The Park East Hotel

You get what you pay for — especially when it comes to hospitality. When I pulled up to this place, it took me a few moments to realize that it was, indeed, a hotel. A bunch of orange street cones and construction littered the entrance of the Park East, and as I parked my car to enter the building, it appeared as if the inside was under construction as well (or just dirty).
The lady at the front desk was kind enough. She offered us $ 15/​night parking but also gave us the phone number so we could call our cars in for the night. We weren’t aware that this meant that we had to move our cars during the day, so my friends got ticketed; a minor inconvenience and not a huge deal, but it would have been nice to have been informed of this.
Overall, our room was tiny, but could comfortably accommodate two people. We chose two queen beds, which were comfortable and stocked with pillows. The bathroom was surprisingly small (not even room to put my hairbrush down) but again, you get what you pay for. We did get a coffee maker, refrigerator and a microwave, which was convenient.
Four people in a standard room with two queen beds felt a bit crammed, so just be aware and prepared to get cozy.
Here’s my biggest gripe with this place. Everything was mediocre (at least three stars for the price), but we had to switch rooms twice because our radiator was broken and we had no heat. I understand that these things happen, but the fact that we had to carry all of our luggage down to the lobby and back upstairs *twice* after initially checking in just to have a room with heat was an annoying hassle. You would think that after the first room switch, the management would be apologetic and assure that the new room had a working radiator — nope! The second man that we spoke with before finally switching to our third and final room was silent and apathetic. At the very least, an acknowledgement would have been nice, but this dude straight up bickered to himself in silence while we held our bags and waited for a room.
There was free breakfast, but again — you get what you pay for. Nothing to be excited about; eggs, bacon, a few select cereals. Unlimited juice was a plus for me!
It’s really in a great location, if you discount all of the construction nearby. You can walk to pretty much anywhere in Milwaukee.
For three nights, we paid $ 319. It would’ve been worth it if we had heat in our first (or even our second) room. But our experience was mostly awkward and I’ve had better experiences staying in motels for half the price.

Stayed here for one night.
PROS
* Located only a block from the park.
* There is a parking lot you can use for $ 10/​night, but parking on the street is fine. We do it all the time when we visit. The front desk will give you a phone number to call, so you can give them your license plate number for a temporary overnight parking permit.
* Large, clean, quiet room on the fourth floor.
* Inexpensive — Paid about 87.00/night.
* Room included a coffee maker, refrigerator, microwave oven, and plenty of towels and toiletries.
* Beds are comfortable with lots of soft pillows. We travel a lot and have had some pretty hard beds and pillows, so this was a nice change.
* Free business center with a couple of computers and a printer.
* Staff was friendly and professional.
NEUTRAL
* Breakfast was okay. Has a make-​your-​own waffle set-​up which is always a draw, cereal, yogurt, coffee, toast, bagels, etc. Stay away from the doughnuts. They were not so good.
* Fitness room is small, with a couple of treadmills, stair climber, bike, resistance machine, and free weights.
CONS
* They are in the process of refurbishing after switching over from Comfort Inn & Suites, so aside from our room, there was dust and paint debris on the hallway carpets and in the fitness room. They really to need to go through with a vacuum cleaner and clean all that up.
* Our non-​smoking room had a lingering smell of cigarette smoke.
* The TV only included about ten or twelve channels, mostly news, and some of them were so dark we could hardly see the picture, but there didn’t seem to be a way to change the brightness of the image.
* Roof deck has a nice view of the lake, but it’s not real comfortable, with only a few old chairs and a table.
* Air conditioning in the hallways was blasting even though it wasn’t really hot outside and the system in the room was hard to control. We turned it on, but had to turn it off after about ten minutes because both the Low Cool and the Low Fan settings blasted cold air and couldn’t really be controlled.
Overall okay, but I might think twice about staying there again with so many other choices.

Lord Have Mercy I wish I could give this hotel zero stars.
While the location is fantastic, and the function that brought my boyfriend and me to Milwaukee was one we will never forget, we will NEVER book at The Park East Hotel again and we will encourage our friends to do the same.
After arriving, checking in and being given vague instruction as to where to park, I navigated my car around the somewhat harrowing parking structure. Taped signs advised drivers not to park under the structure as water was dripping onto the cars and contained some hard water deposits. No problem. I’ll park on the roof. The only problem then was carting my luggage down the ramp into the building and then through the lobby and up to my room with the use of the slightly wonky bellman’s cart.
Ok. Phew. Made it into my room. My absolutely, completely, «Penguins are Knocking at the Door» sub-​zero room. Legit. At first I wasn’t sure if this was a hotel room or a meat locker. After turning the air off, I took a look at the surroundings. We were staying on the 2^nd floor, so perhaps that room just hadn’t been renovated yet, but the furniture/​fixtures seemed to be a tad bit out of date and a few of the lamps didn’t work.
I tried to boot up my computer to make use of the hotel’s free WiFi and get a bit of work done, but even after calling the Front Desk (who didn’t really know which network to use) for assistance, I still couldn’t connect.
Some other highlights (*cough*lowlights*cough*):
— The TV channel selection was abysmal
— The hairdryer was slightly higher powered than if I used my breath to blow on my own hair
— The bathroom was so small, the door to the bathroom could have come close to hitting the toilet.
— We experienced quite a few gnats in our bathroom after coming back Friday evening. Bugs. Yay.
— The elevators must be missing some kind of governance that stops the door from closing if someone’s hand is in the way. A gentleman tried to hold the door for someone and almost had his hand smushed in between the elevator doors.
— When going up/​down to your room you get the fun delight of seeing the elevator doors bounce together a little bit
— The elevators are so slow Steven Hawking could make it to his room via the stairs before the elevators could get him there (get it? because he’s in a wheelchair).
— You have to press the down button on your floor if you want the elevator to arrive. And only one of the elevators go to the «roof deck».
— The roof desk is literally 4 chairs and a table. And spiders. Lots of spiders.
— The staff is so unfriendly you’d think they were doing some kind of mandatory public service by working there. (I lied… there was one super friendly housekeeper. She can be the reason I’m at least giving this place a star)
Also… if you’re partaking in the delightful (sigh) and complimentary breakfast, make sure you’re in the dining room before the time it closes. They will lock you out harder than Major League Baseball in 1990. And they won’t apologize about it. Or be nice about it. Nope. Too bad for you. Suck it.
And finally… my absolute favorite story…
Saturday was a good friend’s wedding. We enjoyed ourselves and celebrated after the wedding with a lot of folks in the bar since most of us were staying in the hotel. Unfortunately, we forgot a credit card at the bar. Our fault. No problem.
HOWEVER… When we called on Sunday morning to politely ask if we could get the card back (we were from out of town and left that day), we were informed that the card was locked in the bar’s safe and no one had access to it. I was informed that the front desk could call someone to open it but «they probably won’t come in because it’s their day off».
After my boyfriend asked if they could please call someone (they did offer after all), he was promptly greeted with a lecture by one of the most foul-​attitude, unfriendly, unhappy people I know… Adam.
Adam of the front desk proceeded to lecture us saying «it wasn’t [his] responsibility that [we] had lost the card.»
Honestly, I’m not one who needs people to kiss my ass. And we understand that it was our bad. But being in the service industry, and having one of your duties to be guest satisfaction, plus the fact that we were trying to be as polite as possible and that the front desk OFFERED to call someone, I would have expected a different reaction than a lecture to a grown-​ass-​adult.
And if they’re going to be such grump-​asses, then there needs to be a policy in place and an easy way to get guests their cards.
If it weren’t for the run-​down hotel and the fact that the place was WAY too overpriced for what it is, Adam alone would make me never want to book this place again.
To quote one of the girls who was also staying at the Park East, «This hotel is ratchet».

My travel mate booked a guest room with double beds for the night before Warped Tour. The room was comfortable, clean, equipped with decent toiletries, an adequate amount of towels, and in-​room tv/​coffee pot. There is a paid-​to-​park parking garage right behind the hotel. It was very quiet and just what we needed for the night. The hotel bar was good too — fairly inexpensive and very friendly service. It was a good last-​minute crash pad before a music fest.

It seems like the hotel was recently refurbished. Although the style isn’t modern, everything does seem «new.»
The rooms were very clean. The check in gentleman was fine. The beds were more comfortable than most– and there were a ton of pillows.
There are a fridge, coffee maker, and a microwave in the room. (Which seems like a luxury compared to most hotels.)
Parking was free for the dedicated parking garage, otherwise the option is street parking. It seems that there may be a $ 10 fee sometimes. Not a big deal for a spot in the city.
The neighborhood is safe and walkable. Close to MSOE.
Great for the price!

I’ve stayed at this place for the past 5 years when I go up to Summerfest for it’s cheap prices and close proximity to the festival and lake. But then they changed names and now the prices are ridiculously high for a really bad hotel. The elevators are painfully slow, the key card system rarely works (you keep having to go down to get your room card recoded) and they overcharged my credit card. I’ve been calling but they have yet to call me back. Also, the line to check in was crazy long because their system couldn’t find many of the reservations. I guess it’s time to look for a new hotel…

This hotel feels like we’ve time warped into the 70’s. I would say its average for amenities. We asked the front desk about the «bar and grill» advertised on the key cards and their response was that they «don’t have a grill right now»… What?
The location is great, but I don’t think I would stay here again. The whole experience is weird. Breakfast was minimal and the parking garage is a joke.

The location is AWESOME. Almost can’t be beat.
However, for the price, the amenities were not very good. Our toilet was broken, the TV was small, and the room itself was also pretty small. Breakfast was absolutely disgusting — one of the reasons we stayed there was because we thought the breakfast might be good, but really it was extremely processed and just not food that we would want to put into our bodies. The floor was very loud (even around 1 – 2 AM), and we could consistently hear other people «getting intimate» next door. Parking cost an extra $ 10/​day, which is not ANYWHERE on the site… And we had to use an overflow parking lot behind some random building on another street. Hotel staff was not very friendly.
Really, the only good part about this hotel was the location. Would not go back here, unfortunately.