Hotel Congress, Tucson

BOYCOTT TUCSON AZ THEY KILLED MY DOG SUKI ON 1/5/2011

We saw the elaborate website and thought we would be staying at an affordable yet tasteful hotel. It looked like a home away from home...citified and yet historic. We arrived around ten p.m. after a very, very long day of driving. Hundreds (it seemed) of loud drinkers occupied every space. The drinking continued until after 2 a.m. and the noise they made accelerated as time went on. We were in a room just above. To make it more interesting, the trains came by every hour or more and sounded their whistles. It seems we were also in the flight lane going into Tucson as well. Once everyone left, we dozed off between inhaling an odd substance, which we were never able to identify and listening to a group of girls screaming and laughing with each other right outside our door.

I love the rustic quality of this hotel,. and for my wedding night we received an unexpected 'friend' in our room in the middle of the night!!!

As a Tucson local I already loved the Hotel Congress. I am a frequent diner at the Cup Cafe, and often see live music at Club Congress. On a recent visit I realized I had never stayed in the Hotel, and asked to look at a room. They were charming - sort of like Grandma's house. Vintage furniture (I later found out most of the furniture is original to the hotel), no T.V.'s, and a great view of the historic train depot. When I came back down the desk clerk - a legendary local musician none the less - suggested I come back on an urban vacation. I came back a couple of weeks later to book a room. They had a package that let me stay in the hotel and get two tickets to the show in the club for the same night. I stayed up late, enjoyed the music, and slept extremely soundly despite the swamp cooler. I will definitely be taking another urban vacation soon, and I plan on putting up out of town family and friends there.

The whole charm of this place was that it was affordable and fun for travelers on a low budget. They have priced themselves out of the reach of their market! What a shame. There is no more hostel or reasonably priced anything. If they are trying to cater to the LA crowd that has swooped down on Tucson, swallowing up real estate and driving the price of everything up, they can think again. Those potential clients expect amenities for those prices!

I'm not knocking this place as I knew what to expect, but personally I could not stay here again. The room was fine except not having air conditioning; in May it was intolerable. And yes I knew that when I made the reservation that there was no airconditioning. But try to go to sleep when your room is above 90 degrees. Its a challenge. The bar downstairs has a good juke box and you will more then likely meet some friendly locals. The restaurant, which is attached, leaves a lot to be desired in both service and quality of food, but it will fill up your stomach.It was worth the experience though to stay in a 30's era hotel, but once was enough.

I didn't mind the no TV thing, I thought okay, I will read a book and get a good nights sleep. Wrong! A very loud band played until 2:30 am right under the hotel rooms. It was unbearable. In the morning when I complained to the desk clerk, he said "Well you were warned when you made the reservation." No- actually I was not. Unless you plan to stay out til 2:30 am I would not recommend this place. I would never stay there again.

For the people who said the sheets were like Grandma's, the beds were old, and the bathrooms hadn't been updated since the 30s, it's a HISTORIC HOTEL, not a chain. It is meant to be NOSTALGIC. There are plenty of chains for you pea brains who don't get that some people appreciate preservation.

I can't even begin to describe my disappointing and brief experience with the Hotel Congress. When I called over a month ago, a very helpful young man made sure I understood the "no frills" atmosphere of the hotel. I had done my internet research, and the simplicity of the hotel (no tv, phones, etc.) was actually a positive for me and my traveling companions. He then informed me that the hotel was getting booked up for a roller derby convention (cool!) and that there were no more double rooms. So he booked a single room with a roll-away bed for the 3 adults in my party. We were so excited this and anticipated our stay there very much when we showed up for our stay this past Friday (2/24/06). My apprehension began when we arrived and found there was no parking. We sent one person in our party inside to find out where to park. We were directed to a lot across the street, but instructed to be careful parking there because the restaurant located next to the lot gets mad when people park there (???!!). So we parked, carted all our luggage across the street, and were non-greeted by the worst hotel clerk possibly ever in the history of travel. He simply informed me (when I gave him my name and reiterated that the reservations were for a single with a roll-away) that there were no more roll-away beds. Then he just stood there silently. No apology. No offer to find us another hotel. Nothing. He just stared at me like he was completely bored with the whole situation. After I asked why they would make the reservation for me, take my credit card info, and then give the roll-away bed away, he mumbled something about there only being 4 roll-aways in the hotel and that the manager had told him they had overbooked the beds. And where was the manager? She had conveniently left around check-in time. I assume to avoid the long line of irate guests that would be arriving to botched reservations. I have traveled a lot, and I'm no princess. I'm always up for adventure and unexpected developments. But the level of rudeness and the complete lack of interest in our plight was too much for me. I can't overstate what a disappointment the Hotel Congress turned out to be. I suppose if you are tragically hip--as everyone who works there appears to be--you could go ahead and take your chances and hope that you are deemed cool enough to be treated well. Good luck to you, though, if anything goes wrong with your reservations because customer service AND courtesy seem to not be much of a priority here.

I sat in the lounge on the second floor and wished for true love. All I got was some old drunk guy with broken glasses in the tap room. He bought me a drink and showed me his chest. I guess thats true love.