The Delta Queen is a paddle boat from the early 1900's that has been docked and was turned into a hotel in 2009. We got a Living Social deal for 2 nights (including hot breakfast), $10 at the gift shop, $25 credit at the restuarant, and a bottle of wine and fruit tray. All of that cost $187. So, we arrived on Friday, around dinnertime and stayed until check-out (11am) on Sunday.
There's definitely some history and charm to the place, but as we found out, charm can only go so far when it is competing against untrained (sometimes rude) staff, broken water heaters, and the general noise of a hotel.
The Good
Something we loved about the hotel was the great location. Not only was it quaint to board a ship for the night, but it was also located in just the right area of the town, next to a great park on the north shore of the Tennessee river. and in between the John Ross (Market Street) and Walnut Street bridges. The Walnut Street bridge is a bridge only for foot traffic, and Chattanooga has such a walkable downtown, that this made for a great, convenient start to our day. Also, because Chattanooga is the home the Moonpie, the hotel offered unlimited free miniature Moonpies for guests.Another thing that we enjoyed was simply the history of the boat and opportunity to pretend that we were among the significantly wealthy of the turn of the century. On Saturday, we spent a lazy morning at the hotel and took a self-guided tour. My husband and I are both quite interested in history, and since we live a simple lifestyle, we thought it was fun to think about what a riverboat cruise in 1920 would be like. Certainly not the same as an ocean liner these days!
Finally, I really loved that there was no phone or TV in the rooms. I guess this could be something that goes either way for different people, but for me, it was awesome. It kind of forced us to focus on each other, even after we'd just spent all day together (can you tell my primary love language is quality time?). Instead of wake-up calls, you could sign up for a wake-up knock, which I thought was charming. They did have wi-fi, but it was only good enough for general e-mail checking, as photos didn't even load.
The Bad
Unfortunately with the charm of an old boat, you also get the inconvenience of the time. It was obvious that they did not do a complete overhaul on the plumbing and ventilation systems. I'm not sure what that would have taken, but the result was that the toilets were difficult to flush (had to hold the handle down continually) and the rooms were incredibly cold (they offered space heaters if you needed, but at night the comforters were enough for us). Because the ventilation was old, the doors to the rooms were designed for airflow, instead of to block noise. There was also a nice little game table directly outside our room, which caused more noise at night than I preferred. It wasn't horrible, but I would imagine it would be worse in the summer, when there are more guests.In addition to this general, constant state of the hotel, there was also a problem with the water heater, as in... there was almost no hot water. When we complained at the front desk, we were quickly told (by the manager, I believe) that the water was just being used by too many people at once, and it needed to run for 20 minutes in order to get hot, but after that length of time, we were only able to achieve tepid water, making bathing was particularly painful. We later found out that the water heater was broken. At checkout, I asked for a refund of my taxes (which had not been included in the Living Social price), and they said that they would be giving refunds to everyone due to the water situation. Unfortunately, they have not yet refunded my $30, despite me having called twice.
The last thing that really didn't sit well with us was the lack of employee training in general, from the check-in experience to the "nice dinner" in their restaurant. To me, the first experience at a hotel charging $140/night for a standard room should be a warm welcome and the general feeling that the staff is there to help me have a comfortable stay. The check-in girl was curt and unhelpful when we were asking about parking (they have no designated parking lot). The girl working front desk in the morning was much nicer, but did not seem to know the answers to questions or have keys to important locks (such as the one that could turn off the fire alarm that went off at 8am on Saturday morning). I could tell by her constant apologies that she wanted to make our stay enjoyable, so it was clearly her training that was at fault and not her own attitude. In the restaurant, the waitress didn't know what kind of beers were available and failed to bring drink refills after multiple requests.
