The Luther Hotel

Phenomenal. I can't think of a better word. What a magnificent, historical, romantic place to be Valentine's weekend. The owner, Jack, is the sweetest man. It turned out our paycheck wouldn't be deposited until the middle of our stay and he let us come anyway with the trust we would pay when we got it! The lady, Diedra(sp?) is exceptionally nice as well. Neither of them have any problem sitting down with you and talking about the history of this building, all in which is SO interesting to learn. Let it be paranormal, past guests, famous cowboys or just interesting people like WWII soldiers. This place treats you like family. Everyone is so nice, some people staying here seem like regulars so there's always a nice quiet talk going on outside on the porch or in the dining room... last night I actually heard guests out there playing an acoustic guitar and another singing along over the sounds of waves!! Yes. Waves!!! The Bay is right across the street... this would be a WONDERFUL place to bring the kids as there's two large, very nice, play areas within view of the front porch! A big pier next to those and what looks like a boat docking station on the other side. Just beautiful. Quiet. Relaxing!!! The rates are outstanding for what you get here. Sure, you could spend a little extra and get a nice fancy place somewhere else, but here you have serenity and the opportunity to take a walk back in time, unlike any place I have ever been! Our original room, RM101, was very old country style. The kitchen didn't have a stove so Jack loaned me a toaster oven! I was able to cook a fine meal for my boyfriend (chicken parmesan!) using that and a pan from home, I cooked noodles on the hot plate :). I walked around taking pictures when I came across Diedra cleaning rooms, she let me take a look at one that wasn't occupied and it was SO nice!! For an additional $20 a night Jack let us upgrade to that one. It has a full fridge, stove, oven, living room, bigger bed. GET THIS ROOM IF YOU HAVE KIDS. for 3 nights we're spending very little over $300. The ONLY thing I wish was different would be the breakfast. It consists of cereal, toast, coffee, milk and juice. This place would be set even if they just offered some premade biscuits and canned gravy! You can buy biscuits in bulk and big cans of gravy could be heated up in the microwave, so easily done. Just a suggestion :). Even bagels and cream cheese... I don't know. I want FOOD, LOL. This isn't a big enough deal breaker for me to take a star away for though. Love love love this place. I can't seem to express that enough. Highly recommend.

Do not except your run of the mill, fancy regular hotel. This hotel has been through both world wars. It is dated but it is extraordinary. It has personality and character. Super nice workers and great service. Clean and well taken care of. I thought it was wonderful staying in a historic hotel.

I like staying there. Really like rooms with a kitchen and fridge and they have coffee in the rooms . Very convenient if you're going fishing on the Palacios 's pier. They are doing some small renovations so it makes it a little dusty I'm not gonna say anything bad about the hotel but whoever cleans the rooms doesn't really do a good job but I'm sure the management will figure that out . I do appreciate the clean towels. In the coffee in the room the beds do need mattress covers that would be a plus and it just makes me more comfortable

This is my favorite hotel in Palacios it has been around way before I was born and had the nicest staff the owner is jack and he is awesome they are remodeling some rooms and we love coming here since we are huge family of fishermen and we are always here.

You will either love this hotel because it's old (1903) or hate it because it's old. However, no one can fault its expansive grounds and location facing Matagorda Bay. It's flat beautiful. We love that you can walk across the street to the fishing pier and visit with locals or wet a line yourself. Or stroll the beach. Or sit on the front porch and drink your morning coffee or sundowner, or better yet visit with the cats on the back porch. It's old, it's funky, it's a great place to get a good nights sleep.

Random TV production stop brought our crew here - the hospitality was awesome and the BEST part about staying here was... dun dun duuuuuunnnnnThe owner gave me two awesome yellow vintage victorian chairs. AHHHH!! What a steal! (hearts literally - literally - floated above my head) I'm about 50% done re-upholstering them and they are one of my most prized possessions... so do you think I'd stay here again?UM YEA! You don't get that type of hospitality at the Hilton!!

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.

I'll admit, if you're looking for something fancy this won't be the hotel for you. I ended up here when my dad and I drove to the gulf for some fishing on a whim. Located directly across from a lighted pier, this hotel was perfect for us. The building itself is a piece of history, having been built it 1903. We enjoyed learning about the history of the building and the area. In their breakfast room they provide notebooks full of historic news articles, old hotel records (back to 1905) and copies of correspondence between the hotel owners with LBJ (they were friends). When considering the hotel, the biggest thing to keep in mind is how old it is. I think most the negative reviews come from those who expected a typical run of the mill hotel. Despite this, the location is fantastic, and the staff were very friendly and helpful. Rates were great too. Thanks for the hospitality, Luther Hotel!

I have to agree with most of what Fortunatus said. But I have to say, I found the ambiance interesting and the hotel full of character.On the downside, the hotel overall smells musty and all the carpets are well worn and very dirty. I kept my socks on in the room and wished I had flip flops to wear in the tiny, tiny shower. The hot and cold faucet handles leaked and I got a quick hit of scalding water when I turned the shower off. I'm only 5'2" and was still cramped when using the toilet.There are rumors of a ghost in residence and I experienced two encounters that I won't go into here.It seems the hotel was a hot spot several decades ago and served as a vacation stop for the rich and famous. I enjoyed looking at the Rita Hayworth and Carole Landis photos from the 40's and imagining the times back then.I was in town for work and was booked here by a production company for a television pilot. I won't be going back on my own dime.

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.