Shinola Hotel

Sam at the front desk was wonderful. Will stay there more and give away as gifts to family members. Great experience overall.

Pros: - ideal location - cheerful service at front desk, albeit not very knowledgeable - elegantly designed room - separate toilet room - fantastic dinner at San Morello Cons: - no towel racks or hooks in the bathroom or hallway, except for a single one on the door - only 2 accessible electrical outlets (one by the nightstand, 1 by the feet of the sofa) - limited choices for breakfasts, most being too greasy

Beautiful hotel with impeccable service and style. In the heart of thriving downtown Detroit with easy access to many activities. Quiet, clean and well designed guest rooms. We hope to come back again in the near future.

I could barely sleep on the weekend. It was so loud outside my window, I was constantly being woken up. The restuarant was also terrible. I had the pastry basket for breakfast at San Morello. First, there was only one pastry, a croissant; the rest were cakes and some focaccia. Second, it was all absolutely disgusting. The croissant wasn't crisp and flaky. Instead, it seemed like the sort of cheap croissant you get at a grocery store, that has been sitting out for a long time. The flat white I had one of the other days was undrinkable. I'm shocked that such an expensive hotel could have such a low-quality breakfast offering. I would never stay here again and I must say that I've never been so disappointed with a hotel I have paid so much to stay at!

What a great discovery. We had a beautiful suite, excellent room service, and the San Morello restaurant downstairs was absolutely top-notch in food, service, and atmosphere. We just spent two nights for a little getaway, and we are very glad we did. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I discovered a hotel because my favorite belt has their name on it.

My husband and I had a few precious days together without our three kids. We decided on a quick trip to Detroit for food and museums. The city was even better than we thought it would be and we loved Shinola. The location and vibe were tops. We felt so relaxed and cared for. We spent a lot of money on the room, but felt like we could fully relax and enjoy ourselves. We'll worth it!

Location and design

Staff not very well informed

Our experience at Shinola would have been 4.5/5 had it not been for the street noise level, 12/10 all 3 nights until 3 a.m. The sound of muscle cars gunning their engines overpowered the standard hotel windows making it impossible to sleep. Shinola front desk staff expressed indifference. A shame, but their choice I guess.

Champagne I arranged with the concierge was not in the room and I had to go down and ask for it at the front desk. This ended up being comped (which I neither asked for nor expected), which was a nice surprise, but it still was not in the room waiting for us as the surprise I wanted to give my girlfriend. There was no welcome letter with my name on it when checking in, and they just produced a generic one. Now I know that there is little difference here, but it’s about the small touches that I had hoped would be part of the experience. Check out was something else. First, the gentlemen at the front desk, in the middle of serving another customer, shouted out and asked my room number, telling me I was all set. I then told him no, I would like a copy of my folio. Eventually, I made it to the desk, where I was not acknowledged for a good minute or two and then finally asked for my room number again, and then presented with the the folio. I noticed on there that, while there was an overage on breakfast beyond the credit, there was no experience credit applied. On the welcome letter, it does NOT make it clear that the experience credit and the breakfast credit do not stack, it just says both can be used on in room dining. I have been at other FHR hotels where they do stack the credit, so I was confused and brought it up to the front desk staff. He rudely brushed me off and said that it was ineligible. I tried explaining and showing him the letter that both said they applied to in room dining. He lied and said the letter states that you cannot use any portion of the experience credit for breakfast. And then he condescendingly offered to read me the letter. I showed him in the letter in my hand that it did not clearly state, whereupon he changed his story and said that breakfast was not in room dining. Eventually I just left. There was no acknowledgement of how it could be confusing, no validation or friendliness. It’s a shame, really, as I have enjoyed this hotel in the past. If I did not have prepaid stays coming up, I would consider switching all of them over to the Siren, where I have not had this level of condescension or rudeness.