This is an old hotel, but it has history and character. One cannot judge an entire hotel by staying in one room only, so please take this into account as you read on.

The hotel itself really is "charming" - the building itself takes you back to what you would imagine times were like 30-50 years ago, but its clean and well maintained. The grounds, and the historical value of the location are excellent.

The room I was allocated (as part of a conference contingent) was tiny. It was a "loft-style" room on the top floor, and saying that it was small was an under-statement. There was barely space between the wall on either side of the bed, and if you opened the TV cabinet doors, there was no space in front of the bed either. The bathroom was excellent - but also tiny - quite hard to get out past the door once inside (it opened inwards, requiring you to literally squeeze past it).

By contrast, colleagues (for the same price!) were allocated huge suite-style rooms, with massive bedrooms, double bathrooms and even lounges...

My trip was in summer, so I didn't experience the heating (or lack thereof) problem, and sleeping with the windows open was a must, as the air conditioner was too noisy to sleep with.

I found the staff to be very polite and service-oriented - absolutely no problem there, and the catered meals (presumably by the hotel) were excellent, especially the breakfasts. The fresh berry smoothies were amazing!

Overall its only average value for money, as in any other location, the rates (for what you get) would be too steep. I would stay again (for business) but probably not in my personal capacity.

If by historic you mean old and run down, then yes the Gideon is historic. The finishes were worn, the paint on the ceiling was peeling, there was no fan in the bathroom, the tile was painted, the plumbing fixtures were rusted, and the hot water kept running out. The Gideon could definitely use a modernization.

Additional, I found the Gideon front desk to be very unaccommodating. We visited the hotel as party of the wedding party. We arrived early because we had to attend a rehearsal. Not only would they not allow us to check in early, but they also harrassed us when we came back to check in on time (the wedding party reservations were all made under one name). At a very exciting and hectic time, it was frustrating to be treated so poorly. Upon check out, we requested a late check out (we were in the wedding party and had a lot of stuff as well as a brunch to attend). We were abruptly and insincerely told that it would was not allowed.

Given all the other hotels in the area, i would highly recommend chosing a different hotel to stay at.

Our family has stayed at this property in the past and we opted to revisit mainly because of location. It's a very short drive to the Racino and to downtown Saratoga. The hotel is also located within the State Park, which provides wonderful options for recreation. I was hoping for better because I had read about recent refurbishment and upgrades to the rooms. The bed was very comfortable and all of the furniture and carpets appeared to be new. What was not replaced or updated were the bathrooms and heating units. There were old fashioned hot air heaters in our suite which needed to be manually turned on/off. There is no way to control the heat in the room so either you were freezing or roasting or constantly getting up during the night to turn the unit on/off. They are also extremely noisy, making if difficult to get sound sleep! There is an old fashioned cast iron radiator in the bathroom which never seemed to be warm despite my attempts to adjust the temperature knob. The shower adjustment fixture was worn and the piece to adjust the water temperature was loose and literally falling off. For $75 a night this would have been a fair value but I paid over $200 a night and I expected much more for my money. I rated the spa as poor because they "lost" my appointments. The Spa Manager was very apologetic and was able to reschedule one of my two services for later in the afternoon at no charge.

Stayed at this hotel for a girls' weekend. This is a beautiful, historic hotel surrounded by lovely grounds and about a 5 minute drive from downtown Saritoga. Service at the front desk was friendly, but they gave us the wrong size room. We ended up keeping it because it was an end room and had a nice attached sunroom. Service in the pub wasn't great...we basically got forgotten about after our server brought us one round of drinks and we never saw him again.

The king size bed was huge and very comfortable with a big down comforter that was ultra warm...good thing because our heat wasn't working well. The bathroom was updated and very cute. Our room was quite large with plenty of room to spread out. If you appreciate historical properties, you'll like this hotel. I enjoyed reading all the history of the hotel & town that they had on property. Be sure to book a visit to the spa!