The Moonrise Hotel-St. Louis

Check out the first impressions here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js7GqF_ipLU

With so many positive experiences at the hotels I’ve reviewed, I am commonly asked if there has ever been one that fails to rise to the occasion. The answer is yes, but not too many. The ones that do usually blow out because they lose their identity. That seems to be the case with the Moonrise Hotel in St. Louis, but you be the judge.

Located on the Delmar Loop in the heart of many of the city’s colleges, the Moonrise Hotel is a glowing jewel of neon.  And that, my friends, is the last place the hotel shines. 

Parking is poorly marked, making it almost impossible not to rely on the valet services. Which brings the question of how you access them? After you check in.  Like many businesses on the Loop, parking meters and tow-away zones are more prevalent than available spaces and the miniscule parking lot next to the building is hardly a solution for incoming guests.  So you are left in the precarious position of abandoning your car and praying it will neither be hit nor towed until you check in and cross that hurdle.

That’s not the way I like to start a trip.

Inside, visitors find a modern lobby, more neon and seating areas expertly decorated with funky space toys and NASA memorabilia. Unfortunately, the private experience is a big letdown. The front desk staff who checked us in were apathetic and disinterested to a level that almost felt personal.

Here’s a riddle: how many front desk staff does it take to check you in? The answer at the Moonrise Hotel? Two, and only after they have done literally everything else they can think of while you wait in line. The two chuckleheads working the desk when we arrived chatted with each other, checked vending supplies, looked at things on their phones, and checked on their upcoming their work schedules before waiting on the person in line ahead of us. 

With his little dog squirming in his arms, the gentleman told us he was waiting to get another room key so he could take the dog for a walk. Unfortunately, the dog’s bladder wasn’t large enough to accommodate the front desk’s ineptitude and he eventually left the line. Even that wasn’t enough to prod them back to work.  

Again, not the kind of treatment I would expect from a boutique hotel-or a Motel 6, for that matter.

To my relief, the valet and early morning front desk staff were much better. Maybe, the hotel manager is aware his night staff suck and deliberately schedules them for nights?  If that is the case, I recommend he or she relocate those workers to the basement and spare the rest of us the frustration as well.

Like the check-in experience, the sleeping accommodations were disappointing. For a boutique hotel-and any hotel in general, the beds were terrible! The mattresses are the hard-spring coil variety that are uncomfortable and unyielding-certainly not worth the cost of the room. While we checked in around six, well after housekeeping had presumably finished for the day, the overall cleanliness of the room could only be a generous meh. Like most other background functions, it was half-assed at best. Take the mysterious blue-stain sprayed above the bed and it’s slightly darker buddy spattered behind the toilet. What was up with that?

When staying at a hotel, I try to be understanding. I’m not high-maintenance, don’t consider myself a diva.  I understand that the employees that work there are commonly paid far less than the service they are expected to give on any given day.  I’m okay with that.

That being said, I don’t like to be reminded of the prevalence of communicable diseases. And the last thing I want to do when staying at a hotel is play Name That Stain on my dime. Gross!

I also suspect the hotel’s designers continued the space-theme when it came to the insulation between room walls-or the lack of it.  The audible ambient noise can only be explained by a total absence of any sound-dampening material or a speaker-system.  Every single sound generated in the hallway, elevator and nearby rooms transmits straight to yours.  You can hear the elevator traveling past your floor. You can hear other guests flip on room lights and shut their bathroom doors.

I am hearing-impaired and rarely find this to be a problem in any environment, but guests with sensory issues or PTSD may find the spontaneous sounds and vibrations triggering. The noise level is far more than one would expect from a conventional hotel.

A little past ten in the evening, I overheard a hotel guest on my floor call the front desk to complain. Around two in the morning, another guest made a similar call.  Both times, the front desk informed the callers they would have security dispatched. No one came the second time. I’m not sure if that is an issue with the front desk staff or security, but as I was unable to sleep anyway, I spent some time thinking about it.

Where the hotel part of the hotel seems to less important to the Moonrise than cute toys and neon, the same cannot be said for the rooftop bar and restaurant. Both deliver everything you would expect from the city’s finer venues.  The waitstaff was attentive and accommodating. The food and libations were terrific. It’s just a shame they couldn’t give you a blanket and let you sleep at a booth.

The overall cost of the room was a little pricey, but not outlandish given the location and the relative isolation as the only hotel on the loop.  That being said, it’s wasteful to pay for extras that don’t contribute to your accommodation experience. 

My takeaway: be sure to hit up the restaurant and bar, but stay overnight somewhere else.

Seriously, anywhere else.

Do you have a hotel or inn you think I should review? Let me know on Facebook, Instagram or shoot me an email at toilandtroublemediagroup@gmail.com