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The Luther Hotel

3.6 (20 reviews)
ModerateHotels
Open 9:00 am - 10:00 pm

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Panorama of hotel's front, shot from the boardwalk
Fortunatus M.

My brother has this fascination with old hotels; he likes to hunt them out and arrange family gatherings at them, as often as he can manage. Sometimes this is all right, as at last Thanksgiving, when he arranged for us to stay at the Blackstone Hotel in Fort Worth. Then there are the ones like the Luther Hotel. The Luther is a huge, ramshackle beachfront hotel, an old-time summer resort built in 1902 that has survived many storms and one bodily relocation more or less intact. What hasn't happened to it is any kind of modernization. The general decor seems to be frozen somewhere around 1940, with some more recent furniture in the common areas, but little later than 1970. The second-floor hallway--three stories, no elevators--had balding *orange nearly-shag carpeting*, peeling back at the joins and just ripe to trip someone up. It's something like staying at your grandparents' house, which hasn't been redecorated since your parents were kids, and that your grandparents can't see well enough to realize everything in the house is threadbare and moth-eaten. Travel writers kindly call the hotel "unchanged" and "quaint;" with the injection of two or three million dollars' worth of remodeling and infrastructure updates it might aspire to quaint. My own impressions range from "dilapidated" and "shabby" to "firetrap," 'cos I sure didn't discover any fire escapes or other such essentials. The outside, in best seaside tradition, needs painting and has needed it for years. (People in coastal communities seem to have a love/hate relationship with paint; the love--and the paint--goes onto their boats and stuff that has to go in the water, and everything else gets left.) The hotel has thirty-eight rooms and suites; there's also a row of eight stuccoed motor-courts on the edge of the property, but they've been allowed to go down so far that they're now beyond repair, and the managers, an elderly couple who've run the place for some years, say they'll have to be torn down soon--although I think "soon" is probably being expressed in geological terms, and they'll actually fall down first, the way things in small towns do. We had what passes for a "suite," and I suppose it is, by fishing resort standards. It had one minuscule and one reasonable-sized bedroom, two airliner-size bathrooms that were carved out of the bedrooms, which is *why* our bedroom was tiny, a nearly full-size kitchen (with non-working range but working fridge), and a common entryway/"sitting room." I don't think there was a stick of furniture in our bedroom that dated later than World War II, the 1970s velveteen loveseat in the sitting area had an enormous rip in one arm that someone tried (and failed) to conceal with strategically placed pillows, and our bedstead was so wobbly that I went in hourly fear of it collapsing. Air conditioning was courtesy of window units which did, for a mercy, cool efficiently. Our room had a period ceiling fan--"period" meaning it has one speed, high. Our shower may have been the most ridiculous piece of the whole experience. Besides the hot and cold taps, there was an ordinary gate valve spliced into the pipe just behind the (leaky) shower head, and that was what actually controlled the water flow. It's handyman engineering--while it may do the job, it's not elegant and certainly not the best solution. Despite all this, the hotel was full for the July 4th weekend, and it seems to be one of those places people keep coming back to, perhaps for sentimental reasons. Guests actually talk to one another in the lobby and on the front porch--the hotel does have a two-story-tall front portico, complete with white-painted slat-back rocking chairs. The Luther must have some appeal that I'm missing, though; I can't see how anyone could possibly be staying here for the creature comforts. To cap the experience, there are no room phones, and damn sure no Net access.

Closet
Leah H.

I feel really bad giving this hotel such a bad review, but I can't give it any more stars. The owner is super nice and I think he's only been taking over for his parents so like 6 months, so maybe things will get better. Forget decor or anything fancy, this place is run down, not very clean, and has a severe lack in privacy in many of the rooms. I will let my photos do the talking, but I have to add that a random man came up to me in Palacios and started complaining about the hotel also.

Pano of front of hotel

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Review Highlights - The Luther Hotel

This time I brought my wife because I thought she'd like the old hotel with all it's history and nostalgia.

Mentioned in 4 reviews

Read more highlights

Serendipity Smooth Sailing RV - Dog friendly RV Park

Serendipity Smooth Sailing RV

(5 reviews)

Very nice RV park! Sonia in the front office was super sweet and accommodating! The grounds are…read morevery well kept, it's dog friendly with a small dog park, there are two fishing piers and it's peaceful! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Serendipity RV Resort. We needed an escape from the house after months of quarantining but didn't want to go somewhere jam packed with people, you know, doing that whole social distancing thing. I'm glad I found this place online. We got a nice spot that backed right up to the boat marina, though we didn't catch many fish in that spot it did make for a nice view. I liked how quiet the entire area was and how well kept the grounds were. Plenty of grassy areas for the dogs to walk and there were a couple poop stations that were conveniently located too. All in all, a great location and we definitely have plans to return. Thanks for the peaceful escape from our unfortunate new norm due to Covid.

Could be a nice place, as it's right on the water, but there are major issues…read more RVs are absolutely packed into this place. There is no room at all between hook up spots. You can tell they designed this place to fit as many RVs in as humanly possible to maximize profit. No privacy, no room to park your tow vehicle. Management is rude. When reserving our spot on the phone, the lady acted like she could care less if we stayed there and seemed bothered that she had to deal with me. This should have tipped me off that we should stay elsewhere. On our last morning, we get a loud pounding on our camper door. An employee rudely informs us that I was speeding through the parking area. First off, The speed limit he informed me is 7mph. The parking area is rutted and very bumpy. Going any faster would be incredibly uncomfortable. High points... there is a lighted fishing pier. It's only large enough for a few people though, so good luck getting on there if it's busy. We won't be back.

Hampton Inn & Suites Port Lavaca - Property amenity

Hampton Inn & Suites Port Lavaca

(4 reviews)

I'm heartbroken and deeply disappointed to write this, especially since we've stayed at this hotel…read morebefore and always had pleasant experiences. Unfortunately, that all changed during our most recent stay when we discovered BED BUGS in our room. Naturally, I contacted management to report the issue -- not to cause trouble, but to let them know what had happened. What followed was one of the most shocking customer service experiences I've ever had. I spoke with Christine, the manager, who was extremely rude, dismissive, and unprofessional. She barely let me speak, and essentially called me a liar. I wasn't angry -- I was just trying to explain the situation. Instead, I was treated with cruelty and total disregard. What makes this even more painful is that I'm dealing with serious personal circumstances -- we were there for our aunts funeral, my mother is battling cancer, and I have multiple health issue's myself. Why would I ever waste my time making something like this up? I called to protect other guests and give the hotel a chance to fix the issue. Instead, I was insulted, treated absolutely horrible, and ignored. If you value cleanliness, compassion, or even basic human decency, I strongly recommend you avoid this hotel. Bed bugs are a serious issue, and with all my health issues I have a huge job in front of me, and we don't have the money to hire professionals. I have already spent over $300 for this issue, poison, multiple bag seal containers, a steamer, ext. I had to go see my doctor because with my autoimmune disease this has caused an infection on my skin. Instead of this hotel taking responsibility or investigating, management chose to deny, deflect, and degrade. I genuinely hope they make changes, because no guest deserves to be treated this way.

I can't say enough good things about the kindness and compassion the staff here showed us as we…read morestayed here while escaping Sugar Land during the power outages caused by Hurricane Beryl. Beyond the wonderful customer service we received, the hotel is new, clean, and has great views of the bay. Pets are welcome for a small fee and it's easy to get to convenient to everything in Port Lavaca. There is a great kids beach nearby with a fishing pier on the bay and several restaurants close by so even if you're just trying to get away for a day or two I highly recommend this location.

The Luther Hotel - hotels - Updated May 2026

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