The Godfrey Detroit, Curio Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Detroit

Where do I begin? Well it was for my birthday, it was an awful experience! Even prior to my stay, the rooftop lounge manager Ivan was of absolute no help! I had questions, and was trying to accommodate a large party. After numerous back and forth emails, calls, and voicemails and not having proper communication follow up at all, I ultimately decided to cancel the reservation. I was asked my phone number and never was called. Then I left multiple voicemails with multiple people and no one helped with a solution. For the first time at the establishment, I was stressed and anxiety filled because almost up until the day of my birthday I still hadn’t gotten clear and solidified plans. Ivan isn’t a good manager, and offered really no accommodations, and only called me after I said I would cancel my large party. Not even a complimentary drink for ALL the trouble I went through, with his lack of communication , diligence, and effective management skills. The valet William seemed disconnected and was very confusing and a bit aggressive with his demeanor about a simple thing such as valet? Then there was a gentlemen who held the door, and I was welcomed with nothing but curse words every other word out of his mouth, and I was with my kids and they heard it all! The room itself was nice and the room service was good, and the front office staff Brittany was very friendly, helpful, empathetic and accommodating after she asked how was my birthday stay, and I explained to her everything. However, I talked to so many different people trying to get someone to help with my birthday plans, that I even talked to David The Hamiltons restaurant manager, when I could get no one to help me. He listened to me and was shocked by the horror story I was telling him, and said he would give me something complimentary for all my trouble. That never happed, I literally shook his hand and told him who I was, and I guess he had amnesia ? I never received anything. Finally the rooftop was an EPIC fail!!! For this to be a five star hotel, this was NOT the experience I was looking for! I ended up going up to the rooftop the night of my birthday, just to check out the views. Clearly I will never be returning after all I saw, heard, and was asked. Totally classless and they have NO STANDARDS!! People were dressed skimpy, there was a couple that needed a room, the bartender was drinking Hennessy out the bottle and had no bra on under and open shirt! Literally breast were out! Not the vibe me and my family and friends were looking for at all! This scene was something I would expect at a local Detroit bar honestly. Then when it was time to leave, the security yells out loudly, “Its time to go”! “It’s time to leave”! Me and my friends left immediately and plan on NEVER returning. For this to be a five star hotel, this place will go down real fast because there isn’t any standards! There isn’t any expectations of how the lounge should be managed and presented. A lot of the men who work there stare at you when you walk, kinda trying to hit on you, just gave me and my guests weirdo vibes! I DO NOT recommend this establishment to anyone who is looking for a five star experience! It’s like trying to dress something up that’s 2 stars as a 5 star hotel, it’s still 2 stars!! Ruined my whole birthday, and my 25 guests experience! I can’t get my birthday, time, and or money back for a very low standard experience. I have lived in Detroit my whole life, and this places really let me down! *6/26/24 Unfortunately,I’m adding a new Google review on trying to get everything resolved with the Godfrey that is still not resolved! I spoke to the manager Kelly about the situation described above. she has still yet to send an email as she stated she would, and connect me with the owner of Godfrey The owner wanted to speak to me personally. I have called daily to speak to her and left messages and still no resolve. She agreed it was the mgt fault that I didn't receive my refund, I finally got it 2 weeks later. My Hilton points weren’t given, still waiting to speak...

This is a great new hotel in Corktown. Given it was the first week of operation, my stay at the Godfrey wasn't without some hiccups, so please take my comments through that lens. I'm sure they'll sort out plenty of these issues. For the sake of candor, I'll share my experience as it was.

I was able to check in early on the Hilton Honors app, but there was no map of the hotel to see where my room would be, so it was a bit of a crapshoot.

Upon arrival, I was told they changed my room because they had double booked it. This wasn't a huge deal as I was only moved up the hall, but it wasn't communicated terribly clearly. When I booked my room, I was told it'd have a view of downtown. This was only partially true. My room overlooked a dirt lot under construction with a downtown view squeezed off to the left and the Ambassador bridge on the far right. Not a biggie, but the active work zone over there also came with its share of noise.

The rooms are lovely! I love the style of the entire hotel. The bed was great and super comfy. Now onto the iffy stuff:

HVAC is noisier than it should be for a hotel of this caliber, and it's SUPER unreliable. Sometimes it was pushing cold air, sometimes hot (even if set only to AC). It couldn't seem to make up its mind.

The bathroom has some great ambient lights on the floor that trigger when you come in. This proved especially important as the other lights (vanity and shower) would turn off automatically after 5 minutes while I was in the shower. This happened every day of my week-long stay. If it wasn't for the ambient lights, I would have been plunged into darkness. My colleagues said they had the same issue in their bathroom. Seems like the hotel should fix the light sensor length.

Also - this is a picky gripe - in an effort to streamline the look of the bathroom, the toilet paper is not on the wall, but attached to the side of the vanity, so you don't even see toilet paper when you walk in. This approach might make it look slick, but it means you have to reach farther than is natural to grab the toilet paper. Form over function.

Shower pressure is also only so-so. I expected something stronger from Hilton, which usually has good showers. Water temp was curious, too. On mornings where I showered at 6:30 or so, it never felt like the shower fully heated up. But when I showered around 9:00, it was fine.

The double blinds for the room are semi-rigid fabrics that come out of their track and take some effort to move up and down.

There's also not a ton of storage, especially for clothes - only two normal drawers and one wide one. The hotel doesn't seem like a place that expects you to stay there for more than a few days (I was there for seven).

Room cleaning service was inconsistent. Upon arrival, I noticed a card in the bathroom that said if you wanted fresh towels, leave your towels on the floor, with no mention anywhere that room cleaning was upon request. And for the first few days of my stay, my room was cleaned up. However, then my room stopped being cleaned for one day, and even though I hung a "please clean me" sign on the door, it wasn't cleaned the next day, either. I asked the front desk and was told room cleaning was only by request, which seemed odd. They only took care of it on my last day in the hotel. I had three days' worth of towels piled up on the floor. Regardless, a hotel of the Godfrey's caliber should offer daily room cleaning. This isn't a Hampton.

Another issue with not being "fully" open - the valet service takes some time. The hotel doesn't yet have its parking garage built, so I'm assuming cars are parked some distance away. Getting your car around after giving a valet the ticket can easily take 10 mins, and this is the case even if you are the only customer there. Hopefully, that'll improve.

Don't let me little gripes deter you - I greatly enjoyed my stay at the Godfrey. The hotel is gorgeous across the board. Staff was exceptional and pleasant. The seventh floor lounge is awesome. It just seems like we're still in dress rehearsals. I'd...

Tonight is my last night here on a three night stay. While it has been an overall positive experience, there are, without question, issues that I pepper in throughout. I mainly, however, hit on all the positives (which there are a lot of). Tl;dr: great Hilton property but I have some notes.

Valet: 2/10. Car was clearly not covered (ever) which is fine but why would you charge such a high valet fee with such low service levels? I couldn’t have been more polite to the holistic valet staff… that was never returned. Every valet person needs training and fast. Maybe bring in a customer service professional because it set a bad upfront tone. Just now, a valet woman (clearly bothered) cut off my conversation with a very kind front desk employee for no good reason. After the fact, something about a valet staff member needing to use the restroom was used as a defense to the weird / confusing behavior… made no sense, couldn’t have been less logical, and reflective of the worst part of this hotel in my opinion. Godfrey management: your ratings and reflecting nightly rate are going to plummet if you don’t fix this issue. This is the hot potato. Maybe do away with a valet desk altogether, hire more exceptional front desk staff, and just have valet folks operating in the background.

Front desk and lobby: 10/10. No notes. I could go on about each front desk associate and how awesome they were… keep this up because it made me feel valued and represents the best of Hilton. I saw them put up with a LOT and each and every one of them smiled and did their best to accommodate all guests… regardless how ridiculous those guests might be (e.g., I saw a woman being super rude, I saw a man decked out in Dior swipe on a fraudulent card and proceed to get insane, and a lot of other uncomfortable behavior).

Restaurant: 6/10. I want to rate this higher but I must be fair. There could not have been more variability to the employees, service, and food here. I had three experiences with the restaurant… all mixed experiences. The highs: some of the staff were personable, the music was mainly good, the actual food was pretty great (albeit very simple), and the vibe is good. The lows: the first morning I was there over 60% (not exaggerating) of the menu handed to me wasn’t available, some of the staff was poorly trained and couldn’t answer simply questions, and even though the restaurant appeared to be over-staffed, no one really seemed to take ownership in the overarching concept / process. Side note: one of the managers was fine as hell. You know who you are. You were great!

Rooftop: 10/10. No notes. Chefs kiss. Lean in to this.

Cleanliness: 10/10. The cleaning staff is exceptional. Perfectly clean room each time. Hotel also super clean. What’s wild to me is that I rarely saw them. I tend to think just a few people might be doing a high volume of cleaning work. Werk.

Room and amenities: 9/10. While the shower head did come off the first time I showered (no big!), I screwed it back on as well as the accompanying rubber washer! The room is beautiful overall. Modern and thoughtful design. The TV didn’t work and I’m a tech guy… that could be a huge issue for some but I didn’t mind.

In summary: this hotel could end up going either direction. Fix the kinks and quirks and Hilton has one of the best “modern” hotels in Detroit. Be lazy about some of these mishaps and yall going to have some longterm issues and growing pains.

Still, I’m not a monster so 5/5 stars. But let’s get this right

UPDATE: 3/14 - wanted to give valet another chance. Was going to feel it out based upon vibe, professionalism, and if there had been a change in the outsourced provider. Exited vehicle, first dude was cool and direct - ty. Random dude by the door announces “you have to leave keys in car at all times even briefly” or something. It costs $0 to say nothing Brother in Christ. When I said “nope” he reacted poorly. All good - will park myself. Front Desk (I think Brttney?) and Porter Telly were GOATs. Avoid valet like the plague here and lean in to this...