The Bradley — Hotel in Fort Wayne

“PLUNGER-Gate” I discovered this beautiful hotel in 2021 during the season of grand opening. Since then I have stayed three times. I maintain that this is still one of the higher quality hotels in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That is what I look for when traveling. Service, location, quality, luxury, and cleanliness.

Each time I have stayed at the Bradley, I’ve noticed issues where I could remove one half or one full star from my overall rating of the hotel.

One week ago today I checked out after staying at the Bradley for 4 days. I had one King room for four days and another Double Queen room for a family member for 3 days.

My primary issue with this visit was with the commode in the Double Queen Room. Upon leaving our room on the evening of July 16th to go to one of multiple events, we were in town to attend, I reported to the front desk that water was risen very high in the commode, and that maintenance assistance with a plunger would be needed.

While I am well aware that this is a boutique hotel and all services and needs are reported by text messaging the concierge… I reported this to the front desk in person to ensure no flooding damage would happen. Upon returning to the room after my event, I noted a plunger and a garbage bag had been placed in front of my room door. The Bradley Hotel Concierge was requesting that I plunge the commode myself. I have stayed an Airbnb where the owner has come and cared for all safety maintenance issues on their property while we were renting. I have never stayed in a hotel this quality or even lower quality where I was expected to do my own commode maintenance.

I am certain that a property of this caliber has higher-up powers that be who would be appalled to know this was happening to their valued guests. Not just that I am a repeat guest… But that your property is a symbol of prestige. The expectation of safety in maintenance service was far below what I ever would have imagined at The Bradley.

At 1 o’clock in the morning after my suggestion, we were moved to another room with no help from the staff at all, with the exception of someone bringing us two luggage carts. My husband and I moved my mother in her wheelchair with her walker and other accessible items and her luggage to another room. This room happened to be musty smelling, dusty, and although the linens were in place, it looked as though someone had taken a break and laid across the beds. Fortunately, I travel with my own disinfectant and air fresheners & refreshed the room myself.

The Bradley staff can look back at my name and records and find out which rooms these are so they can be inspected. This property needs a corporate visit and it needs a tighter grip on maintenance. Knowing that this is a boutique hotel the staff made me aware that there is no overnight maintenance and that is unacceptable. There are many contractors that this property can use for an on-call situation after hours. This would be for the safety of your guests. All this being said, I must also give credit where credit is due. A manager in the restaurant re-opened the coffee machines on a Sunday afternoon to make our Lattes. Another young lady at the front desk warmed our take away restaurant food in a private microwave on the property for us. And the very last day we were there, the young man in charge of door/valet/luggage, saved the day! It was approximately 9:00 AM on Monday, July 17. LYFT canceled us in the app three times for our ride to the airport. I came down to the valet desk and told this young man our dilemma. He immediately called a cab brought all of our things down and put them in the cab and made sure we made it to the airport on time.

While I made sure these three individuals were tipped very well for accommodating us during our stay, the maintenance issue has reduced the stars in my service rating from 5 to 3 stars. I traveled from Atlanta with family and I have family living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They know of this incident. My family member: Lisa Maydwell, nicknamed it “PLUNGER-gate” as this incident...

This hotel is a hot mess that almost ruined my wedding day. They are very, very difficult to get ahold of. It took me multiple emails and several voicemails to even connect with someone to book my wedding. They do not offer a bridal suite. I offered to book a room for hair & makeup if they would allow the 12pm checkout to be a late checkout of 2 pm to allow everyone to complete their hair and makeup. Management told me "absolutely not. If you need a room until 2pm, you need to book the same room for 2 days." The hotel only allows you to book one large suite. They told me my family could not book more than one large suite to let other guests have the opportunity to book the rooms. They only allow you 3 dish options to taste at the tasting (more on the tasting and dinner later). If you don't care for one of the tasting items, you are stuck on what to select since they refused to allow additional tasting options even when I offered to pay the cost in full for those plates. They do not allow you to taste any of the appetizers at your tasting. Every time we were acquainted with the current hotel manager & outlined the wedding plan, they quit, & a new manager was in the role. We had to keep walking through the wedding plan with every new person because the outgoing manager left no notes or documents. It was very stressful & the burden was on us to ensure they did their job. Our ceremony & happy hour were on the rooftop, Birdies. The hotel did not allow guests access to the key-card-required elevators to access Birdies. Several guests missed the wedding ceremony, arrived late, or had to call other guests to find a way up the elevator. The hotel does not offer support to unload your car at the valet or transport your luggage cart. We had four vehicles to unload, & the staff just stood there staring at all of us, struggling to hold doors open, wait on luggage carts, and barely carry things in the hotel. We prepared thoughtful welcome boxes for our hotel guests. I provided the front desk with the list of booked guests to either deliver the box to a booked room before arrival or distribute it at the front desk when they check-in. The hotel forgot to distribute the pile of boxes the day after the wedding. They told me they only distributed three boxes the day after the wedding. This was very disappointing, considering I did all the work outlining the exact name & date of the booking & put significant time in these welcome boxes. They do not offer room service or support of any kind. Valet is unavailable to your wedding guests who did not book a room. Parking proved to be very difficult for guests downtown on a Saturday night. The hotel lost my meal order and all records of all appetizers, meals, and preferences for my wedding. Eight days before the wedding it was up to me to get them back on track AGAIN. They didn't have food ordered early enough, and our plated dinner's quality proved disastrous. The plated dinner was an absolute embarrassment. At the tasting, we were served a wonderful 1" + strip steak that was char-grilled. On the day of the wedding, they served a horrible oven-baked 1/2" sirloin cut of beef. I couldn't even eat it, and I just wanted to cry. We talked about how wonderful this dinner was going to be, and the hotel pulled a bait & switch. When I contacted the hotel, they took no responsibility. They stated their beef is always an 8-ounce. She wouldn't even refer to what cut of beef they served or why it was baked! We included over 350 appetizers as a late-night snack at a great expense. The hotel delivered them an hour late. Most guests had left & gave up on waiting as it was well after 9:15 pm when they were finally being served. The hotel was again full of excuses that the delay was because they had to bring them down from the 5th floor. Most went in the trash. Thankfully I had a solid wedding planning team to pull the weight of the lack of hotel support and an incredible entertainment team to keep...

The Bradley is a beautiful boutique hotel in a great part of downtown Fort Wayne. Unfortunately, their growing pains are continuing since opening a year ago. For them to truly be a next level premium offering in downtown Fort Wayne, their service is going to have to justify the prices. We stayed this last weekend for a Friday and Saturday night and were impressed with the rooms and their amenities. The ladies at the front desk at check in were cold and uninviting. I regularly stay at 4 star plus properties and it seems that the Bradley is a 3 star hotel trying to achieve that next level. In order to do that, they are going to have to improve the customer service approach. The valets were great as was Daniel at the front desk. All of the ladies seemed to have a chip on their shoulder about working early mornings or late nights.

My partner had a triathlon he was running in on Sunday morning and we needed the car pulled out of valet at 6am. I texted the front desk the night before and they said they would take care of it. At 6:10am on Sunday we ran downstairs and the car was still locked in the garage. We were not able to get the car until 6:45am and were very nearly late for the race. Had he missed his race, the entire weekend would have been shot. Since we were running so late due to the valet, I had asked about getting something like a bagel from the kitchen for my partner for pre-race food. The young lady kind of scoffed even though her inability to process a simple request led to the situation and said she would ask the kitchen. Then made a side comment about how she would have to charge me for it. Wow. I've stayed at Comfort Suites with better empathy and courteousness. She offered up some complimentary bread and bottled water. This is extremely poor planning and behavior by a hotel. If you offer a service and promise this commitment, you need to follow through and don't get snide when a guest asked for accommodation due to your mistake.

On Saturday night I went to the front desk and asked for towels as there is no regular housekeeping. The towels never arrived and we ended up using the same towels over two days. Also, poor service.

We would like to stay at the Bradley again as the location and building is immaculate but they need to step their game up if they plan to continue to charge over $200 for a Deluxe King and not be able to follow through on their service...