Good things first....

Emily, the horse wrangler, was a terrific trail riding leader. Horses were terrific, including Frank and Greta! Summer provided a great massage!

Scenery and setting of the hotel is fantastic. Would be very hard to beat. Rooms, and river facing porch, were nice. However, the water heater (we think) and heating was very loud and noisy. Gas fireplace did not work. No small "niceties" such as flowers or chocolates (which you normally find in luxury hotels).

Service was not what you would expect from a "luxury" hotel, even during off-season. For example, at breakfast, asking for coffee - - the response was "...coffee service is in the other room....help yourself....". This included paper cups.... We had a Thanksgiving dinner, and the food quality was good. Atmosphere in the dining room was not special. Dark and cold.

Overall, we do not believe the Sorrel River was worth $450 per night (off-season price).

Let's hope the NYC absentee owner, and Small Luxury Hotels Organization, reads these reviews.......

We spent two nights at this wonderfully located lodge. The setting is great. The rooms, at least those facing the river , are excellent. Nicely decorated. But !
The fireplace did not work and we had to call reception and get a handyman to fix it. The room service menu was not available and it took quite some doing to get one from the reception. The water pressure of the shower was minimal, not sufficient to rinse hair well. The pressure in the bathtub however was good. When the heating in the room comes on, it makes a terrible noise, enough to wake you. The staff says they know the problem. So why not fix it ? Friendly little box near the door on the porch where they drop your invoice on departure day. Too bad people also use it as an ashtray.
Dinner at the restaurant was so so. Nice setting but uneven food. Lukewarm small portions, even for Europeans !
What really disturbed us was breakfast. The reservation indicated continental breakfast included. The reception had confirmed this upon arrival. The next morning, the waitress presented us with the breakfast menu. We asked for two continental breakfast. She told us they were no longer having continental breakfast because " We don't want to loose money in off season " . She added that " There are communication problems between the front desk and the restaurant " After a difficult argument we finally got orange juice, of course not freshly squeezed.
We had to ask for two plates after a plate was put in the center of the table with one sliced appled, one orange and perhaps fifteen blueberries, for two ! There were also one slice of toast for each and jam. The coffee cups had stained coffee marks. It looked very much as if the cups had not been washed. We were told that the stains happened when she had poured the coffee ! Hard to imagine ! Was she retaliating for us having insisted on continental breakfast ?
The staff at the reception had been friendly and helpful.
We had chosen the lodge because we normally like " Small luxury hotels of the world "
The only luxury in this case was the price , over $ 800 for two nights in off season.
Should Small luxury hotels of the World do more than accept their members yearly fee ?

One thing's for sure: the views at SRR are beautiful. Another thing is for sure: it will cost you a lot to see them. Needing 2 rooms for our family vacation we ended up spending a small fortune (over $1,000/night including taxes) and it really wasn't worth it. The staff is mostly novice, college aged kids who might not necessarily know how things are run at the hotel of this supposed calibre. The concierge was rather uninformed and when booking things through the hotel, you will pay another small fortune to facilitate activities. Example: We initially booked a hike at Arches National Park--Fiery Furnace to be exact--and through SRR it would have cost us close to $800 to facilitate this 3 hour private hike. By calling the National Park Service and booking the hike directly, it saved us a mere $750. We took a gorgeous 3 hr hike with a park service ranger who was incredibly knowledgable about the area, along with about 20 others from literally around the world. Great scenery, hilarious conversations, all for only $55 for 6 of us.
Additionally, SRR is 17 miles from downtown Moab (where you will find great, reasonably priced restaurants) and the back and forth got to be a hassle with the kids.
If you are planning on staying as a couple, and intend to mainly stay at the Ranch, it's beautiful and the bartender was great. But if you have kids and intend to hike, raft, canyoneer and bike, stay elsewhere and safe a significant sum of money--enough to pay for the rest of your Moab activities.

Spent a wonderful long weekend at the Ranch. The accommodations were very comfortable and the setting was gorgeous. Food was decent but not exceptional. Lots to do in the area but just sitting on the front porch and watching the river roll by is worth the trip alone. The staff was accommodating and I would definitely recommend a stay here. I also had one of the best couple massages ever.