Brian B.
Yelp
The El Dorado Hotel should be a better hotel than it is. After all, the location is right in the heart of Sonoma, near several shops and the town square. The building itself has some nice touches that add warmth in the common spaces, and the Wifi is both free and fast.
So, what holds the El Dorado back? Well, there are a few things. For one, the rooms are incredibly small. Sure, the tall ceilings give the appearance of the space being grander than it is, but when your brain starts to acclimate to the illusion, you will quickly find that the rooms are extremely tight for 2 people. There are few places to place your luggage, only room for one chair inside, and the bathrooms are extremely cramped, making it difficult to shower without getting water all over the place as you step out.
Our room also had this incredible feature, that I am sure is worth the premium price we paid: the wall at the head of our bed had all of the air conditioning units bolted to the other side of the wall, meaning that we were treated to a nearly non-stop concert of buzzing machinery, punctuated by jolts of them turning off and on. It made it incredibly difficult to sleep. I'm not sure why they saw fit to bolt the units to the wall of the second floor, instead of having them on the ground floor, where they wouldn't be so audible.
Parking is also a bit of a joke. They have an incredibly small lot, and one of the parking spaces is taken up by a storage unit parked there. There aren't enough spaces for all of the guests. What is their solution? A classy hotel would offer a valet service to park your car off-site. But, the El Dorado? They actually ask you to find public parking, which has a 3 hour limit. I actually watched the front desk tell a customer that he would need to park on the street and move his car every 3 hours until the evening. I'm sure that this guest was more than happy to sit around the hotel, waiting to move his car, rather than touring the town and the wineries. You are charging $300+ a night, and yet you still have the audacity to ask a customer to micromanage their car? What a joke!
Can't tell you how the housekeeping services are. They never came. I take that back: they came by at around 3pm, as we were getting ready for the evening. I asked them to return. They never did.
Checkout was a breeze, however. There was no one at the desk, and after 10 minutes of waiting, I just tossed my keys on the counter and left. I guess they'll call me if there's an issue.
If you're looking for an overpriced hotel with small rooms, and if you like moving your car every 3 hours rather than sightseeing, then the El Dorado is the hotel for you!