Sonoma County Hotel Ranks No. 2 in US, According to Yelp

Yelp called the local hotel "a luxe base camp for exploring California wine country."


Yelp recently released its annual Top 100 US Hotels list, featuring a lineup of top-rated properties in the country. Among the hotels to make the cut in 2022 is Glen Ellen’s Olea Hotel, which came in on No. 2. Yelp called the hotel “a luxe base camp for exploring California wine country.”

Garden of the Gods Resort and Club in Colorado Springs came in on No. 1 on this year’s list, which is based on crowd-sourced ratings and the total volume of reviews on the Yelp website and mobile app between the start of 2017 and May 2022. 28 of the hotels featured on the list are located in California and, in addition to Olea Hotel, Highland Dell Lodge in Monte Rio represented Sonoma County (No. 46).

Located in the heart of Sonoma Valley, the Olea Hotel is a luxury boutique property with contemporary guest rooms in three buildings and two garden cottages. The hotel, named for the 200-year-old olive trees that dot the property, was purchased and renovated in 2016 by Sia and Ashish Patel and later remodeled after the Nuns fire damaged the property in October 2017.

Olea Hotel guests can enjoy the proximity to over fifty wineries, located within a 10-mile radius of the hotel, and a complimentary two-course breakfast, which combines local organic ingredients to create delicious dishes like its Yelp-famous acai bowl, Shakshuka (eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce), and pork sausage frittata.

The hotel has a heated pool and a soothing spa room, where hotel guests can schedule treatments like deep tissue massage and a cocoa butter body scrub and wrap. Yelp reviewers are enthusiastic about the hotel’s amenities, its free in-room snacks (“what more can you ask for in a hotel?” said one happy reviewer) and that it’s dog-friendly. “It wasn’t easy finding a place that accepted dogs and had a pool/hot tub plus came with a long list of stellar reviews. Olea fit the bill,” said one reviewer.

The real gem at the Olea Hotel? Its staff, according to reviewers on multiple online travel sites. 167 booking.com reviews rated Olea’s staff 9.9 out of 10 and Yelpers mentioned that the staff leave birthday cards for guests, offer complimentary wine in the lobby and are helpful in suggesting local attractions to visit.

Click through the above gallery for a peek at Olea Hotel.