Great once, but not now
My boyfriend and I stayed over a long weekend at the Dearborn Inn. I was really looking forward to staying at this hotel because on a previous visit to Dearborn I had been charmed by it's outward appearance. Don't be fooled, it is beautiful, but has a lot of problems.
To be completely up front, we did book a package deal. It was $149/night which included the room, breakfast and tickets to the Henry Ford, so I wasn't expecting the best room in the house. I also wasn't expecting the worst, which is what I feel that we got.
The first problem was both the room and the bathroom were really, really small. I've stayed at historic hotels before and no room has ever been as small as the room that we were given. The bathroom was so small that the toilet had to be modified to change the location of the flushing handle so that it could be reached. There was no place in the bathroom to put any toiletries that you had brought from home, only one narrow shelf that was already full of the shampoo/conditioner/soap/etc.
The next problem was that there is no soundproofing for the rooms - at all! We were given a room right next to the elevator, which was not ideal to start with, but through the entire night we could hear the ding, ding, ding of the elevator. This wasn't too bad on the first night (Thursday) but on Friday night it was unbearable. The dinging of the elevator, coupled with the loud conversations in the hall, and our neighbors watching Fox news at full volume (Bill O'Reilly was on) made me call the front desk and demand to be moved for the first time ever. This was at 11:30, and there were no other rooms available for that night, but we were able to move the next night to a much nicer "parlor suite" we were also given Friday night for half price.
The only redeeming thing about the hotel is the employees. Everyone who I spoke with was very pleasant and accommodating. They really did try to make things right, which I assume they have a lot of experience with given the condition of the hotel. Judy A. from Fort Worth was especially kind and helpful.
So overall, I was really disappointed with my stay at the Dearborn Inn. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I am going to choose modern convenience over charm every time now and I am going to think twice about staying in Marriot Hotels if this is a representation of one of their premier properties.
