Riverhouse Lodge

Location and price was a great value.

Clean and comfortable

Clean and comfortable

Charge me for no reason after 2 weeks! It showed “ front desk” but I wasn’t even in that state! Mashed potatoes are salty. AC is too loud to sleep.

This was a family trip with our four kids. The hotel was very comfortable for us. Hotel property is absolutely beautiful, located near the river. The pools are clean, and heated to a perfect temperature that is comfortable for kids. Food available for purchase near the pool made it very convenient to swim and have lunch/ dinner poolside. Towels are provided. There was even a gas bonfire pit large enough for making smores, which made our last night of the trip special! There is a nice restaurant on the river, which we didnt eat at, but definitely a romantic spot for those looking to have a fancier stay. Definitely recommend this lodge.

Bella la posizione

This was my second stay at the Riverhouse Lodge. Last time, I was put in an accessibility room (I will link my previous review at the bottom of this post); this time, I had been booked for a Lodge King but was informed on arrival that due to a maintenance issue I would instead be placed in a 2 Queen Bunk room. Both first-floor and second-floor options were available when I checked in, and the desk agent helpfully let me know that there are no elevators, in case that affected my needs or preferences.

I picked a first-floor room and had room 1114. This room has a lockout and can sleep 6 (2/2/1/1 bed configuration). The individual beds are bunk beds, which are positioned over the queen beds.

I seem to remember my room last year being a little on the cold side, but this one was chilly no matter what I did to mitigate it. (And I'm not usually one to freeze in good air conditioning!) When I arrived, the room was an ice box, which I briefly appreciated. However, after initially adjusting the temperature up to 68, the room was still quite cold hours later. Ultimately I ended up turning the heat on (in mid-June!) and setting the temperature to 72-73, and that got up to "still chilly but workable." If you bring a party of 6 to stay in this room, I think you'll probably be much happier with the AC situation due to all the body heat competing with it, but for a solo traveler it was a less than pleasant experience.

The bathroom is no-frills but good. This room included double sinks (one outside the bathroom itself), which is a thoughtful touch for larger parties. The showerhead, while showing some age, worked perfectly well and is set high on the wall. It would probably be pretty tall-person friendly up to at least 6'2" or 6'3"! However, if you are short, be aware you may need assistance if you want to adjust any of the settings on the showerhead. My only real note in the bathroom is that they use the shower curtains with snap-on liners, which is great except that the liner currently installed in this bathroom barely makes it to the tub. Because of this, the curtain must be fully extended across the shower curtain rod for it to work—even a small crease will result in water pooling on the bathroom floor. I hope next time the liner is replaced they opt for one that's like 2" longer.

One thing I think is important to note: the first-floor rooms in the building connected to the lobby (and potentially other buildings as well) have patios that are not fenced in, and the only thing separating you from other rooms is a wall that only extends a few feet. It is entirely possible (and easy) to walk out your sliding door and over to your neighbor's patio. For large parties in multiple adjoining rooms, I'm sure this is great! But if you are a solo traveler or anyone with any sort of hard-earned safety concerns, be aware that this seems to be the case for all but a couple first-floor rooms. Request a room on the second floor for a fenced-in balcony if you can, but be aware: as previously mentioned, there are no elevators on this property besides at the conference center.

(Also, the sliding door was unlocked when I checked in, which I was dismayed to discover *the next morning.* Even if you have no plans to use your patio, be sure to check that, because housekeeping doesn't seem to.)

The two-bunk setup is an economical way to sleep six (though I don't think the bunk beds themselves would work for anyone tall), but at least for me they did not provide an especially comfortable night's rest. Most notably, I woke up after my first night to discover that my pillow had evidently leveraged the mattress away from the wall, and because the mattress sits on the bed frame with nothing to hold it in place, it had slid several inches. If you prop your pillow against the headboard at all (even accidentally, like me), expect the mattress to slide if you're a solo traveler sleeping on one side of the queen bed. This isn't something I've ever experienced at another hotel and caused me to wake up with neck pain in the morning. The second night I slept in the middle of the bed, and that seemed to work okay but is certainly (for me) a counter-intuitive way to set up for sleep. I thankfully didn't hit my head on the bunk bed above me at all, but I cannot sit fully upright on the mattress without hitting my head. If you are tall, or just long in the torso, be prepared for this. And for folks on the queen beds, expect a mixed bag of outlet access. The center nightstand does have a number of outlets, but it is stuck behind the ladder to access the bunk beds and is very difficult to reach unless you're actively lying down in bed. For those folks not adjacent to the center nightstand, no nearby outlets for you!

Another notable thing that I think would pose a challenge for a party of 6: there are not enough chairs in the room for a full party to have places to sit. There are two chairs, a small bench (roughly big suitcase-sized) which might seat two kids but would be a tight fit for two adults, and nothing else. There is no couch in this room, so whoever doesn't get a chair will have to sit on one of the queen beds if you're hanging out/eating inside. I guess you could bring the two patio chairs in? Not an ideal situation, though. There also isn't much in the way of table space, just a desk you could maybe seat two at, so bear that in mind as well if you plan on eating or doing any other tabletop activity in this kind of room.

Overall, after two stays in different rooms, I continue to be of the belief that Riverhouse is not worth the mid-200s per night that they routinely charge during the summer. (The discounted group rate for the Lodge King was $206/night, and I have no idea what I would've been charged had I booked the room I actually stayed in.) The river is beautiful and the conference rooms are fine, but I haven't personally experienced anything super unique to the property that would make me consider staying here on personal travel to Bend. Unfortunately, I think the biggest downside for me is the mattress discomfort—I come to this hotel for work, and after two years of really not-great sleep I've made a mental note that I will simply not be able to rest as well as I need in order to be at my best for professional interactions.

As a post-script, while I typically have pretty good service from staff at Riverhouse, I wanted to flag this for management: I intentionally present pretty androgynously, and when I checked in, the desk agent refrained from using gendered honorifics UNTIL I handed over my ID, at which point I was subjected to a deluge of gendered terms which I can only assume were meant respectfully but had the opposite effect. As legislation across the country is preventing some people from having IDs that accurately reflect their gender, it would be good customer service for staff to not gender someone based on their state-issued ID. (As someone with an extensive background in customer service and whose current work includes working with clients on a regular basis, I know this can occasionally be awkward, but misgendering someone because you are deferring to their photo ID is much worse.)

Last year's review of the ADA room: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g51766-d95935-r1014951138-Riverhouse_Lodge-Bend_Central_Oregon_Oregon.html

Great place for a family. Rooms are spacious with bunk beds in some. Beautiful rushing river in the back of the hotel.

I liked the local soap and the aesthetic however the one time I had time to use the hot tub, it was closed. My room also had an ant infestation which meant they were crawling on me and my stuff. It was frustrating and when I called to request housekeeping, they didn’t come so I had to switch rooms late in the day when I was already tired and had to miss out on other activities to do so.

Nice property and great staff!