First off, the pictures on the Union's website were misleading. My room seemed like an older/less appealing version of what i saw in the photos. While checking out, I asked for a receipt. Sounds simple enough.The woman at the front desk said, "I don't have time for this, I have to make breakfast". She walked away. I sat in the dining room and waited for her to ask me what i would like to eat( I had seen her ask several other guests). I waited a good amount of time, without being acknowledged, before heading to the Holiday Inn for my meeting( Where I enjoyed their lovely breakfast and good customer service). I will be traveling to Benicia quite often for business, but will not be staying at the Union Hotel.

I would have to totally agree with the last post, this place could quite possibly be the worst hotel ever.

I traveled to Benecia on business and could not have been more displeased with my experience. I showed up at the hotel at around 5:30 pm and much to my surprise there were no hotel staff to greet me, only an envelope outside with instructions on how to enter the premises. Being a woman and traveling by myself, I felt very uncomfortable with this situation. I followed the instructions and went inside, only to find my room key sitting there for the taking. I proceeded to my room which was quaint and fairly nice, so I was thinking I might be able to forget the hotel's earlier transgressions. This being a short fused trip, I left home without my cell phone charger. I was just going to have my husband call the room directly, but again the hotel failed. They have simple instructions for direct dialing of the room, but when you follow their simple instructions the phone system is unable to connect you. Both my husband and I called the Inn keeper cell phone number to no avail, so we both decided to leave messages trying to get further instructions on how to use the direct dial system. After nearly 2 hours of waiting for the return call, which never came, my husband felt that it would be best if I sought out a new hotel. I took his advice and moved to the Holiday Inn Express, which is a beautiful property several blocks away from the Union Hotel.

Do not waste your time or effort with the HORRIBLE Union Hotel, just book the Holiday Inn first and you won't be disappointed.

My girlfriend and I went here for our two year anniversary, and the Union Hotel's website advertised as having a jacuzzi tub, wireless internet service, heating and air conditioning, bottled water, and a daily continental breakfast. Nothing was up to par. The jacuzzi tub's drain didn't work, so we resorted to holding down a washcloth over it so it would hold the water in, but then after the tub was only about two thirds of the way full, the hot water ran out! We gave it a few minutes and then started to fill it again but by that point the water was lukewarm at best so we gave up.

I brought my laptop with me because I needed to get some work done (the same laptop I am writing this on, just hours after I left Union Hotel), but the wireless connection didn't work at all. It allowed the computer to connect to the network, but couldn't even pull up one website for more than a few seconds before displaying an error screen. I just got home and sure enough my laptop works just fine with no problems at all so I know it was an issue with the hotel and not my computer.

Frustrated with these issues, my girlfriend and I decided to go out for dinner and hoped everything would be better by the time we got back. When we got back, it was uncomfortably warm in our room so we decided to turn on the air conditioning. After trying every possible switch on the machine, we quickly realized it also did not work.

By that point we were both pretty fed up, and we knew we needed to notify somebody about all these problems. No employees were at the hotel front desk or lobby since our arrival, so we called the emergency after hours cell phone number displayed at the front desk.To our great surprise, no one answered that phone and even after I left a detailed message describing our many concerns I never received a call back from anyone or a visit from housekeeping to make sure we were alright.

In the morning, we still hoped to make it an enjoyable stay and wanted to make the most of a bad situation. Per the hotel pamphlet we picked up at the front desk, all we had to do to get the breakfast included in the stay was call the front desk to place our order between 8am-10am. This was at about 9:15 am on Saturday morning but when we called to order breakfast, no one answered that phone either!

We decided to just move on with our day and so just went downstairs to turn in our keys. There was still no one to be found at the front desk, and the continental breakfast was the same stale bread and orange juice left out from the night before (we knew because we went down there the night before to get the after hours emergency cell phone number and saw the old juice and bread just sitting out there).

Finally, after a few minutes of waiting, a lady came out from the back and apparently she had no idea we had called with our room issues and also were trying to order breakfast. We briefly told her about our experience so she proceeded to call her boss to let them know. After speaking with her boss, she said they could offer us another night for free, but by that point the last thing we wanted to do was to stay there any longer so we politely declined. She then said they could give us a 10% discount on our room, which I guess is better than nothing, but I told her that the only reason we had not already left the night before is because we couldn't speak to anyone and knew we would have a very slim chance of getting our money back even if we did leave. At that point, we figured we might as well at least try to enjoy the bed, especially because it was getting very late.

All in all, our overall experience was the worst I have ever had at a hotel. I planned this to be a relaxing romantic weekend with my girlfriend but it turned out to be a huge waste of money since practically none of the amenities advertised functioned properly. We could have easily spent $40 less at the Best Western with a working hot tub, high speed internet and a decent breakfast but instead took a chance at an old fashioned hotel in downtown. We have nothing against Benicia, in fact we loved everything else about our trip there, but I will definitely be spreading the word about the horrible experience we had at the Union Hotel in Benicia, and I would NEVER recommend this hotel to any of my friends or family. Heck, I wouldn't even recommend it to a stranger!

Disappointed from Northern California,

Charles & Erica

The Union Hotel is an antique gem in the lovely, quiet town of Benetia by the Bay. The front office staff is friendly and helpful. The room was clean, comfortable, and charmingly decorated. The complimentary breakfast was delicious and prepared as ordered. The only slight negative was the rather noisy heating unit, but even it did not lessen our desire to return.