Hotel Utica, an Ascend Hotel Collection Member

We were looking for a hotel/​motel to serve as the location for a Sheldon Family Association Annual Meeting.
This is a beautiful historic hotel newly refurbished. The ambiance is outstanding and breathtaking. The staff could not be more helpful. Jessica as a manager was most accommodating as a planner. She made our choice between several venues easy. She out shone all the other possibilities. The updates have been consistently helpful. We are now 2 months from the meeting and early bookings have had the advantage of the special rate which is available until July 9 2016. We will start the meeting Aug 28.

I liked staying at this hotel, because it’s on the way to Saratoga Springs from Buffalo. I got a room with two double beds, and I slept in the bed that is close to the window. The lobby has a mosaic tile floor, and a grand piano. The restaurant serves breakfast, buffet style.

This place originally opened in March of 1912. I understand that it fell upon hard times and was closed for awhile. It has since reopened with renovated (modern) rooms upstairs while keeping much of its original grandeur in the common areas such as the lobby, restaurant, and bar downstairs. I’ve seen some reviewers carp about the condition of the original antique ceramic tile floor downstairs but keep in mind that it’s original, it’s over one-​hundred years old, and replacing it with flooring from The Home Depot just wouldn’t be the same. The place has an authenticity that simply cannot be bought at any price.

Loved staying here! Our dogs enjoyed it too. The water was glorious and hot. The bed and pillows were super comfy. Lobby and space was stunning inside.

The Grand Lobby is certainly that — Grand but upon further inspection the furniture is dented scared and thread bear, the tile floor should be removed as it is way past its life. Reception at the front desk was very unprofessional when I first arrived and had to wait an hour in the lobby before check in.
The layout of the room is ok but glass tube TV! Seriously this needs to be upgraded there absolutely no patina effect from this dinosaur
Overall the room was clean but the chair at the office desk was worse than my oldman’s Lazy Boy recliner. Seeing heavily worn armrests tells me there’s no attention to detail and no money in their budget for repairs or upgrades.
Overall the staff that I interfaced with were not very professional not only in demeanour but also dress. Again a lack of attention to this type of detail does not bode well for the success of this Hotel.
At best this is a budget priced hotel desperately clinging to a wonderful and historic past.

I’ve tried to support the Hotel Utica but this last trip was my last. It all started at check in when I jumped 5 feet because there was a MOUSE at my feet! I assumed it was dead but it wasn’t! I didn’t want to even stay after that but we had no place to go. Our room was on the 8^th floor, our first up there. The room was just gross. Maybe I was thrown off by the MOUSE! The air conditioner was broken, every corner was filthy. I was just totally grossed. I didn’t sleep, I just needed to get out.
Our last stay at hotel Utica.

Went for a night out at Turning Stone Casino. There was boxing, and the casino hotel was booked. We stayed here and used Oneida taxi to get back and forth. The hotel almost appears deserted from most angles outside, but it is a very clean and comfortable hotel inside; large room, comfortable beds, mini fridge, coffee maker, and a good sized closet. The bathroom facilities are some of the best I’ve seen in a hotel in a long time. The shower is high flow and refreshing. The toilets aren’t those ones that attempt to use a teaspoon of water to flush. There isn’t much to see around it, but I would stay here again.

Hotel Utica is a historic location in Utica NY. The hotel staff are incredibly helpful and were always friendly and full of good advice on dining and suggestions for the area. The lobby is very grand and impressive however the bedrooms aren’t as jaw droppingly decorated. The bedrooms very much feel like someone’s home which can either be a positive or negative depending on your opinions. As someone who travels a lot for work and am a Gold Member with Marriott it was nice to find their internet was fast and free and their beds were super comfy. Although the rooms were a little dated I would stay here again.

I am a Marriott Lifetime Platinum and Hyatt Diamond traveller. I was really impressed with this hotel when I arrived. The lobby is stunning. The rooms are nice. Large. Beds comfortable. Clean. I paid significantly less than expected and breakfast was included. I’ll be staying again.

The staff quickly helped me with whatever I needed. It was clean, had all standard hotel things in the room with no extra cost. Loved the historical aspect of the hotel. The lobby was absolutely stunning, I wish I could have explored the hotel more. Would definitely come back if I’m ever in Utica again.
And to the people complaining about the outdated furniture, YOU’RE STAYING IN A HISTORICAL HOTEL. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?! Appreciate the timeless décor that throws you back into the early 1900’s. If you don’t like it, go to the Holiday Inn with modern furniture.

Clean room with a nice sitting area, comfortable bed, elegant lobby, breakfast buffet much better than other hotels I’ve stayed at, very friendly staff. Some furniture older, outdated.

I was really looking forward to staying at Hotel Utica. I got a great rate as a Utica college Parent and was looking forward to staying in downtown Utica. We stayed in room 902 with a King bed. The room was large, with a western view. The breakfast was free and for the most part pretty good. (Sanitary wrapped coffee cups? Really?) Sounds ok, right? If you are reading this on Unilocal,then you probably can appreciate the word/​service: WiFi. I’m sorry, Free wifi means wifi should be accessible from the reserved room, not the lobby. Router equipment is cheap. There is no good reason a hotel, even an old hotel, isn’t properly wired with sufficient routers in 2014. It’s Wireless for heavens sake! My efforts to resolve the issue were met with the following: I called the front desk I was referred to Gerard, the doorman, whom I just met downstairs. Gerard suggested I try to connect from the hallway which failed. There was no personnel to resolve it. The excuse of an old building is just not forgivable or acceptable. New York State’s oldest court houses have free Wi-​Fi! I could’ve overlooked the large tube TV, if the room was properly wired. There was no resolution. We won’t be staying again. My money is more valuable elsewhere.

Wow, yeah. Not sure how to start with this place. The lobby is beautiful and the bar is enchanting. I felt like I was stepping back in time upon entering this lovely historic hotel. When I entered the room I was shocked. What was that smell? Mildew? The room hasn’t been updated in probably 15 years. The bathroom, maybe 6 years ago? The bathroom had stray hairs all over the floor and shower as well. It was the equivalent of $ 35 a night hotels I stayed at across the street from a truck stop. It was disheartening. I felt duped. The first night the AC unit also stopped working and the room was stuffy and hot. They let me switch room, but the next room wasn’t anything different but cleaner sans random hair. The view was fantastic, however, and worth the dark, depressing, and bleak environment of the room. As a writer, it inspired my inner Hemingway alcoholic languish. As a traveler, I wanted to run. I thought that the breakfast would put a better taste in my mouth, but instead I was greeted with old and hard oranges, no coffee, a handful of bacon bits, and a spoonful of old eggs. I don’t know if I would stay here again. While the parking was easy and vast and the location and view great, the general lack of updating and room cleanliness will deter me from returning.

Do yourself a favor and stay at another hotel and checkout the lobby of this hotel in your travels but by no means stay here. It is a nightmare!
Through a party here at the Hotel Utica. The renovation in the lobby looks amazing. Everything else was a nightmare. I will just list the things that happened in order of how bad they were.
1. Paid $ 1200 for an open bar where the the bar was left unattended for %60 of the time. People were unable to get drinks for %60 of the time. The bartender was also clearly under the influence of alcohol and possibly a narcotic the entire time. When I confronted the manager «Jamie» about this issue she just gave me excuses. It was then I realized that even confronting the management wasn’t going to change the nightmare of the open bar. They should have a sober bartender and a barback. So much for the open bar and my money. I Don’t think Hotel Utica fulfilled and their end of the event contract on the open bar part.
2. There was something wrong with every room my guests were assigned. I’ll just list the worst instance. We were assigned a room that was not cleaned and then when they were informed they assigned us another room where the heater did not work and this was in the Beginning of March So they gave us a portable heater. Its against the law to do this and its of poor taste.
3. They double booked the party. there was another larger party going on right outside our party. that would have been fine but the person who was going to keep the party guests from coming over to our party was the bartender and she was off getting high half the time. so i had to play the bouncer my self.
4. A small building was being demolished around the Hotel Utica. So the Hotel Utica decided to fill the hotel with people from the local area the night before the demolition which was also the same night they are hosting two parties in the hotel. As a result there were what looked like homeless people riding the elevators the entire night. I know because I had to make multiple trips to our rooms to host the party and kept running into the same guys in the elevator. They were also smoking in the hotel as well as keeping many pets in the hotel. It was like renting out a room in the projects. It did not make me feel safe and I’m sure i did not make my guests feel safe.
5. When confronting the person in charge with these discrepancies among others all I got was excuses. And lots of them. None of them sounded reasonable and non of them were apologies. It was clear she had never done this before and had no formal training for hotel or restaurant management. The kicker here is that the local community college at Herkimer offers an AS in Hotel/​Restaurant Management. Im sure there are many excuses why The Hotel Utica management did not ever get a AS in the field.
6. They give away suites to people with «Uitca Degrees» (look it up at the urban dictionary) but if you are like me and from out of town and spending thousands of dollars on an event there good luck getting an upgrade or even a complimentary room something every other hotel in the region offers if you host an event with them. Good luck even getting a room that feels safe and has heat.
7. The «Restaurant» they had where was not inviting. There were a bunch of uninviting locals at the Bar and the bartender from our open bar was a patron there and she was really intoxicated and annoying. In fact when I asked the women who checked us in where to eat she didn’t even mention there was a restaurant in the hotel. They food may be good. I don’t know. I couldn’t get past the assholes at the bar.
7. The Only redeeming value of the hotel is the person we booked the event through, I think her name is Jessica, And the Man who runs the restaurant I can’t remember his name. They are the only ones that even had a clue to what was going on around there. If you guys are reading this get out now. The management there will only give you excuses when confronted. Without Jessica and the restaurant manager I would have never continued to have my event at this establishment. I will certainly never stay there again or give them any kind of business. No second chances when it’s this bad. Do yourself a favor and stay at another hotel and checkout the lobby of this hotel in your travels but by no means stay here. It is a nightmare!

I unfortunately can not remark on the service of the Hotel Utica… because I did not receive any.
My fiancé and I are recently engaged and have a substantial amount of family in the Utica area. When researching possible wedding venues we found the Hotel Utica and due to our shared interest in historic hotels and architecture we immediately contacted them.
A week passed and I received an email response from a gentleman named David asking what the date we set is so he could check their schedule. I responded that not only had we not yet set a date (I wanted a list of possible dates in a given time frame) but that I would also like a pricing guide if they had one available, menus ect. I included all my contact information email, office, cell ect… NEVER GOT A RESPONSE.
Apparently they have so much business they can simply ignore potential costumers who are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an event.

If I am ever in Utica again… I will go out of my way to stay here.
A wonderful hotel with a great bar, breakfast & staff.

The «reviewer» who said the hotel was in a «sketchy neighborhood» used the wrong term. It’s «down town». This is a hotel which has phoenix-​like come back from near destruction and is a jewel in a trying-​hard Central New York State. The lobby is beyond impressive, unless you are not used to REAL hotels from the Golden Age. That means marble floors (which do NOT need repair.) a hotel restaurant and bar, easy access to the Stanley Theater, the train station, downtown (that word again) museums and attractions.
You really can’t do better for an actual hotel experience in Central New York, and I include the Hotel Syracuse which could and should learn some lesson from the Hotel Utica. «Sketchy neighborhood indeed…

The body of a decapitated bird ushered my entrance into Hotel Utica. Downtown Utica at 6:30pm on a Wednesday already looks deserted in an «I Am Legend» sort of way. So when I walk up to the entrance with bag in hand, dead bird at the steps, I felt like the shadow figure in The Exorcist poster.
It’s too close to Halloween for this crap.
The lobby of the hotel thankfully put to rest any more notions of The Exorcist because now I clearly walked into The Overlook hotel from The Shining. The Overlook — er, I mean Utica Hotel is almost 100 years old and the lobby shows off some amazing and beautifully intricate early 20^th century architectural details. Unfortunately this beauty is all negated when the lobby sports a dank, musty odor. Combine that faint gym sock odor, the lovely tiny subway tile floor and I felt like I just walked into the world’s largest New York City public school bathroom.
And that’s what’s so exasperating about this hotel: you can clearly see it’s at the beginning stages of becoming unkempt and poorly maintained. That gorgeous subway tile that covers the entire lobby floor? Look closer and there are quite a few spots that need replacing, major repair or cleaning.
Same goes for the customer service. They try to be good, they make a nice enough outward appearance, but press them for something and they fall short. The front desk rep was always friendly and tried her best to accommodate my simple requests, but there was no resolution to get my TV repaired and replace my remote. Instead, I got a note from Engineering that apologized for not having another remote to give me and for not fixing the TV. They offered the lame excuse that the TV would have to be removed from my room in order to have it fixed. Reading between the lines, they were basically saying I had to deal with it otherwise I get no TV at all. Nice.
That headless bird was looking more and more like an omen. I’m not one to extend metaphors, but I really did feel like Jack Torrance when I walked the hall to my room. Drab carpeting, washed out colors and dull wallpaper all seemed to conjure a bygone era of syphilitic flapper girls, hatchet wielding valley girls and the walk of shame.
I forget that this hotel was designed during a time when space was designed with more generous proportions, so I was pleasantly surprised to find my room was the size of my own apartment. The free hot morning breakfast in the cavernous dining hall was a nice touch too.
Subtract the TV incident and the unfortunate bird, and I find I can tolerate the Utica Hotel for a short stay, but they really need to shore up the inconsistent customer service, and more importantly, maintain the gorgeous premises for future visitors.

I take regular yearly trips from my home near Chicago to New England and, while Utica is certainly a long haul on day 1, I put myself through that for one reason… HOTEL UTICA!
What a sensation when you walk through the doors of this beautiful structure built in 1912. You feel as though you entered some kind of a time tunnel and went back to the 1920’s.
The lobby is nothing short of spectacular with its high ceilings and open 2^nd level mezzanine and furnishings right out of that 20’s era, including a beautifully restored old grand piano.
Two years and $ 13 Million dollars later, the hotel was beautifully restored in 2001 from near ruin to it’s present beautiful state. What a shame it would have been to have it fall victim to the wrecking ball!
It has a colorful and famous past and boasts such celebrity overnight guests as former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mickey Mantle, Judy Garland, Bobby Darin and Mae West.
The rooms are nicely appointed and yet very reasonably priced. The city of Utica has seen better days to be sure but what a gem they have that sits squarely in the center of downtown.
If I had any complaints at all, the area the hotel sits in is not the greatest. I would not recommend wandering around outdoors after dark. The staff is courteous, but not plentiful so patience would be a good thing to bring with you.
The hotel also has a very nice bar (Lamplighter Pub) just off the lobby that also serves up some very good food. Your stay will also include a free ticket for their hot breakfast buffet which is sure to please.
If you’re traveling across upstate New York and are looking for a real treat, Hotel Utica is a must see. I’ll be there next week as I leave for New England on vacation and I can’t wait to visit Hotel Utica again.

Hotel Utica was our little surprise as a 3 star offering in Utica from Hotwire. We were looking for the address of the Clarion Hotel (the name it is called on HW). we drove by two times to confirm the address as it is misnamed or has it’s original name without any reference to the Clarion. After entering the unlit parking lot in a sketchy neighborhood and asking an employee on the steps having a smoke, we found we were at our destination. It is the front end of hopefully the rennaissance of this formerly lovely hotel, but they have missed major two star touch points– and the service is good though the hotel is scantily staffed. There is no food offered after 8:30 p.m. – so any traveller who misses the window is out of luck. We were disappointed and felt over charged and misled.