The Riverside Hotel

Warm Cookie on sign in, great big rooms so much space. Big showers with huge tubs with jets, live music in the lobby, rides from the hotel to downtown or where ever you want to go. But the best part, the IPAs, low price, great taste and great choices. You get a great bar in your lobby with great atmosphere, comfy sitting and great services, but once more cost. I think 4 ipas came out to 10 dollars and tall glasses. Really enjoyed my first stay in Boise and this hotel is a great home base. Near downtown, and they have a diner open till 11, which also has great pricing. o and breakfast so good, fresh food, great taste .
I also was part of a company event, their hosting rooms are good. Sound wise and they provide lunch, tacos one day, and a green feast day two.

Staff was very friendly. I was here for two nights for a conference, and I got great service from Patti during each of the 3 meals I ate there. Food was simple but well put together. Pretty grounds. My friend stayed on the second floor, and there is no elevator, so she had to carry her bags up and down. My room smelled weird, like cats, but the bedding was clean and fresh, so I toughed it out. Also, my tub didn’t hold water/​the drain wouldn’t close. Shuttle driver was prompt and personable. Overall, pleasant but not great.

I stayed in this hotel for a conference for 4 nights and would probably not return.
Pros:
— comfortable bed
— everything in the room was clean and in good working order
— there’s a free airport shuttle if you call and request it
Cons:
— walls are thin, so it’s very noisy throughout the night with people slamming doors, talking in the hallway, playing music in other rooms, children crying, etc.
— my first night here a guy came up from the river path (right in front of my room) and was watching me through my window and tapping on the glass. creepy. not the hotel’s fault, but still made me feel skeezed out.
— I ordered breakfast at night for the next morning one day, and after waiting a full half hour after the half hour time slot when it should have been delivered, I called the front desk to find out where it was. They transferred me to the restaurant where the person who answered said, «well do you still want it?» No apology. It came a few minutes later with a room service delivery fee I didn’t know would be added and an automatic added gratuity. I would have preferred not to tip 18% for a meal that came extremely late, but I had no choice. I ended up paying $ 20 for a bowl of granola, a banana, and a few sausage links.

Spent several days at this hotel for a conference. Nice room, a few plumbing issues but very nice housekeeping staff. Wonderful breakfast and lunch buffets. Banquet meals were mostly good with a few less than stellar items. The Idaho «potato» dessert was amazing!
One person stood out for excellent service and sparkling personality. Jennifer was our bartender on several evenings and she was efficient, cheerful and so sincere. She really was the star of the banquet servers. Staff like that is so important to a successful event.
I would definitely recommend the banquet facilities at the Riverside and wouldn’t hesitate to stay there should my travels take me through Boise again.

I adore Sunday brunch buffets, and this is one of the best out there. The bacon is yum, the mimosas are bottomless, and the price is great. I also recommend their Mother’s Day and Easter brunches; they’re a bit more expensive, but they swank the place up with ice sculptures, harpists, and and even larger selection.

I recently stayed at the Riverside over the weekend. It was absolutely amazing. The hotel is gorgeous from top to bottom. The room was amazing. The bed was so soft I could have stayed in it all day. Luckily there were cool things like the Jazz bar and Sand Bar to visit. Every one there was very frindly and I felt welcomed every where I went. If your staying in Boise. This is the hotel for you.

Great place for Sunday brunch. Best to arrive at 9 when service starts. Large variety on all you care to enjoy line and bottomless mimosas
They also have a menu service if you prefer
Service good and friendly. The person that made omelets, Jim made a great omelette with anything you wanted.
Totally recommend

We are having an event at the hotel as I type this and the hotel and there staff is horrible! I would never have an event at this place!!!

This place has done a ton of work to make it the hotel it is today. Although you can tell it’s an older hotel, don’t be deceived! This place has so many features and great things:
–Updated rooms with spacious beds, bathroom areas, double sinks, and silence.
–Sapphire Room and the Sandbar provide entertainment, food and drinks
–Green belt and Boise River are right next to the hotel, providing wonderful views and opportunities for walking, biking, etc.
–HUGE swimming pool with fun for the kids
–Patio areas with life sized Chess table, plenty of seating, outside fireplace.
–HUGE breakfast variety with more options than you know what to do with, all of them tasty
–Friendly staff (Don’t forget to get the warm cookies, they are THE BEST)
Overall, this place has so many ammenities. Even though the hotel itself is a bit dated, it won’t deter me from staying here again.

Barely adequate. The rooms are unsafe for small children, especially the upstairs rooms. Our rooms, we had to change from the first assigned room as the window’s screen was broken and there was no lock on the floor level window which is extremely dangerous. The room was stained in multiple places in a disgusting manner while a bed bench was falling apart. The night manager did move us due to the hazardous window situation, initially to an occupied room! Ultimately, they found an unoccupied room with no safety situations, though smelling of a strong and terrible odor compounded by years of cigarette smoking. The rooms are terribly in need of cleaning and renovation.
This was easily the worst Hotel of our summer travels abroad and in the Western USA.

Shockingly skeevy. My family and I stayed here after a bad experience at Hampton inn on the same day. This place is most clearly an apartment complex… not a hotel; however, the staff at the front desk were incredibly kind and courteous.

This hotel is great! I had a conference here and had this hotel booked for me. Normally I don’t like that sort of thing but this hotel really exceeded my expectations. Wonderful hospitable staff, beautiful property, great food, nice (huge) rooms, I could go on
Every time I come to Boise I will stay here. Highly recommended!

Great food and service at the sunday brunch buffet. Loved the all Thuy can drink mimosa.

Stayed here for the famous Idaho potato marathon. It was the host hotel and I booked through
and got a cheaper rate than the marathon rate. I have a small dog so when I called to see how much the pet rate was, she said it was only $ 25 per animal for the entire stay. I’ve stayed in worse hotels and paid that per night. Driving to the hotel was a little sketchy since the area seemed a little run down. Checking in was easy but the clerk forgot to activate the keys, but both the manager and another clerk bright keys for me to the room. The room was just the king room, and it’s the biggest standard room I’ve been in. I’ve also worked at hotels for 8 years so I know a thing or two about standard rooms. We were on the first floor and had a little patio that had the grassy knoll and access to the bike path and river. Perfect for my dog to explore. The hotel has a bar and grill that is pretty friendly and brought my dog water and treats. The breakfast buffet was good. They had a guy making omelets right there for you. The park is a mile away on the bike path and downtown boise is a couple miles away. Because of where the room was, one would never know the questionable area it is in. The staff was friendly, the room is huge. Walls are thin so you can hear a lot of banging, and the caulking and shower heads was coming off… And the screen door didn’t want to start on the track. I definitely recommend this place, especially if you have a dog.

This hotel is wonderful, if we are ever in Boise again we are definitely staying here! It’s next door to our favorite restaurant Joe’s Crab Shack and the free breakfast we received was outstanding. All the staff was great! The pool was closed but it’s okay!

This place is beautiful! The staff is friendly and attentive, the lobby is gorgeous, the rooms were very clean and the rates are fair. They gave us the BEST fresh cookies when we checked in, and offered free shuttle service downtown & back. The driver was funny and polite. In the morning we stopped in at the Riverside Grill and had the breakfast buffet. delicious! I will definitely be back!

The Riverside Hotel turned what could have been a horrible experience into a great one my husband and I will never forget.
We recently relocated from San Diego, CA to Boise, ID. We were driving two cars, one with a U-​Haul trailer, and had two cats with us. When we finally arrived in Boise, we had been traveling for 3 days and were exhausted and cranky. We needed a hotel for possibly a week or more while we looked for houses to rent. The hotel I originally reserved was the La Quinta airport. I’ll spare you the details, but after we checked in things got worse over the next few hours, leading us to try to find a new hotel at about midnight on a Friday. I was not hopeful!
I found the Riverside on TripAdvisor and called to see if they had any availability and if they allowed cats. Kate answered the phone and was extremely helpful and polite. Good news — they had rooms and they took cats! When we arrived, Kate was there at the front desk and greeted us with warm chocolate cookies that were to die for. We told her our story and how we were moving here from out of state and just needed a nice room to live in for a week or so, and she upgraded us to a suite for the price of a regular king room. We really appreciated that and Kate went above and beyond to be helpful and friendly. It was hands down the best customer service I have ever received from a hotel front desk staff. Kate deserves a promotion! :)
Now on to the hotel itself. Call me crazy, but I love a vintage hotel! The lobby is huge with a grand piano, high ceilings, chandeliers, and neon blue lights leading into the lounge/​bar. I didn’t actually go in there, but they have live music certain nights and it appeared to be quite busy. The hotel is huge and we had to drive around to the other side to get to our room. When we entered our suite, we couldn’t believe what we saw. This room was HUGE! It was decorated in kind of a 60’s/King Arthur motif, if that makes sense. Ha! The bed was huge and comfy, there was a sitting area with two comfy chairs and a table that we used all the time, a dining room table and chairs, a desk, and a wet bar area with a mini-​fridge. The only thing missing was a microwave which we discovered after we bought a bunch of microwaveable meals. Oh well!
The bathroom deserves it’s own paragraph. The bathtub resembled a hot tub from the 60’s. It was all white tile and set down into the ground so that you had to step down into it. It was kidney shaped and freaking huge — like I could lay down completely and my legs would never reach the other side. This made my husband all kinds of happy since he’s 6’2″ and hasn’t been able to fit into a bathtub since 1985. In fact, he took 2 baths a day just because it made him so happy! There were dual sinks and a ton of counter space, separate toilet area, and a big closet. Biggest bathroom I’ve ever had in a hotel.
When we checked in they gave us coupons so that we could have eat at the breakfast buffet every morning for free (usually a $ 10 per person charge I think). This helped so much financially, and if you add that into the cost of the room, it’s really a steal considering we would have spent at least $ 30+ on breakfast somewhere for about 7 days. The weekend buffet was AMAZING and included all you can drink mimosas! They had an omelette station, prime rib carving station, home made pastries, donuts, eggs Benedict, waffle maker, eggs, twice baked potatoes and home fries, sausage and the best bacon I’ve had in a long time. Seriously, it was maple smoked and extra crispy and just seriously … wow! They had an entire spread and I couldn’t believe we were getting it for free. The regular weekday buffet was equally good and had the standard eggs, bacon, potatoes (both kinds), sausage, oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, and waffle maker and omelette station. I couldn’t even eat all they had to offer it was so much. The food was delicious and I was surprised to read other negative reviews for the restaurant. We liked it so much we ate dinner there several times during our stay as well. I got the yakisoba noodles two nights in a row they were so delicious! The waitstaff was super friendly and we got to know all of the waitresses during our stay and they would ask us if we’d found a place to live yet.
It was wintertime so the pool was shut down, but they’ve got quite a spread there. There was an outdoor area with a fire pit and chairs, an oversized chess board outside (like the London Hotel in Hollywood), and a huge pool, hot tub and outdoor bar area. We will definitely return in the summer!
All in all, the Riverside is a true vintage gem with all the modern amenities. Hotels like this have already taken over areas like LA and San Diego, so we were pleasantly surprised to find one in Boise. It’s the type of hotel you’d want to have your wedding party at or stay for a romantic retro weekend. We’ll be back!

BOISE, ID: I’m going out on a limb and giving Riverside four stars, and this because they well exceeded my very low expectations.
Riverside is an old property, it looks and smells dated, and I was not eager to stay here. However, it was available and the price was reasonable so I booked a night.
The staff were trying really hard to give me a positive experience, they had a warm cookie when I arrived, and the room was great. The hotel room was the size of a suite in a typical hotel, including king bed, sofa, desk and a nice television. The bathroom was very large as well, including a huge tub and two sinks. Great value for $ 120.

Our stay was exceptional! The pool is terrific! I recommend staying here more in the summer months because the pool is so great. The rooms, although updated, are still pretty dated, especially the furniture. The beds are VERY comfortable though, and everything was very clean.
ALL of the staff here is phenomenal! The front desk, the poolside, the cleaning staff… all of them. Everyone we encountered was so friendly and helpful.
The breakfast was great… anything you could possibly want. The little bar that is in the lobby area was fab… gal bartender that was there was very nice and cheerful.
The poolside experience was great. Wonderful bar service from the little bar on the Greenbelt. Large, clean pool. they even have a little «splash zone» for kids. Plenty of towels. Get there early for a covered table, as the weather in Boise can be quite brutal in the summer months if you get stuck sitting in the sun without any shade.
We will most definitely stay at The Riverside again during the summer months.

This place is not fancy and has an 80’s conference hotel feel BUT I still gave it four stars for the following reasons…1) the pool is nice, great for kids because of large shallow end, 2) the grounds are well maintained and the bike trail and river are right behind the hotel, 3) the poolside mojitos are pretty tasty, 4) the price includes free parking, WiFi, warm cookies at check in AND a decent hot breakfast buffet. My three kids and I had a good time and it all only cost us $ 122. Not too shabby!