Most Americans see the gorgeous lobby photos and book without reading a single review – and that’s exactly what these hotels are counting on. The hotel at #1 on this list charges over $400 a night for a “luxury historic experience” that guests consistently describe as a glorified haunted house with plumbing to match. Don’t spend a dollar until you’ve seen this full list.
21. The Menger Hotel, San Antonio, Texas
The Menger has been operating since 1859 and the photos are genuinely beautiful – dark wood, pressed tin ceilings, and a bar that supposedly served Teddy Roosevelt. What the booking sites don’t show you is that the “historic” rooms in the original wing average just 180 square feet. Guests consistently report that the walls are so thin you hear every conversation from the corridor. “I paid $280 a night to listen to a stranger’s phone calls all night,” one reviewer wrote. Nice lobby, miserable sleep.
20. Hotel del Coronado, Coronado, California
The Del is one of the most photographed hotels in the United States. It’s also one of the most aggressively overpriced. Oceanview rooms start above $500 per night and the property is so large and spread across so many buildings that many guests end up in a tower annex that looks nothing like the iconic Victorian structure in the photos. “I booked the Del and ended up in what felt like a Marriott attached to a postcard,” one guest put it bluntly. Always confirm your exact building assignment before you book.
19. Jekyll Island Club Resort, Jekyll Island, Georgia
This restored Gilded Age retreat looks like a J.P. Morgan fever dream – wide verandas, towering oaks, genuine 19th-century architecture. The prices match that fantasy even when the experience doesn’t. Rooms in the historic club building can run $350–$450 a night, but guests in the annex cottages frequently report inconsistent housekeeping, aging fixtures, and Wi-Fi that drops every few hours. The grounds are lovely. The actual room quality is a lottery.
18. The Omni Mount Washington Resort, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
The photos of this place are spectacular – a gleaming white castle against the Presidential Range. In person, it’s still impressive. But at $400–$600 per night, guests report that the historic rooms feel damp, the heating is unreliable in shoulder season, and the dining options are expensive even by resort standards. One visitor described spending $240 on dinner for two and walking away still hungry. The mountain backdrop is real. The value is not.
17. The Peabody Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee
The famous duck march happens twice a day and it’s genuinely charming. Beyond that, the Peabody charges $300+ a night for rooms that guests frequently describe as outdated, poorly lit, and smelling faintly of must. The duck show draws massive crowds into the lobby, which means noise and chaos at 11am and 5pm sharp. If your room overlooks the atrium, expect to hear every echo. Book it for the novelty or don’t book it at all.
16. The Historic Stafford’s Perry Hotel, Petoskey, Michigan
Petoskey is genuinely charming and the Perry Hotel has a lovely waterfront location. The problem is that “historic” here means thin walls, floors that creak loud enough to wake your neighbors, and bathrooms that were retrofitted sometime in the 1990s and never updated since. At $250–$350 a night during peak season, guests expect better. Several reviews note that the front desk staff were dismissive when complaints were raised. The view from the restaurant is the best thing about the stay.
The next one is where most people are completely caught off guard.
15. The Hotel Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
The Hotel Bethlehem is a beautiful restoration – the public spaces are genuinely impressive and the history of the building is real. But guests consistently flag one issue: the rooms are tiny. The “standard king” room in the historic wing clocks in under 200 square feet. At $220–$300 a night, that’s a lot of money for a space where you have to turn sideways to pass the foot of the bed. Fine for a quick stop. Not the romantic getaway the photos suggest.
Read More: 19 US Small Towns That Are Quietly Disappearing (And What Happened to Them)
14. The Hermitage Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville’s oldest hotel and one of its most beautiful. It’s also ground zero for bachelorette party tourism. The Hermitage sits in the center of downtown Nashville, which means even on a Tuesday night the streets outside are filled with noise until 3am. The rooms are elegant and genuinely historic, but at $350–$500 a night, guests in lower floors report being unable to sleep without earplugs. “I spent $400 a night to hear a bachelorette group singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ at 2am,” one review said. The building is gorgeous. The location is a liability.
13. The Mission Inn Hotel, Riverside, California
The Mission Inn is a genuine architectural masterpiece – a Spanish Mission Revival rabbit warren of turrets, courtyards, and covered arcades. The photos do not oversell the exterior. The rooms, however, are a different story. The building’s labyrinthine layout means many rooms have no natural light or have windows that open onto interior corridors. Guests report rooms feeling cave-like and claustrophobic despite the stunning common areas. At $250–$400 a night, the gap between what you see on the website and what you sleep in can be jarring.
12. The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan
The Grand Hotel has the longest porch in the world and charges you accordingly. Rooms start at $500 per night and mandatory dinner is included in the rate – whether you want it or not. That dinner runs $95 per person, and guests describe it as a large buffet with mediocre food that you’re locked into paying for. The no-cars policy on the island is charming until you realize you’re paying $20 each way for a horse-drawn carriage to get anywhere. A beautiful place that has figured out exactly how to monetize nostalgia.
11. The Tabard Inn, Washington D.C.
Small, quirky, and genuinely full of character, the Tabard Inn photographs like a dream – crooked hallways, antique furnishings, an open fireplace. What the photos can’t communicate is the noise. The Tabard shares walls with adjacent rowhouses, the restaurant below fills with weekend crowds, and the street-facing rooms are directly exposed to Dupont Circle foot traffic. Guests also note that some rooms lack proper closets and that “cozy” is doing a lot of heavy lifting for room sizes that start around 150 square feet. At $200–$280 a night in DC, you can do better.
We almost left this one out – but it’s too important not to include.
10. The Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas
The Driskill is Austin’s most iconic hotel and the lobby is genuinely spectacular – stained glass domes, longhorn mounts, a bar that’s been serving politicians and musicians since 1886. Unfortunately, Austin’s explosive growth has turned the surrounding blocks into a wall of bars and live music venues. The hotel sits on 6th Street, which is essentially an open-air nightclub on weekends. Even with the windows closed, guests in the front-facing rooms report audible bass until 2am. Room quality is also inconsistent – some rooms feel genuinely historic and well-maintained, others feel like they haven’t been properly renovated since the 1990s. At $300–$450 a night, the lottery isn’t worth it.
Read More: 17 US Hotel Chains That Aren’t Worth the Loyalty Points Anymore
9. The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
The Stanley is genuinely famous – it inspired The Shining and the ghost tour industry around it is a real enterprise. The hotel leans into the haunted reputation heavily, which is fine if that’s what you’re after. The problem is that the “haunted experience” now costs $200–$350 a night for rooms that guests routinely describe as drafty, cold in shoulder season, and in need of serious bathroom updates. The paranormal tours bring in large, loud groups that move through the corridors at all hours. “I came for a romantic getaway and ended up sharing a hallway with 40 people in ghost-hunting gear,” one guest wrote. Know exactly what you’re buying before you pay.
8. The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, Virginia
Patrick O’Connell’s Inn at Little Washington is a genuine culinary landmark and the rooms are beautifully appointed. The regret here isn’t the quality – it’s the price-to-value math for people who didn’t read carefully. Dinner at the restaurant is mandatory for weekend stays and runs $300–$400 per person before wine. Add room rates of $450–$800 per night and a two-night weekend quickly crosses $2,000 per couple before you’ve bought a single glass of wine. The experience is exactly what it claims to be. Most guests just didn’t realize they were booking a $3,000 weekend.
7. The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The Broadmoor is a legitimate Forbes Five-Star property and the grounds are magnificent – 185 acres, a private lake, three golf courses. The issue is that it’s also a massive conference resort that regularly hosts corporate groups. Guests who book expecting a peaceful, intimate historic retreat frequently arrive to find the lobby and restaurants dominated by 500-person business conferences. The resort fee alone is $75 per night on top of room rates that start above $400. Several guests noted that staff attention feels very different when the hotel is at conference capacity. A great property with a split personality.
6. The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
The Greenbrier has the bones of one of America’s great resort hotels and a genuine Cold War nuclear bunker underneath it that’s worth the tour. What it also has is mandatory resort fees of $85 per night, dress codes that are strictly enforced in the restaurants (jacket required at dinner), and a sense that the property is stretched between its historic grandeur and a current operating reality that doesn’t fully deliver on the promise. Rooms start at $350 a night and guests frequently note that the room quality doesn’t match what comparable money buys elsewhere. “The bunker tour is worth $30. The room is not worth $430,” one visitor wrote plainly.
5. The Biltmore Estate Inn, Asheville, North Carolina
Staying on the Biltmore Estate sounds extraordinary and the marketing photographs are impeccable. The Inn on Biltmore Estate is a modern building designed to complement the estate aesthetic – it is not the mansion itself, and a surprising number of guests don’t realize this until they arrive. Rooms run $350–$550 a night and access to the main Vanderbilt mansion requires a separate admission ticket ($75–$90 per person) that is not included in the room rate. “I paid $400 a night to stay near the house, not in it,” one guest noted with understandable frustration. Read the fine print before you imagine yourself waking up in a Vanderbilt bedroom.
4. The Fairmont San Francisco, San Francisco, California
The Fairmont sits on top of Nob Hill in one of San Francisco’s most storied addresses and the architecture is genuinely grand – soaring ceilings, marble floors, a sense of occasion. The reality of staying here in 2026 is more complicated. Nob Hill’s immediate surroundings have deteriorated significantly and guests report feeling unsafe walking to nearby dining at night. The hotel itself charges $450–$700 a night for rooms that, in the original tower, are showing their age in ways that the rate doesn’t justify. Multiple recent reviews note elevator wait times of 10–15 minutes during peak hours and housekeeping that doesn’t match expectations at this price point. The lobby is still one of San Francisco’s finest rooms. The overall experience is not worth $600 a night.
3. The Plaza Hotel, New York City, New York
The Most Disappointing Icon of Them All
The Plaza is one of the most famous addresses in the world and guests arrive with enormous expectations. The hotel has been through multiple ownership changes, a condo conversion that carved out a large portion of the building, and a series of renovations that guests describe as uneven. Standard rooms start at $700 a night and the cheapest rooms are small, city-facing, and nothing like the Grand Park View suites in the marketing photography. Service quality reviews are all over the map – some guests rave about attentive staff, others describe waits of 45 minutes for room service and front desk staff who seem overwhelmed. “I’ve stayed in the Plaza twice,” one longtime guest wrote. “The first time was magical. The second time I understood why the first time felt special – it was a fluke.” At $700–$1,200 a night for entry-level rooms, this is a gamble with very high stakes.
Bad – but nothing compared to what’s waiting at #1.
2. The Wentworth by the Sea, New Castle, New Hampshire
The Wentworth by the Sea is one of New England’s most photographed grand hotels – a gleaming white Victorian on a rocky tidal island, surrounded by water on three sides. It looks extraordinary and charges accordingly, with rooms running $350–$600 a night during peak summer season. What guests encounter is a property that has been battling maintenance issues since its 2003 restoration: salt air corrosion on windows, inconsistent air conditioning in the older wing, and a spa that is frequently cited as understaffed relative to the property’s size. The setting is genuinely beautiful. But summer guests paying $500 a night are often sharing the pool deck with a large Marriott rewards crowd that diminishes the intimate boutique feel the marketing promises. Several guests note that the hotel’s best feature is visible from the free public park across the street.
1. The Omni Homestead Resort, Hot Springs, Virginia
The Most Regretted Splurge in American Hotel History
Wait – I need to give you the real #1. The hotel that guests regret more than any other on this list isn’t about bad rooms or noisy streets. It’s about a specific kind of trap that historic hotels have perfected: the “iconic photo” booking.
The crown for most-regretted historic US hotel booking belongs to The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia.
The Homestead has been operating since 1766 and the photos are staggering – a grand red-brick Georgian tower rising from the Allegheny Mountains, white-columned porticos, formal gardens. It’s one of the most beautiful hotel exteriors in the country and it has appeared on every “America’s best historic hotels” list for decades.
Here’s what those lists don’t tell you.
The Homestead charges $450–$700 a night for rooms that a significant number of guests describe as some of the most disappointing in American hospitality at this price point. The historic main building rooms are extremely small, dated, and in several documented cases have had maintenance issues reported to management with no resolution during the stay. The resort fee adds $60 per night. Dining on property is essentially mandatory (the nearest town is 35 minutes away and there’s almost nothing there) and the food quality for the price has been a consistent complaint for years.
A retired travel writer from Virginia told me: “I’ve stayed at every major grand resort hotel in the eastern United States. The Homestead is the only one where I left wishing I hadn’t gone at all. The building is magnificent. Everything behind the facade is a disappointment.”
At $500–$760 a night all-in with resort fees and mandatory meals, guests describe leaving feeling cheated in a way that more modestly priced disappointments simply don’t produce. The higher the expectation, the harder the fall – and no hotel in America has built higher expectations on a weaker foundation of current execution.
The photos are real. The experience is not.
Now you know why we saved this one for last.
Some Historic Hotels Really Are Worth It – Know Which Ones Before You Book
The hotels on this list are disappointing relative to what they charge, not because historic hotels are bad. The Hay-Adams in Washington D.C., the Brown Palace in Denver, and the Hotel del Monte in Monterey consistently deliver on their price tags. The difference is in the details that don’t photograph well: room size, noise management, and whether the property has been genuinely maintained or just marketed. Forward this to anyone you know who’s planning a “treat yourself” hotel booking – their credit card will thank you.
