The Draftsman, Charlottesville, University, Autograph Collection Hotel — Hotel in Charlottesville

I am very familiar with Charlottesville and its lodging options, but I was unaware of the Draftsman and a few other hotels that have recently opened up there on Main Street. Based upon the website and pictures I chose the Draftsman because it looked stylish, modern and new. I was not disappointed when I checked in. The hotel was beautiful and had many elegant design touches. However, there were two issues, one minor and one major that marred our otherwise pleasant stay at the Draftsman. The minor issue was that there was a metronymic clicking noise coming from the air handler in the room where we stayed. It came and went, and although it didn't significantly bother us, I could see it driving others crazy! We reported it to the Front Desk and they offered to change rooms, which we declined as it wasn't a significant bother to us, but I found it surprising that the issue wasn't caught in the punch list before opening or reported by prior guests and rectified. I would highly recommend that the specific room we stayed in (614) be fixed and other rooms with similar air handlers be checked because it will detract from other guests' experiences. The major issue was that the contracted valet damaged my vehicle by driving it in to a concrete pillar in the garage at the hotel. In researching the hotel, I noticed on the website information indicating that the parking was valet only. I drive a stock, but tall, pickup truck so I had some concerns about my vehicle in the garage, specifically the height clearance. I was concerned enough to call the hotel several days prior to our stay and specifically inquire to the posted height clearance for the garage. The Front Desk didn't know, but they assured me that "We've had big pickup trucks parked here before so you should be fine."On Sunday we met the valet and requested our vehicle. Fifteen minutes later he came back, without the truck, and began telling us about vehicles parked in the way and it shouldn't have been parked where it was by another valet and other information before finally telling us he "didn't want to create more damage." After getting the full story, we went up to the third floor to view the damage. Essentially a novice driver turned too soon and sideswiped a concrete pillar with the passenger side of my truck. I cannot recommend staying at the Draftsman to anyone who would need to park their vehicle there, solely due to the design, layout and operation of the...

We have been visiting and staying in Charlottesville for years and thought we would give the Draftsman a try. The easy valet service, the lobby and the accommodations were very appealing. It was after I had turned over the pillow that I had been resting my head on while watching tv and saw dried old blood stains that things started to sour, it was just gross. The next morning I went down early to the lobby and waited for coffee to be set up before the restaurant opened. I had asked the receptionist when we checked in how early I could get some coffee and he told me 6:30. Well its not 6:30, it's really out at 7:00. I poured the coffee and it had some kind of oily gross grainy stuff floating in that was not coffee grinds. I went to the front desk and showed it to the receptionist and she looked at it and said " oh that's fine, its just coffee grinds, its safe to drink". She didn't take it from me or offer to get a new one or apologize or anything...again, gross. I went into the restaurant at this point and ordered some fresh coffee. It was good and I was happy and I hung out there for a out 30 minutes while waiting for my daughter to wake up. The waiter was very nice and told me that he wouldn't charge me for my coffee because of the lobby coffee situation. I left him a generous tip and went back to my room. Two hours later we came back and my old coffee and the tip, and my napkin and creamer were still sitting at the table I had been sitting at, no one cared to clean it up. Its not like the place was busy as I was the only customer. We ordered our coffee and had to ask for NEW cream as I wasn't going to use the old cream that was till sitting on the table.` The omelette I had was delicious! we definitely enjoyed the breakfast. The waiter was attentive and friendly and we liked him but he was clearly not that well trained. We went to check out and I asked the receptionist to cancel our upcoming March reservation because we didn't enjoy our stay.I showed her a photo of the pillow and she knew about the disappointing coffee. She was very apologetic and said that she won't cancel the March stay and that she is sure that the manager will make it up to us when we return and said we should give it another try. She said the manager will call you today and speak to you and she confirmed my contact number. No one ever called. SO many other hotel options in Charlottesville....

Super disappointed in this hotel :( stayed here for a few nights on a business trip recently and was very underwhelmed. I normally stay at the Graduate across the street which is half the price, so was expecting somewhat of a luxury experience here. My trip began with valet service, which is the only option for parking. Upon my arrival, the garage was full and I had to park my car in front of the hotel on the sidewalk blocking a garage per staff instructions (still was charged $25 for garage parking even though my car was basically in the middle of the main road.) I was woken up to a call from the front desk the next morning telling me they needed my car moved ASAP, so I was rushed out to accommodate their lack of planning. My total charge for parking was $75 for 3 nights despite one night being parked on a sidewalk and the other 2 nights having to self-park in the garage due to my phone key being electronic.

The hotel room itself was comparable to the Graduate-- nice but nothing fancy, not anywhere near worth $250/night.

Finally, my last night at the hotel I returned late from work and was greeted by my key fob not working. I returned to the front desk, where the attendant said "I was expecting you to come back down" (?) He then informed me that my corporate card had declined for the final night of the stay and I was not allowed access to my room until I paid. Valid, but I was incredibly confused as to why the front desk was aware of this issue and failed to contact me throughout the entire day to remediate it (I got back at 9 PM.) Upon informing him that I had been having issues with my card throughout the trip and was unable to resolve them at this hour, I would rather collect my belongings from the room and check out early than put this costly stay on my personal card.

The attendant told me I could not retrieve my belongings from the room without paying for another full night's stay, regardless of whether or not I wanted to stay the night. I was then forced to pay almost $400 after incidentals out of pocket just to get my own stuff out of the room. This was extremely unprofessional given their failure to contact me the entire day informing me of the issue.

The general manager was helpful but my issue wasn't "resolved" until nearly 2 weeks after my stay. I was refunded half of the cost of one night. Regardless, I would recommend the Graduate 10/10 times...