21c Museum Hotel St Louis — Hotel in St. Louis

This hotel gave away my suite on my wedding night, but since it has been 11 months, I can finally talk about it. This hotel made my wedding experience suck. I thought it would be cool to have my wedding guests stay in a unique hotel, but from the start, they were difficult to work with. They would never call back when my guests tried to book, and leading up to the wedding, I had to constantly message about guests that had been trying to book for months but kept getting responses like, "We will call you back" and "You are booked," when they would tell me that those same people weren’t booked. Right before the wedding, I got a random email from someone I had never even spoken to, asking me to re-sign the contract. I read through it, and there were multiple changes to things. They tried to play it off like they just needed to update their files since the previous planner was no longer with the company, but I knew it was b.s. I let it go and just continued with the wedding planning. Once my guests, who had verified rooms reserved in my block, started arriving, they had overbooked for just the first night of their stay, and several of my out-of-town guests had to go find different hotels to stay at for the night before the wedding. I was so embarrassed and upset that they came all this way to have such an inconvenience placed on them. One of my guests was given a room, and when he opened the door and walked in, someone else was already in the room. Luckily, they were in the shower and didn't walk out naked to some stranger in their room. He went back down, and they were just like "Oh sorry!" My maid of honor paid for a nicer room and was given a room that was basically big enough for the bed. 21c had also promised to give the gift bags for my guests to them upon check-in, and that didn’t happen either. I spent all this money so my guests could have specific things while they were in the hotel. I even had some personalized items in the bags for the weekend. A couple received them at check-in, but most didn't, some didn’t get them until they asked the desk, and some got them as they were leaving! If they hadn’t played up that service, I wouldn’t have even gone to the effort of making 20-something gift bags right before my wedding when I had tons to do already. The day of my wedding was a nightmare. I had planned on getting ready there and leaving my stuff so I could come back and just spend my wedding night with my new husband. The time for check-in came around, and my room was not ready. We waited and waited, but needed to get to the venue to get married, so I dragged my stuff all the way to the venue, got ready there, and tried to keep a positive attitude. Instead of being relaxed and ready on time, I was rushed to get ready on my wedding day. No bride wants to be slapped together on their wedding day. I couldn’t wait around and miss my wedding. After the wedding, we had after-party planned. Even though I didn’t have any of my stuff at the hotel at this point, because someone was just going to drop it off with me at the hotel in the morning, I thought, “At least I can just go back to the suite.” Well, we get there, and the room we had reserved for months had for some totally unexplainable reason had been given away to someone. They couldn't tell us why they had given our room away. I think they must have just been that unorganized. You could see that the poor lady at the counter was expecting us to blow up, but it probably wasn’t her fault, so we just accepted whatever they could give us because we were beyond exhausted at this point. Luckily, they had a room available, but it wasn’t the suite I wanted for my wedding night. I literally couldn’t get my dress off because it required a special tool to unhook the buttons, and we didn’t have it because of how the day transpired, so I slept in a ball gown on my wedding night, which was not comfortable at all. I wish we had made a big deal about it then but have both been in the service industry and didn’t want to deal with a negative situation on the first day of...

We are STL residents. As a business owner, I don’t get the luxury to spend a lot of time with my kids. So, I took 3 personal days from work and planned to have an amazing staycation with them in 21c from Tuesday to Thursday. I promised my kids the pool, movie night, walk around the city, etc. Tuesday my kids enjoyed the bath tub and a movie. I was told by someone in the front desk that evening that my stay came with $40 credit for food that applied to room service as well. We ordered food, ate it, but then was later told that it wasn’t actually covered by my stay. No biggie, happy to pay as Idol Wolf is a really good restaurant! The next morning (Wed) we decided to leave early (9:40ish) to grab a floaty for my daughter at target and be back in 30 to enjoy the pool. This is when everything went south. Someone in Valet that evening left a car light on or didn’t fully turn off the vehicle resulting in my battery draining and the car locking shut. I was then asked if there were any problems with my car to which I responded with “it’s 2 years old and there was nothing wrong with it when I dropped it off.” I was told his staff knows to turn lights off, how I came in at 5 pm and there would still be day light so they had no reason to turn the light on etc it all felt like they didn’t want to take any responsibility for the incident — regardless, my car was working when I came in now it’s not. They did not have roadside assistance but then asked if I had it. Luckily I did but it was immediately a stressful situation trying to wrangle 2 kids ages 4 and 2, contact triple A and organize service, get the kids some food from the cafe since now we have to wait to leave, etc. no one on the team offered help or provide any assistance in anyway for an issue caused by someone in their team. It was highly inconvenient and honestly, the “not my problem” attitude was highly frustrating. After 2 hours of waiting for Triple A (at no fault of Triple A), our schedule was thrown off and I lost time with my kids that I don’t usually get to have with them. I went to the front desk and asked if there was anyway to reconcile the situation and a manager was called. I didn’t approach the front desk asking for something but rather seeking out someone empathetic enough to apologize for the inconvenience and someone who cared enough to make our stay still enjoyable. I got the complete opposite. The manager at first only spoke to the front desk staff then eventually turned to me and said: “what can we do to make it right?” The question itself is probably fine, but the tone and the implication that I had to have some sort of idea for them to remedy the situation was even more frustrating. I don’t know the policies, I don’t know what protocols are permissible in this situation, and I’m clearly wrangling 2 kids already. Asking a customer how something can be fixed or resolved does not help in anyway and can be intimidating. Frustratedly, I told him I don’t know but something needs to be done. I then complained about why I needed to come up with a further resolution when I’m already trying to resolve one issue their staff made. I was then told to “not get loud because he isn’t talking to me that way”. 1) I was no where close to being loud. 2) telling someone in a stressful situation to basically chill out displays someone who is apathetic to the situation. He then told me he’s not the manager of the hotel, just the front. Whatever that means nor does that matter to me as a customer. I then decided to just cancel my entire stay for the rest of the time. This same manager decided to follow up all over the hotel when I went to valet, when I went back to the front desk to ask for a receipt, etc. I really wish you’d watch the video, if there is one, because in no way was I belligerent that would result in a manager seemingly following me around and walking me out of a hotel. The whole thing was so condescending and rude. The worst interaction I have ever had. And still, I had to be $200+ for the stay the night before...

21c has impeccable credentials - it's gorgeous, there's an attached museum highlighting works of art traditionally marginalized groups, and their restaurant, Idol Wolf, is the talk of the town. I have visited before and was impressed by both the art and the incredible penthouse suite.

Yesterday, my friend and i stopped by to visit the museum portion and take some photographs to commemorate our visit. We were dressed in costume as we wanted this experience to be unique and as memorable as possible. Tour groups were coming through and we were excited as people were enjoying the art and asking us about our costumes. Two of 21c's museum docents talked to us since i was carrying an umbrella for the storms that were supposed to - and did - occur around 6:00pm. After i clarified, they encouraged us to have fun, take pictures, and enjoy the art.

We definitely had fun and enjoyed the art until we were approached by William Rogers, the Director of Food and Beverage Services. We were standing by Serkan Ӧzkaya’s, "Reflections, Refractions" and taking images of each other as the piece distorts your image in a fascinating way. Behind the exhibit there's a barrier and - on either side - a row of couches.

When he approached us, we were essentially "pinned" behind the exhibit. He was standing less than 2 feet away from my friend and i was forced to move to create a comfortable barrier of space since the walkway around the exhibit was narrow. In addition to the approach feeling hostile, the tone in which he engaged with us felt hostile. With a blank face, he informed us that 1) we could only photograph if we had permission of the Director of Marketing and 2) only guests could photograph the artwork in the hotel.

As models and artists ourselves , we are both aware of "personal versus commercial photography" requirements as well as improper use of other's intellectual property. In response to his statement, my friend informed him that we were clearly taking images that would be considered "personal use" (it was a cell phone) and - while we understand and appreciate that there are policies centered on commercial use - we were engaging in activities that the aforementioned tours (and others currently standing in the lobby in the same place) engaged in. He reiterated what he said and i asked to see the policy as this must be publicly disclosed somewhere. He could not direct us to a policy, he offered to get the Director of Marketing's information, and - while he did that - i pulled 21c's Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions from their public website.

When he returned, he reiterated what he said and added that "I'm just conveying the policy". My friend continued to question his interpretation of the policy and - when i finished reading the items i mentioned above - i jumped in to show him where the "commercial versus personal usage" and "intellectual property and trademarks" sections stated exactly what my friend and i had been saying all along. I also added that i opine on federal securities regulations as a day job and - while there's plenty of area for interpretation in some policies - it was clear that we are engaging in personal use and had zero intention of infringing on the copyrights of 21c or the artists exhibiting at 21c.

At this point, he offered us a voucher to be his guest at the hotel's restaurant "to be hospitable" (direct quote).

While i understand why he made the gesture, a meal voucher does nothing to remediate the feelings of hostility and discrimination that we're left to deal with after this interaction. Additionally, these feelings are exacerbated by the fact that others were engaging in the same activities that we were and a quick social media search shows approximately 14,500 tags where others were engaging in activities just like my friend and me.

I sincerely hope that management takes the time to review their policies and clarify them further. This will go a long way in making the hotel "hospitable" to all guests, visitors,...