Hewing Hotel — Hotel in Minneapolis

I do not like writing reviews like this but I feel compelled to share my thoughts because I wish to save people their time and money on one of the worst hotels you can stay at that I know of.

My wife and I were in town June 18th-June 22nd 2024 for my cousins wedding. We arrived about 2 hours early so we asked if we could leave our bags behind the counter since we were told that the room was not ready. (This was fine. We weren't expecting to get into the room until our check-in time anyways.) We proceeded to hang out in the lobby area until our room was ready. Before walking up we asked if we could have some extra towels delivered to our room and head up.

When we get to the room it is about 78 degrees and at least 70% humidity in the room. It is musty, smells terrible, and everything in the room is tacky. We turned the AC down, unpacked, and decided to head out to dinner. When we get back to the room (after 3 hours out) there were no towels and the room had only cooled by about 2 degrees (and would not cool any more the entire duration of our stay). I went down and let the front desk know the situation with the room and asked if I could just wait there at the front for towels so I could take them up to the room myself. (Spoiler we asked multiple times every day and never received any additional towels.) I was told that all the rooms are like this and that no one from house keeping was available to go get me towels and that someone would be up in the next 24 hours with extra towels.

I get back to the hot, swampy room, with floors about as even as a minefield and unidentifiable goop on all the furniture, and go take a shower. The water might be the worst part about the entire stay. The water was treated within an inch of still being water. The water was so soft that the only way to get the slick, baby oil feeling of it off of your body was by drying yourself with the meager amount of sand paper quality towels they supply the room with. It was impossible to feel clean the entire time we were there because of the water. After the worst shower of my life, we went to bed. I say "we went to bed" because it was impossible to sleep in the noisy swamp of a room that they put us in. If they were trying to go for "true to the original" in the sense that it was the same quality after it was abandoned for years before being restored, they nailed it.

The next few days consisted of the surly staff and unfriendly hotel restaurant staff behaving like we weren't fit to step in to the hotel with the exception of the doormen. (The doormen were outstanding the entire time.) No one came by to check on the clearly busted AC in the room despite repeated asks. We were also told that there were no other rooms available in the entire hotel. We were also turned away from the restaurant for breakfast on more than one occasion with them citing that the space was rented out despite an entire half of the restaurant being empty and on the other side of the stanchions. We were also told that we were not allowed to order food to our room from the restaurant during whatever kind of external brunch event was occurring. Why even have a hotel restaurant if you refuse to serve the people that spent thousands of dollars to stay with you?

We paid a significant amount of money for the worst hotel experience I have ever had. I do mean the worst. Save yourself the trouble and book at a Marriott or even a Super 8 to get a better room, better service, and overall significantly better experience. If you legitimately hate yourself and want to suffer, this is the...

DO NOT STAY IN THE LOFT KING ROOM - details to follow

I stayed at the Hewing twice in one week on either end of a trip up North and had some inconsistent experiences at the property. When we checked in for the first stay, we were warmly welcomed and got upgraded to a Hennepin Suite because our room was not ready. The person working at the desk was pleasant but let us know that they did not have any complimentary water. The room was fine (sort of dark with the very high windows that you couldn't see out of) but quite small for a suite and there was no proper second room or work space but rather a desk directly next to the bed. When we checked out, I was rolling two suitcases and three backpacks, while my boyfriend got the car and nobody at the desk or the valet (sitting maybe a foot from the door) offered to help me or even opened a door (the doors also do not have automatic buttons for wheelchair users) but I figured they were busy with people checking in for the Beyonce concert and brushed it off.

Our second stay at the Hewing was three nights later and when we checked in this time, we were told that there was complimentary water available. We stayed in a Loft King Room and it became clear when we returned from dinner that we were directly below the nightclub on the roof. Our room was shaking with bass and we called down to the front to learn that the rooftop bar was open until Midnight (it was a Sunday night) and that we would have to pay roughly $100 dollars to be "upgraded" to a room that would allow us to sleep. At no point during the booking or check-in process did anyone mention that there was a nightclub above our room and the staff at the front was completely unable to help us without us paying another $100 dollars for what was already a very expensive hotel stay. When we checked out for the second time, nobody helped me with bags (again 5 bags for one person) or even offered to open a door (again with a valet playing on his phone less than a foot from the door) and it's hard not to think that customer service is not a priority for the Hewing. Ultimately, I had high hopes and after two stays will be returning to the Elliott Park a few blocks away which is a little less cool but also a significantly more welcoming and professional place.

ROOMS - as stated above, avoid the King Loft Rooms. The other rooms were fine but there is a lot of style over substance (the bathroom towel hook in our bathroom was behind the door -- minor but an example of missing the details). The rooms were dark overall.

GYM - there is a peloton in the gym but the staff has disabled the bluetooth (per an employee I asked) and when working out I was DJing the experience for everyone working. Additionally, the fan in the gym is a cool antique but makes it pretty hot and sticky in the already rather dank windowless basement.

SERVICE - other than the first person who checked us in, the staff was uniquely disinterested in helping us (between not being able to fix our room with the nightclub going off above and never offering to open a door) and at points was actively avoiding...

Nearly three months ago, my husband and a friend (one Latino, the other Black, both immigrants) visited the bar for a tequila shot to celebrate a new job. The bartender asked which kind of tequila, and my husband said, "Your best tequila." The bartender assumed this to be the most expensive tequila, confirmed the price with my husband, and my husband confirmed the order. The bartender came back with the shots, and when the check arrived, it showed that the shots were another tequila that was substantially lower in price than what was ordered. My husband asked why the less expensive shots were served, and the bartender said, "I didn't want you to be surprised by the bill."

Later that night, after telling me what happened, I reached out to Hewing's telephone operator to find out who to express my concern about this situation. They told me that Rosie, the Director of Food and Beverage, would be the person to help me and that they would pass along my number for her to call me the next day. I called again two days later and again a week later leaving messages with the operator to have Rosie call me before eventually leaving a voicemail for the General Manager. After doing that, Rosie called me back and told me that there must have been a miscommunication between the operator and her. She assured me that this was not the way they wanted guests to feel. She also called and spoke with my husband and told him that she looked forward to chatting with him the next time he visited.

A couple weeks later, we chose to stay at Hewing while attending a concert. At check-in, we received a couple drink and breakfast vouchers with no indication of this being out-of-the-ordinary -- this was our first stay at this hotel, so how were we to know otherwise. We saw Rosie around the dining room while we got a drink in the afternoon, but, though she was aware of our stay, she never connected with us.

Late that evening, we saw the bartender who had profiled my husband, and asked to chat with him. He was busy, so he pulled his shift manager. She told us that she, "Hoped that we had received the vouchers at check-in." This was the first time we realized they were blood money, so there was no chance we'd be using the breakfast vouchers without hearing from Rosie or the General Manager first. We asked the shift manager to escalate our concern to the General Manager, and we were assured that she would.

It has now been two months since we checked out, and we have heard from neither Rosie nor the General Manager. It is dispicable to profile customers (whether it had to do with race or immigrant accent) and then not have the fortitude to own and apologize for the situation formally (rather than indirectly) and not even to have follow-up communication when you find out that it was not appropriately resolved on the first go-around.

We have avoided Hewing when going out since then, and my husband is mortified to have recommended it to various Black, brown, and immigrant friends over the years who may have gone on to be profiled in...