His perspective: F
To start off with, this hotel was very hard to find considering it was downtown. The directions on the website were incorrect due to all the construction. We had to get off on an exit farther down than the one we were supposed to take and call to get directions. We finally made it there (after having to turn around). The loading zone outside was full, but we had to park in the ramp under the hotel anyway - there was nowhere else to park. Consequently, it's $20/day to park in their ramp, EVEN if you're staying in the hotel!
We went up to the front desk and a lady at the end waved us over. Unfortunately, the place where William was standing was right in front of the door to get behind the desk and back to the office. There is a peephole, but nobody uses it, apparently. He got hit twice with the door, one of those times was quite hard and hit his hip. The guy that hit him in the hip kept apologizing, but was smiling like it was all a big joke. So we checked in and went up to our room.
The room was an king suite, more set up for a traveling businessman than a couple - including one set of towels, etc. There was a sitting room with a flat screen tv mounted to the wall and a couch that was rock hard. The bathroom was extremely tiny and the bedroom was almost completely taken up by the bed. There was a desk in the bedroom that the tv sat on which had some space to sit, but it also doubled as the dresser. Not to mention that the beautiful view of downtown Milwaukee advertised on the website was actually the grungy, dirty roof tops. Since there was no room for our suitcase out in the room, I unpacked it into the drawers. They would not stay closed - they kept rolling open. Also, the closet doors were sticking. While I was dealing with that, William was in the bathroom cleaning the ice bucket which was covered in dust. Looking around, there was quite a lot that was covered in dust. I called the front desk and told them about the drawers and that we didn't think we would need to clean the room when we got here. They said they would send someone up from housekeeping.
However, the assistant engineer came up instead. As a temporary fix for the drawers, he put velcro on them. What it required was re-leveling of the whole desk/dresser and that would require some time and more manpower. We started telling him about all the things that we were finding and that we had expected more for $230/night. He tried to offer us free movies and free drinks to try to make up for some of our issues, but part of the reason for the trip was to go to a restaurant/bar called The Safehouse, so we weren't going to be there to watch movies and we would be getting our drinks at the bar. He then suggested an upgrade to their Grand King Suite. We agreed and he left to check on availability. When he returned, he had keys for the other room and we went up to check out the room before we moved all our stuff.
This room was much more like we had been expecting for a four star hotel. It was roomier and had a much better view as well as a wet bar. We got our stuff and settled in a bit before heading out to dinner. The restaurant is in walking distance from the hotel, which is one reason we picked it. We got back late and fell asleep watching a movie on tv.
When William got up the next morning, he realized that there were things missing in the wet bar, yet we hadn't touched it. However when he mentioned this to the desk staff at checkout they said we wouldn't be charged.
We went for breakfast later that morning at Kil@wat. This is advertised as elegent and fine dining, and is part of the hotel.
In reality, it was dark, oddly decorated with mismatched colors, and did I mention it was dark? The 'best table in the place' overlooked the intersection in front of the hotel which was currently under construction.
The food was OK, but highly overpriced. We paid $13 for eggs benedict, $22 for steak and eggs, and $8 for oatmeal. The steak went back; William asked for it Medium and recieved it Well Done. The food was fine, but really doesn't warrant such high prices. If you also account for the decor, then they really need to lower the prices, add some lights and other interesting electrical features to match the name of the place, and advertise. It was dead while we were eating.
They also need to work on the staff. We spent a lot of time waiting for a server or someone to come out from the back area and check on us. We waited 20 minutes for drink refills, had to wait 15 minutes to send back my steak, and neither of our servers (we had 2 apparently) came back to check on us after we were served the food. Very bad form folks.
Having to swithc rooms, and still reclean the new room just after it had been services, poor food quality and very high prices all culminated to a poor overall experience.
Note from William: We spent a lot fo money on this weekend stay for our wedding anniversary, which they knew about since we told them in the reservation, when we checked in, and when the nice maintenance man got us a new room. If this is how they treat prospective regular customers, I'd hate to see how the real regulars get treated.
