South - Louisville, KY Galt House

I have a trip next week to Louisville and I'm staying at the Galt House. I usually stay at the Courtyard on 2nd street but they are booked due to a rodeo in town. Anyone ever stayed there before? I don't know what to expect but hope it's nice as I'm paying about 3x what I usually pay at the Courtyard.

TIA-

Wow, I stayed there about 25 years ago. Back then it was a beautiful hotel with a restaurant on the top floor overlooking the river. If they maintained it, it should be very nice.

I stayed there around this time last year while in Louisville on business. They've renovated all the rooms (or I imagine they are done now -- when I was there it seemed like they only had half of one of the towers left to do) --they aren't super luxurious, but they are perfectly pleasant. Some of the common areas feel like a little bit of a time-warp to decades past, but overall I was fine with my stay. I also found the staff very helpful, for what that's worth.

Thanks all, I'll report back an update on renovations later this week.

Just an update on my recent stay at the Galt House. It was horrible. The rooms have all been updated but I have never had such poor customer service.

First of all they did not have my reservation in the system and despite my print out that showed the reservation they almost did not give me a room. They claimed to be booked up and would have to wait until after 10pm to give me a room. Rubbish I say.

Second upon entering my room I notice a wash cloth with blood stains on it, folded up nice and need showing the stains on the towel rod. I took it down and threw it on the floor obviously. The second night I noticed the exact same wash rag with the exact same blood stains folded up and put right back where it was. That really mad we question if all the other towels were just folded up and put back too I just wouldn't be able to tell.

Upon checking out I notice that they had raised my room rate by $100 for the second night. I complained and after 30 minutes and two manager interventions was able to get everything corrected.

What a disappointing stay to say the least. I advise you to avoid the Galt House when in Louisville, KY.

//Off my soap box.

A company put me up there while on business....I thought it was a basically decent place until I caught what they charge for the rooms. I was quite stunned. Glad I wasn't paying for it myself, as I doubt I'd pay what they're charging. Sure, the rooms are nice to be sure, but not $200-300/night nice. Seems like you/re paying for location & history/reputation of the place.

Al Schneider ran this place and the two Executives down by the airport and each was not much more than a dump. Al ran them on a couple of shoestrings and the service and amenities were always almost non-existent.

However, after Al died, his daughter took over and I understand that she realized the need to update and spend a few dollars. I imagine that it was a heckuva big job because Al had let these places go for more than 20 years.

I have been working in Lou forever but have not stayed in one of Al's places for more than twenty years ever since I was at the Executive East and the largest light bulb they stocked was 40 watts. Try reading the paper under that because Al thought anything bigger was just going to waste his electricity.

The big appeal of the Galt House is the proximity to the river...it makes a killing on the rooms during "Thunder over Louisville" a large fireworks display before the Kentucky Derby.

Surprisingly there is a really nice steakhouse in the Galt House, Jeff Ruby's. Don't stay at the hotel, but frequent the restaurant for the best steak in town. They even have a sushi chef (which makes the Mrs. happy).

Jeff Ruby's restaurants are indeed good--he has 3 in Cincinnati. He specializes in pretty flashy places ( good for treating clents) with excellent quality food.

I stayed at the Galt House for a convention a couple of years ago. The hotel and facilities were nice, but you have to watch out for them constantly trying to rip you off. At checkout my room rate was mysteriously higher than quoted. I had to leave quickly to catch a flight ... they said they'd adjust the bill and mail me a corrected copy. They certainly did adjust the bill: the corrected copy showed 5 days of garage parking (however I did not even have a car while in L'ville).