no choices. For that price, we could have gotten a beautiful hotel room with an ocean view in Big Sur. For anyone who is on holiday and doesn’t have to be right in downtown SLO, this might not be the best option.

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“Read the Pros and Cons and Decide for Yourself”

I don't usually like to leave negative reviews, but I felt the rating, comments, and photos for this hotel are misleading. It was not worth the money we spent, honestly, and based on reviews, we thought this place would be a safe bet. I shall make a pros/cons list so that future travelers can be be… more

I don't usually like to leave negative reviews, but I felt the rating, comments, and photos for this hotel are misleading. It was not worth the money we spent, honestly, and based on reviews, we thought this place would be a safe bet. I shall make a pros/cons list so that future travelers can be better-informed. Pros: 1. Excellent location. 2. Old/historic house. 3. Library-style front room with ladder. 4. Wine and cookies offered at some point in time in the afternoon (though we were never informed of this or given the times of the "happy hour"). 5. Cleaning staff sufficient. 6. Water provided in room (re-sealable glass bottle with two glasses). Cons: 1. The room looked nothing like the pictures. We were supposed to have a queen bed, but it really seemed like a double. SO SMALL. Very uncomfortable. I didn't sleep much the first two nights. The bathtub/shower left MUCH to be desired. There was no attention to detail. A bi shabby and not very functional. There was a big-screen TV. My husband wanted to watch a ball game. The TV was not plugged in. When my husband went through the trouble to plug it in (not easy since the plug was behind the armoire), the TV didn't really work. We were sort of able to get two channels, only, so we gave up. No refrigerator, microwave, or coffee maker. 2. No soundproofing. Could hear everything. On third night, a homeless man was screaming at the top of his lungs at about three in the morning. It was the first night I had been able to get into a deep sleep, but this guy kept waking me up. I don't usually mind a noisy hotel, but this place was truly extra bad. 3. We were in the area to tour the Big Sur highway so wanted to get out early. Breakfast is supposedly not until 8am, which was already late for us, but we tried it the first morning. We came down at 7:45, pumped out some coffee, took a sip, and gasped. It was day-old coffee. At 7:45 there was no coffee available at all. There is no coffee pot in the rooms. The cook finally brought out a fresh pot of coffee and opened up the kitchen at around 8 or a little after. She took our order even though there was only one breakfast offered. I didn't understand why she didn't just see who was in the dining area and already have breakfasts going. Instead, it was nearly 8:30 before our breakfast came out, and we were the first ones to "order" the only breakfast on offer. So we decided to skip breakfast on the second day and go to McDonald's (the hotel was far to expensive to miss out on the value of the provided breakfast, but we didn't want to risk it). Third day, fresh coffee was out by 7:45. Thank goodness. But it was not until 8:10 that someone finally came out to the dining room to tell us that the cook had called in sick and that she (the person speaking to us) could make scrambled eggs and toast. Luckily, we were not in a hurry that morning, but imagine if we HAD been. The scrambled eggs and toast were better than the provided breakfast on the first day. But I'm telling you, the breakfast situation in this place is hit or miss, and if you are roadtripping and need to get out early, this hotel is NOT the place for you. 4. The young man who checked us in was very nice (and I won't say his name), but overall, he seemed to be more interested in looking at his phone than in doing a good job. The wine and cookies "happy hour" was happening when we arrived, but the young man did not tell us about it, and we never knew what the timeframe was for that. He didn't give us the wi-fi password. He just seemed very uninvolved in trying to make sure that the place was well-managed. I don't know who the current management team is, but at this point in time, the hotel is rather poorly managed. My husband and I agree on this. 5. Common areas were not well-tended. We sat at the same table each morning, and the tabletop was very damaged. My husband was like, "If I owned this place, I would sand this table and touch up the paint. " My response was: "Or just put a tablecloth on it." The truth is, we are very positive people, so despite that fact that this hotel was far from what we had expected, we had a wonderful time. We commented on the issues we dealt with but brushed those issues aside in order to focus on enjoying our wonderful trip and reminding ourselves how incredibly lucky we are. I just really felt I need to leave this review because I would have booked a different hotel if I would have known, and I do think that the present rating and reviews do not reflect the true value of this place. If you are booking at a time when you can get a room for below 200 bucks, it is worth it to deal with the inconveniences. But we paid over 300 per night, and it was not a good value for our money. Thanks for reading, and I hope this review was helpful.

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