Ramada Galena Hotel and Day Spa

I loved it here. Friendly staff, room was spacious, clean. Best pool I’ve been to, very large and spacious with a whirlpool! Nice not to have kids ruin all the fun like most hotels I go to. Also, beds were very comfortable and the pillows were perfect which is hard to come by! Lots of parking and close to the Galena downtown area. Would definitely come back again. Also right by a Walmart and some fast food places which is convenient for late night cravings.
The complimentary breakfast was not so good but that’s usually to be expected. The French Toast toast and biscuits were good but everything else was just eh. Had way too many carbs and not enough fruit options. The juice was too sweet and concentrated but this will not keep me from staying here again. It’s free food after all, it’s to be expected!
The only con was that the room had a weird mildewy smell which I tried to air out with the windows, but it only helped a little. If it wasn’t for this, I would have given 5 stars.

This is a very nice Ramada. It is clean, staff were nice, the breakfast is good. The hotel is convenient to downtown Galena. The rooms are priced right and I would definitely stay here again. This isn’t like staying at the Westin, of course. However, if you’re looking to stay somewhere on a budget but still have s clean nice place to stay, this is perfect.

Very upscale for a Ramada. Newly renovated rooms. Nice setting on a pond with views.

My wife and I stayed here while attending a wedding this weekend. The reception was held in the hotel and was very nice, the food was good and the bar service was above average. The event staff were very friendly, attentive, and generally good at their jobs.
The hotel is very dated, however, and really needs to be updated to stay competitive. There is no elevator, the rooms and lobby seem to have not been touched in at least 20 years, and the front desk staff during the day were rude and seemed inconvenienced by customer interactions.
The sole reason for my writing this review and significant contributing factor in the one star rating is a truly unbelievable experience my wife and I had this morning. Upon waking we found that the water was not functioning and could not shower, flush the toilet, or operate the sink. My wife called down the the front desk and spoke to the above mentioned lackluster front desk attendant who informed her that a water main into the hotel had broken around 1:00 AM. I understand that this was out of their control however, I felt that this inconvenience and inability to provide basic services warranted a discounted rate so I went downstairs to see what could be done.
I asked to speak to a manager and instead was instead confronted by the very hostile owner, Mike Scholz. I told him that I felt that a 20 percent discounted room rate was very reasonable considering we were unable to use the shower, toilet, or sinks in our room. He refused this and became very aggressive, lecturing my very pregnant wife and I on the stresses involved in running a business. He became red faced and began to shout until his wife emerged from a back room and attempted to calm him down. She seemed to be very embarrassed by his completely inappropriate and out of control reaction to a reasonable request by a customer and immediately comped our room.
Worried that this out of control man would become violent, my wife and I quickly returned to our room to collect our belongings and returned to the front desk to check out. Mr. Scholz was still there and still very upset, glaring at us while we waited for our receipt to be printed. His parting words for us were a shouted, «Don’t come back», as we exited the building.
I understand that he was upset with the water main break and subsequent loss of profit but his behavior was so far out of line it was almost surreal. His wife attempted to salvage the situation and conducted herself professionally but even a free night doesn’t come close to making what happened acceptable.
In summary, the event facilities are very nice but the hotel is dirty, old, smells of water damage, over priced at $ 189 a night, and the owner is an angry, out of control man who could not be worse at his job.
Don’t worry Mike, we won’t come back and neither will anyone else who stayed there this weekend.

Great place no complaints. There is no elevator so if stairs are an issues ask for room on ground floor. Breakfast buffet excellent.

Needed a place to stay for some skiing at Chestnut mountain and we stayed at Country Inn before and liked it but this hotel had a really good deal at around $ 65/​night and had decent reviews. The rooms were clean and spacious except the bathroom toilets were tiny. I consider myself pretty thin and I thought my butt barely fit on the toilet. The breakfast was blah… juices were too concentrated, eggs tasted like dry yolk and coffee was not that good so we pretty much stuck with waffles and cereal and milk. It had a nice pool and we didn’t try the spa. Service was good. Location was close to Chestnut so it was good enough for us especially at the price. We just needed a place to stay and it served its purpose.

I have gone to Galena twice and used the Ramada both times. It is not a high scale hotel but I am not on vacation to just see a room. The rooms were both spacious and the pool area is nice. Everything appeared to be clean. If we had any concerns the staff would cater to them. They gave me a free fridge on my last stay since my husband and I were celebrating our anniversary. Overall, I think that we had decent stays both times. Also, I want to state that I am in my upper 20’s and did not find it to be too grandma-​ish.

I wish I could give this place no stars.
We made the reservation thru
. It was the most affordable hotel in the area. I made the reservation for a king size room, printed out my confirmation and headed over there. I go to check in and the lady tells me that I have a double queen. I told her that I reserved a king and showed her my print out. She rudely told me that if I booked the room directly thru them (and paid a much higher price) that we would’ve been guaranteed a king, but since it was thru a different site, it didn’t matter what I reserved, I got what was available. I was so upset, but had no time to argue. We were in a rush to get ready and leave for a wedding.
Now I have a queen size bed at home, this felt more like a full size. The ac didn’t work, and saw a bug or two. First thing in the morning I called priceline. I told them what happened, how the lady was rude and we ended in a double queen. The lady from the front desk should’ve told us the truth. They got overbooked and instead of calling priceline to let them know we would not get the room we wanted and would be given the option to either stay with the double or go somewhere else.
She contacted the manager and discounted our room.
NEVER AGAIN! I don’t care if I have to spend a little more money to get nice customer service.

This hotel was a bit too grandma-​ish for my taste, but we are in Galena…
The location was not so great as it was no so close to downtown, but they did have a nice pool and hot-​tub that was well kept.

In an attempt to find a decent-​priced room to stay in while visiting Galena, I came across this Ramada Inn. I wish I could afford a gorgeous bed and breakfast each and every time I come to town, but it’s next to impossible with my upcoming wedding budget.
From a first glance, the hotel looks decent with a newly painted exterior façade and a backyard view of a quaint red barn, small pond and outside patio. Once you enter the lobby, that’s when it begins to go downhill… fast. The lobby has hideous floral wallpaper, yet they made up for it with free afternoon coffee, tea and cookies (see image:
).
I had requested a quiet and feather-​free room in my reservation. While I did end up with the feather-​free room, I should have reiterated the quiet part. I seem to believe we had the loudest Southern’s next door because the walls sounded paper thin. Yet, is it necessary to ask for a clean room?! There were food crumbs that looked like cat barf in the corner of the room (if you don’t believe me, here is a picture:
), a comforter with tears in it, globs of hair on the bathroom floor, a sink that took 10 minutes to drain, a shower head covered in a orange film (a picture after it was «cleaned»:
), and two bottled drinks from previous guests under the TV. I was afraid to even look under the bed! A monster could have appeared and eaten me alive! I refused to drink water from the sink after reading over David N.‘s review and, as a healthcare provider, all I could think about was receiving a letter informing me of a Legionnaire’s outbreak during my hotel stay. I looked for a «welcome note» with the name of the cleaning lady, but there was none to be found.
After spending the first night under these conditions, I kept coming across more evidence that this room lacked cleanliness. I nicely handed a piece of paper with a list of all my room issues to the front desk. I backed it up saying that I’m usually not one to complain, but when it comes to cleanliness I found it necessary. She apologized explaining that we had been placed in an «overflow room» (still doesn’t explain much when all rooms should be properly cleaned) and that the manager was available or in town. She mentioned that they recently switched over from well to city water, and that this is why the shower head appeared dirty (I hope they know that an easy fix is soaking it in vinegar). She then thought out-​loud by saying «I wonder if someone used the room after it was cleaned??» Umm, I don’t think so. I was offered to have the room cleaned with a discount, or to switch to a new room that had recently been vacated and had yet to be cleaned. I took the first offer and just reminded myself that I would be back in my bed at home in 24 hours. The hotel ended up paying for the hotel tax (a $ 11 discount). While the room was a bit better when we returned that evening, I still would not recommend this hotel or stay there again. A few other words of advice: The breakfast room is way too small for this size of hotel and the Wi-​Fi was down the entire second day of our stay.

Hotel and rooms are very nice and clean. A few disappointments was no real (hot) breakfast like most other comparable hotels have. No elevator. And rooms could use flat screen tv’s, microwave and mini-​fridge. Other than that accommodations are very nice.

Foul Iron Water! This hotel does not have an acceptable water source. The bathwater is rusty. The water is undrinkable, You must bring bottled water to drink and taking a shower smells.
Hotel bedding is good. Pool is excellent except for the iron laced water. Continental breakfast is good. Staff is friendly.
TV was worn out with non-​functioning remote.
Rates were ok considering it was Dubuque colleges graduation weekend.
Would not stay here again solely because they are not on an acceptable water source.

Love this place. When we arrived late on a Friday night the guy behind the counter knew who we were and chilled a bottle of wine for us. Also, the hotel hooked my husband up and there were the most beautiful lilies and roses in the room for me (for my b-​day). It was clean, nice, reasonable and had an great pool and deck. Definitely would stay here again!
We had an awesome couples massage at the salon on Sunday morning too!

Hold on to your wallet!!! I thought it was way to expensive. The room was very very nice though. Jacuzzi and fireplace. The bed was awesome. Only reason I’m only giving 3 stars is because of the price.

A friend and I stayed here for the Wine Lover’s weekend and we were satisfied with the experience. Ample parking lot, friendly desk and housekeeping employees, a clean room and a generally nice setup.
The «continental breakfast» they serve in the conference room downstairs is pretty low-​quality. There were plastic-​wrapped slices of french toast, heavily watered-​down juice, milk (sometimes), small cups of yogurt (sometimes), baked goods, boxed cereals and of course, the omni-​present waffle maker. The coffee was terrible. But, it was sustenance and I’m not a big beakfast person anyhow.
The only other minor complaint was that the room keys can be wonky. We were even told when checking in that we would probably have to scan the card repeatedly to open the door. After the first night, however, my card didn’t work at all and I had to flag down a housekeeper to open the door for me.
The rate was good, the room was as expected and it was a generally positive experience. Should I have cause to stay in Galena overnight again, I will absolutely consider this place.

Fine for my needs, clean and comfortable. The breakfast was disappointing, breads and cereals, waffles, etc. Coffee was pretty poor.

It was a room. It served it’s purpose, as we only needed a bed to sleep in for one night and not really looking for anything fancy. The pluses are that it’s clean, free wireless internet, free continental breakfast and it’s conveniently located.
The minuses are that the beds are a little uncomfortable and the room we stayed in had a broken sink in the bathroom.
Oddly, it also had a sink in the main room too, which was weird, but convenient.

I was pleased with my recent stay here.
The hotel itself is kind of off by itself and is very quiet. There is a small pond, barn, and field out back, complete with a fire pit for warmer months. The pool looked nice, and the rest of the common areas were clean.
I thought our room was awesome — big comfy bed, corner fireplace, huge jacuzzi.
They serve continental breakfast that’s not as much of a spread as I’ve had elsewhere, but its enough to get you going.
I would stay here again.