Tristan Murphy

Review of Raffaello Hotel

*****6/15 update*****

*****6/15 update*****
review pending due to being contacted by the property and offered amenable solutions to the issue; however, I will leave up part of the original review until we actually see the room; at which time, I will update with our experience

***** original review
I booked a Junior Suite at this location, for my birthday right after Memorial day... being tempted by their fair prices ($130-150/nt for a suite room $99 standard room) & great location (just off Water Tower Place).
However, we almost immediately regretted staying at the Rafaelleo Hotel.
The lobby was TINY- with room for about 5 guests in total. It seemed as if yhe lobby was designed to get people to leave. Then the elevator was less than 5' sq ft of space. It was like a "half-elevator". It only fit 2 people (without luggage).
We get up to our "suite room" and are immediately blasted with musty, humid, hot air. There have some sort of central air system versus pretty much every other hotel on earth that has individual air/heating units.
Called down to desk and we attempted several fixes, Needless to say, the "central air" did NOT work. The room was very hot for the entirety of the stay.
Also, there are no bathtubs/or even jacuzzi tubs in the entire hotel, including the Grand Suite.
The Junior Suite bathroom was very small and uncomfortable; just like the rest of the room. The sink drain was partially clogged. And when one of us took a shower around 2AM, there was no hot water available, called down to the desk again and was told the night mechanic was off-duty that day.
Not to mention how DIRTY the rooms were... there was dust all over plus the walls had discoloration and clearly hadn't been updated in YEARS.
The only way to cool down the room was to leave the windows open... so we were greeted with loud traffic honking away at dawn!
The Valet was expensive, $65 a night, and in order to self-park you had to walk all the way down the block to a public garage and it still cost $40/day.

When asked where we should go, since everything at the Rafaelleo was closed the Valet suggested the Knickerbocker Hotel just a block away- which was funny because the Knickerbocker ended up being a beautiful place and their rooms were CHEAPER than the Rafaelleo!