The hotel is well maintained and there is plenty of parking. We stayed the weekend of Jan. 27, 2012 and had a great time. I found that the cheapest price for this hotel was actually on the hotel website! We reserved a tower room with a fireplace. Our fireplace used wax logs and every night we used one the maids would place a new one each morning at no extra change.

Positives: Large spacious room, very clean, reasonably priced mini bar with fridge, perfect location (you can walk the entire town without even trying), the hotel has a nice outdoor seating area with an outdoor fireplace, the bar has happy hour from 4-6pm with $3 glasses of wine...oh and the room has windows that actually open which was very nice! The hotel is next door to Sevtap Winery's tasting room which is open late and usually has a band on Friday and Saturday nights

Negatives: The bed was not comfortable; it was lumpy and if one person moved slightly the whole bed would shake, it also squeaked. Since the roof of the buildings go to a point (dutch style building) and our room was in one of the points our bed didn't have a headboard which was really awkward when relaxing on the bed or trying to watch TV. The hotel has three floors but the elevator only goes up to the second floor, which means you have to take a flight of stairs to the third floor. If you have trouble with stairs like I do, I would recommend mentioning that when you make the reservation so you can get a room on the 1st or 2nd floor.

Overall I would stay again and I recommend it :)

First of all, Solvang has a small city center. I would guess that most hotels/inns are within walking distance from city center. We were able to walk to all the restaurants and tasting rooms along the main road within 15 minutes. The Wine Valley Inn is just steps from the main street so that was plus.

We stayed in a Village Junior Suite. The room was renovated. It has 2 flat screen televisions and a new bathroom. The room had a wood burning fireplace and the bed was springy but comfortable. However, the 3 large room windows opened to hallways or service areas - no view. But the grounds are cute and clean. For the value, it's a great deal. We booked under the "Holiday Cheer" package which included a bottle of Bridlewood wine and a free tasting. Just a note - you are given a voucher for the free bottle of wine and must redeem it at the winery tasting room which is about 20 minutes away. We assumed that the bottle of wine would be waiting for us at the room, but we were mistaken. The vineyard is beautiful and they had friendly staff so it was a trip worth making.

Another plus - this is a dog friendly inn. We didn't bring our dogs, but we will next time. The rooms are clean and I wouldn't have assumed that pets were allowed here since it was well-kept.

Just a tip - After 5pm, the city center stores begin to close and the city is very quiet and dark.

Booked a room here and got their standard room at a good price, but it was right next to a stairwell. I asked the front desk if I could move away from that room to another and they upgraded me to a very nice room with fireplace, refrg, micro, and huge walk-in shower. The front desk people were fantastic. Nice wine happy hour with cheese and crackers. Nice continental breakfast with scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit. Wish they would have had more local bakery danish, but you can't have everything. The only complaint and it is really minor, is they had the hardest pillows I have ever had in any hotel. The general manager told me she is trying to get them changed. But like I say it was minor. The other great thing was a winter special that knocked 20% off there rates so it was even a better deal. Will stay there again.

Location: Solvang is tiny, so you can walk the whole town in 30 minutes, so it's centrally located, albeit sandwiched between a side street and a residential neighborhood. There's no vantage point in this town, so no hotel offers epic views.

The property: basically, a 50 year old place decorated Danish style. Tiny garden in the center of the property that has been nicely done, so that adds something to the place. The lobby resembles a slightly worn Hampton Inn, so it's not terrible. Cutely lit at night, so it captures the flavor and charm that is Solvang.

The rooms: paper thin walls and decorated with swap meet furniture, so it seemed odd. Poor color choices, a bedspread that marched nothing and old furniture. At the very least, new beds, lavish bedding, wallpaper resort style and designer toiletries and new furniture would help. Hire a decorator whose been to a Swissotel and do what they did with teak furniture and the like. We had a small room which was awful but I imagine the cottages are better. They look like doll houses and that's more quaint, so if you must stay here, go that route. With one window, no views and mismatched everything, it just screamed Motel 6. The bathroom was redone with a nice shower and fixtures. The sink and toilet were nicely upgraded do points for that. The faux fireplace doubles as a room heater and worked flawlessly so that was good. Could use a light in the shower and whomever is putting coats of paint on top of coats of paint needs to learn how to sparkle holes and edge properly.

Staff: typical small town, Hampton Inn style. Very forgettable. No host/hostess short of the overworked teenager at the front desk.

Overall: with slow tourism, it must be difficult to warrant the investment to upgrade the rooms, but since being here means you're a captive audience, all the hotels in this town suffer from the same handicap. The town is 100 years old and the hotels are 30-50 years old so you're not going to do much better in this town.

As I mentioned, redecorating the rooms with upscale bedding and furniture would go a long way but short of an interior gutting and major renovation, it is what it is: a tourist style, theme room-esque motel with potential to be much more.

If I come back, I'd like to see a full time host pouring wine, upscale bedding and a hosted evening wine tasting perhaps coupled with sample tastings of local fare to perhaps entice patrons to eat locally...we went to Buellton to eat...these little touches coupled with some room upgrades would let this place realize its potential affordably.

Overall, not terrible but certainly not exemplary. 2.5 stars from this world traveler.