Magnolia Hotel St. Louis, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel — Hotel in St. Louis

First, I know where this is located and I know it’s a horrible area. The downtown is sorely understaffed, many restaurants closed early due to crime at night and food is difficult and limited. While some employees were nice, they were overworked, underpaid and being constantly come at by upset guests. So I’ll give them that. With that being said, everything from the rooms to the restaurant was a disaster. It is walkable to the convention center so that was why we stayed in that area. I deliberately picked somewhere with a good restaurant because we wanted to be able to have a nice dinner after long days at the convention center. The hotel boasts of their “fine dining” restaurant. I booked a queen suite. The employee checking us in was very quiet and barely spoke to us. I’m quiet too so it’s fine but I’m used to at least getting a greeting with hotel details. We went to our room, we were never offered help with our bags.

Once we got to the door, the door turned green with the key card but the door would not open. We tried a few times but had to go back down to the desk. The employee told me that I needed to pull the door towards me and wiggle the door handle and “it usually opens like that.” Okay? I just asked for a different room so we didn’t have to deal with a secret door routine to get into our room.

Room was large and well designed but it’s clear it has not been kept up. Chipped paint, phone didn’t work, very few towels, bathroom had hair on the floor… in any other town, I would have switched hotels but in downtown St. Louis, there are not a lot of options so I knew we had to make to work. We were starving so we decided to go get some lunch downstairs at the restaurant and we would ask the front desk later for everything we needed addressed. Arrived at Robies and it was empty. We were the only table. The waitress was very nice and on top of everything. We ordered and food took a bit but it was fine since we weren’t in a hurry. We had a side of sausage. It was RAW. It was still pink and had the raw texture throughout. It was like they had set it on the grill for a second before serving it. Waitress handled it right away and took it off the bill.

We told the front desk about the phone needing to be fixed, needing towels and to request the floors be cleaned since there was a lot of long black hairs. The front desk was overwhelmed and very busy. The employee said they were washing towels and would send them up when they were done. We asked for someone to come later once we’d be out of the room to clean and also switch out the phone.

Long story short, the towels never came, a gentleman came about the phone but he came right away, not when we had let them know we’d be out, and my daughter was getting ready so I had to ask him to come back (surprise, he never did). It was clear the hotel was booked and understaffed so when we saw someone with a cleaning cart we just asked them for towels and toilet paper. We actually never had our room cleaned in the 3 days we were there. The ONE time someone did come to clean, we were in the middle of getting ready and I had cleaned my best myself so at that point it was going to be what it was.

Worst part is the restaurant. We returned for dinner and had a reservation. It was not busy but they had 2 bartenders, a host, a busser and food runner. No servers. So the bar was running the whole restaurant. It was a mess. From the food to the service it was insane. We had to ask for salad dressing multiple times. I got the wrong food twice. While the staff was trying so hard to keep up, it was impossible. I felt horrible for them. A manager walked by several times but did nothing to help and never checked on us even though they had to take things off our bill because how bad it was. The bartender told us that they had asked for more staff but management had told them no. It was Valentine’s Day! Shame on management. I have never spent so much money on a dirty & ill...

I recently attended a conference in St. Louis with my team from Beyond Academics, and we were blown away by the experience at the Magnolia Hotel. We were a group of 13 people. On top of staying as guests, we also planned an internal company retreat and a happy hour event for the conference. Despite the complexity of our plans, everything went smoothly at the Magnolia.

I've planned events in multiple places before, and I was amazed by the professionalism, attentiveness, promptness, kindness, and overall level of care in all departments at the Magnolia.

Our team stayed for a total of 36 nights, and we used the Boardroom for two days for our retreat, as well as the Living Room for our Happy Hour event. All of the rooms and event spaces were even nicer than we had imagined from the pictures. The TV was definitely larger in the boardroom than it looked in the photo. The shuffleboard and pool table in our happy hour event space really took our guest experience to the next level.

The Magnolia made our company, Beyond Academics, look SO professional!

Amy was absolutely phenomenal to work with, navigating us through all the options for the consecutive events we had planned, and providing clear guidelines of what to expect. There were a lot of food choices to navigate, as well as spatial set-up. Her expertise was absolutely appreciated in guiding us to optimize our experience.

The Magnolia team was proactive in anticipating our needs and making sure we were covered, even when other groups tried to poach our event. Amy was quick to put up a sign labeled “Private Event” to make sure only invited guests were welcomed in. The bussing service for both our retreat and happy hour was prompt, with plenty of places to put glasses and instant clean-up. (Thanks, Jim!) The displays for cheese and other food items were gorgeous. Ken was an excellent bartender for us, making our guests feel welcomed. Jim and Ken went above and beyond, making us feel at home and providing great service. In addition, the food was absolutely excellent.

Ayman went above and beyond to greet us, showing us things ahead of time and checking in with reminders. He even went as far as to have our guests’ packages delivered to their rooms before they even had the chance to make it up there!

The valet service was excellent, remembering our team by name and anticipating our needs.

The staff gave us their personal cell numbers to reach them during the event, and even came in on their day off to make sure we were given tours beforehand, and were able to access immediate assistance in the event of us needing them. (Of course, this was not necessary because everything was SO well planned.)

The front desk was helpful with all of our requests, and Maddie at Robbie’s restaurant was excellent, remembering our drink orders from the day before and getting them ready before we even sat down. The food was excellent, everything was on time, and communication throughout was great.

There were folks who helped us out who I can’t remember the names of right now, but I can say with certainty that 100% of the interactions I had with ALL staff at the Magnolia was truly exceptional.

I was sad to leave the Magnolia because I truly felt at home there. My team was super impressed with the events I organized. Our happy hour attendees were highly impressed with the execution of the event, the food, and the drinks.

I highly recommend the Magnolia for any event you are looking to host, or if you're looking for a place to stay for yourself. The Magnolia truly felt like home for us, and if we return to St. Louis, it will be our only option.

Thank you so much to the Magnolia team for making our stay so memorable and enjoyable. We love you and appreciate you!

Gabrielle & The Beyond...

We only stayed one night but couldn't wait to leave. I booked this place thinking it looked charming with good reviews. This was to be a relaxing end to our 3 week vacation. My first impression was the hotel had seen better days and the reception area was unlit - very dark and felt like a cheap motel. It still had some details from long ago in the main area and must've been a charming hotel in it's day but those days were long gone. The photos posted on the website must've been from numerous years ago. I had requested 2:00pm check-in and arrived 2:15. I was told the room was not ready but it would be in 45 minutes. We came back 3:45 after a late lunch at the Marriott Grand next door and the room was still not ready. We were told that it was waiting to be inspected to make sure it was properly cleaned and set for guests. We waited till 4:30 in the lobby. The elevators are small and can only fit one cart, it also squeaked and lurched to take us up to the 6th floor to our room, a bit scary and had wooden floor slats (haven't seen anything like that even in Paris with old buildings). The room had a very old feel to it and was very small for a 1 bedroom suite compared to other hotels we had been in. We unpacked and came back an hour later with my dog after exploring the area (everything is closed on Sundays). My dog started sniffing around the room and started pawing at something on the carpet. I knelt down to see what it was and noticed it was a joint and the contents were all over the floor. I was afraid my service dog would eat it and get sick or die. I ended up cleaning up the spilled mess with my sticky lint brush and tried to call reception on the house phone which did not work (no dial tone) so I called from my cell numerous times and no one answered. I ended up going downstairs to let them know it needed to be cleaned up. They sent someone up after about 10 minutes with a vacuum cleaner. If that was all...but no. It's an unmaintained hotel. The drains backed up in the shower and the sink, the lever for the shower was loose, one of the light bulbs needed to be changed out, the 2 tvs did not work - looked about 20 years old, the toilet backed up, the front door did not work properly - the dead bolt released after you opened the door from inside and would not close and the sheets felt old and rough. So many problems. One night was plenty in this dilapidated place. Guess It's cheap for a reason but not worth it. Also the area outside the hotel is not well lit and there are alot of homeless and drug addicts in the area. I live in New York City part time and not much scares me but I did not feel comfortable walking my dog there. There is a Old Post Office plaza next to the hotel and when I was walking my dog @8:00pm I heard alot of very loud, crazy screaming and shouting. I would not recommend this place in...