I would not recommend staying at this hotel. I felt that the front desk staff was rude.The room was old and musky smelling and we had to call the front desk several times because the internet service would not work. We finally just gave up on the internet problem. The bathtub was old and stained and had rust in it and several of the towels were stained with what looked like blood. The room was lit up like daylight all night because of the indoor pool light which made it very difficult to sleep. Our stay was not very pleasant.

My family and I took our yearly weekend trip to Gatlinburg, TN and stayed at the Garden Plaza Hotel. They sell a good story online, but when we got there, the staff was hateful and unkempt and instead of getting to stay in the main newer part of the hotel, we were put in an older, run down section. It seems everyone was put there. There was a lot of drinking and outside partying going on. I was scared to leave my car parked in their dark alley they call parking. Inside the hotel is run down, holes, paint missing, mildewed, and the doors are about to fall down. The bathrooms are horrible, no pressure in water and toilets didn't flush. Our heater didn't work. The inside pool isn't heated and the hot tub had brown water in it! Never again will I stay at this hotel nor will I reccomend it to others.

Our stay at this hotel was for 3 nights over New Years weekend. I read lots of reviews, some o.k. but most were negative. Just to give you an idea of our past experiences, we usually stay in hotels such as Days Inn or LaQuinta. A stay in a Hampton Inn is considered really nice. We booked just a few weeks prior to leaving, so a lot of the hotels were already full or expensive leaving us with few choices. I got this hotel for 89/99/109 per night. Because our main purpose of the trip was to ski, we wanted to be close to the Parkway and the Tram Station (in the area of red light #8 and #9). As was mentioned in a prior review, we had a hard time determining which building had the registration desk. The tower building in the back had a nice sign and appeared more welcoming but after going there first we found it didn’t have the registration area. The check-in is actually located in the building closest to Airport Road. That is the logical building, but it didn’t have that ‘welcoming’ feel. It almost felt isolated and deserted. When I checked in the lady gave me a paper with the total rate to initial. I asked her for the breakdown by day. The rate she provided was not the rate I had booked. Once I showed her my confirmation, she made the necessary adjustment. The interior lobby, pool and breakfast area looked just like the online pictures. Garden Plaza was formally a Holidome – so I knew what to expect there. The indoor pool was filled, but had a sign saying it was broken and to use the pool in the tower building instead. The hot tub, located next to the pool, was operational and we used it once. The water was hot and the jets strong. Breakfast was served daily and consisted of eggs, hash browns, yogurt, French toast sticks, a toaster for bagels, coffee, juice, pastries. There were plenty of seating with an atrium area overlooking the enclosed pool/game room. Two ladies kept the tables cleaned. You were given tickets upon check-in for each day. This ticket was supposed to be given to the lady at the hostess stand prior to eating. There was one morning that we forgot the ticket in the room-but was told it was no problem. Our room was just o.k. It had a refrigerator and we rented a microwave from the desk for 5.00/day, which was delivered promptly. The bed closest to the bathroom wall was so close that I had to turn sideways to walk to the foot of the bed (I am average size). The door to the room had to be slammed shut. I’m sure this irritated our neighbors. The exterior of the building seemed run down. The walk to the parkway wasn’t bad, but each time we passed other hotels between the Parkway and Garden Plaza, my husband would comment that any of them would’ve been nicer than where we were staying. Some of those hotels were Microtel, Super 8 and Gillette’s. I did notice that this hotel was pet-friendly, which might’ve been nice had we brought the dogs. However, the rooms are really small and our kennel is rather large – so there really wouldn’t have been ample space for the kennel and to move around. Now that we’ve been back a month or so, I asked my husband and son to think back on the hotel experience and would they stay there again. The answer was that they would stay there again if we had the dog(s) and needed pet friendly or if everything else was already booked or too expensive. But they would want to look elsewhere first.

I stayed here with my church youth group during the Xtreme Winter conference. The hotel was full of church groups. They had just moved another conference out before we came in. After reading these reviews, I was worried about what we would find. Sure, it's an older hotel, but a lot of the hotels in Gatlinburg are older so that does not bother me as long as it's clean. I was so impressed with how clean the rooms were! The staff was very nice as well. It's within walking distance to the convention center and the Gatlinburg strip, so that was a plus. The beds were very comfortable. I would definitely stay here again.