School 31 Lofts at Colors Studios — Hotel in City of Rochester

I stayed one night and have a mixed review. I really wanted to love School 31 Lofts, and I think a few process improvements would get my review up to 4 star. The pluses are that the room was enormous and had a unique, historic vibe. So cool to see a building like this repurposed. The full kitchen was new and clean, one pot worth of ground coffee was provided and was excellent, decent choices of soft drinks and convenience snacks were available for purchase. Sofa and high table with chairs were comfortable. Bed linen and bathroom towels were good quality and clean, bed was comfortable. Bathroom was new, clean and good quality. Bathtub was great - full Jacuzzi! The neighborhood is nice, with galleries and restaurants in the nearby blocks, as well as historic single family homes. There was an unseen concierge who was helpful via text when I had questions. The not so great things for me are several, and I offer this sincerely to help the owners make this a great destination. The welcome: My email said that the front desk was open until 8 pm, I arrived at 7:30 and did a full walk around the building and saw no entrance open except the side door with the PIN code entry I was provided. Looked again in the morning and saw nothing. I saw no one in person during my stay although help was available by text. The PIN code did work, but the entrance is poorly lit and feels spooky, like deserted old school. I went up a half flight to a landing with locked glass door with dark corridor beyond, no signage. Since my room number started with a two I went up another flight, and that was indeed my location. The PIN code for that door also worked ok, but there was no way to throw a dead bolt or security bar on the inside so anyone with the PIN code could enter the room at any time. Again, spooky. The room: the historic part used the old closets behind the chalkboards as the guest closet, which is cool but hard to figure out. I texted the concierge and got an immediate response to lift the chalkboard panels, and indeed found the closets, but then had to open all 5 or 6 of them to find the few hangers provided. The kitchen: a full kitchen for travelers really needs a microwave, without asking for one to be delivered. Dishes were nice, but there were no paper towels, napkins, dish soap, or sponge. I see in another review that supposedly the welcome email has info on finding supplies under the sink, but I don’t see that in my email. Breakfast: coffee was excellent, but the included food was pretty spare, just two low quality croissants under glass on a serving platter. No juice, no fruit, no yogurt, no tea. If there were a toaster they could do better. Or an actual front desk where people could come down and find more choices. Overall it was very hard to categorize the School 31 Lofts. It’s definitely not a business hotel, destination hotel or a B&B. It feels more like an AirBNB type place where the owner runs multiple apartments. As an AirBNB it could benefit a ton from a little signage on the street and in the entry. I recommend that the owners develop a “welcome” packet for guests that is in the room and has information on where to find things like the closet and supplies, and what one can expect for service. It could also include info on restaurants in the immediate area. Good luck on continued improvement, it’s such a cool building and has such potential as a...

My husband and I are from out of town and were excited for our stay at the historic school. The 1st challenge we met was when we were searching for parking, after driving around the block a few times we finally realized the parking lot for the school was in the back and to the side. 2nd challenge was trying to figure out which entrance to use. It wasn't until after we called that we were given an entrance and codes to use. I feel these are 2 crucial things you need to communicate to your guests right when you confirm their stay, especially when it's cold out. The school building itself is magestic. When we entered, we didn't mind taking our luggage up the stairs as we knew it was an older building and we were too busy admiring how wonderfully they had decorated throughout. When we entered our room (#200) we were blown away by the beautiful 1920s aesthetic. So many intricate details (like golden swan faucets) and it even had a cozy spa area with large tub (no jets) and a waterfall shower. The towels, robes and linens were clean and comfy. We also appreciated how there were certain elements from the schools past (like exposed brick) that were allowed to peek out through the walls and ceiling. One thing to keep in mind are that the walls seem thin and you can hear other guests, which means they can hear you. When entering and exiting the building there where areas of the building where you see glimpses of beautiful hallways and other areas that almost beg to be discovered and seen but seemed to be closed off to guests. The most unpleasant part of our stay was the morning of our check out, 10 minutes to 11 am we had a knock on the door. A woman came and asked us if we were checking out in the next few minutes and after my husband responded yes, she made a face and tapped her wrist. We travel frequently and are not used to being rushed to check out prior to the check out time also, the manner in which we were informed should not have come in such a rude manner. We felt so unwelcome, we packed in a hurried...

I have stayed in some shady/ questionable/ horrible hotels but the experience I had here takes the cake. Upon arrival there was a mix up and we were given the wrong room/ dealt with a computer glitch that is totally fine but here is where I draw the line. We were here for a wedding and after a long day of rehearsal and setting up we arrived back to our room around 8:30/9pm there was a large party happening in the room next to/ across the hall. We thought nothing of it and went to our room and started to get ready for bed as our next day would start at dawn. We were tolerating the very loud noise and yelling/ partying in both rooms and the hallways until 12:37am when we contacted management and told them of the issue. They told us someone would go handle it. The noise continued longer and I reached back out almost 2 hours later and they said they were sending someone up again. The noise continued and even got louder at this point with yelling and screaming in the hallways right outside our door. Another hour went by and nothing had changed so I contacted the concierge yet again and they said they were leaving to come over and handle it. It is currently 5am and the party is still going as loud and as strong as it was at 9pm and management is no longer responsive to my messages. I do not write reviews often and it takes a lot of negligence to do so.

Update: I was contacted by Steve who is one of the business owners the morning after this incident and he assured me that this doesn’t happen so he wasn’t expecting calls from his security staff asking how to proceed. There were several things that did not go to normal protocol and that the hotel has made personnel changes and policy changes so something like this will never happen again. It is one thing to drop the ball but they are doing their best to learn from this incident and prevent it from happening in the future. I would give this place a second chance if I ever find myself in Rochester again. It was a unique and...