My wife and I stayed in the Dunhill for 2 weekend nights in June. The hotel is an older property, and I believe part of an Historic Hotel Registry. It is located right in the heart of "uptown" Charlotte, in the midst of a rejuvenated downtown area, with many restaurants, bars, and shops nearby.

I asked for a room on a higher floor to avoid some of the street noise, and the front desk accomodated my request, but there was still quite a bit of noise in the late hours. I don't really fault the hotel for that -- it's to be expected when you stay in the heart of a burgeoning nightlife scene. And the prime location was part of the Dunhill's attraction. What I did have a problem with was the heat. Try as we might, we couldn't get the room to cool down. With the amount of noise coming in through the windows, I assumed that someone had left one partially open, but both the bathroom and bedroom windows were sealed shut. The air conditioner was already turned on high on the lowest temperature setting, and even when we closed the curtains for several hours to keep the sun out, the room still never cooled below the mid-high 80s. To be fair, the weather outside was mid-90s, but I expected at least a 15-20 degree differential, especially with curtains shut and windows closed. I had a very difficult time finding anyone at the front desk to help me with the problem, as twice I tried to find someone. The first time no one was around for a good 5-10 minutes while I waited. The second time, on our way to dinner, the clerk would not pause from her phone conversation to acknowledge me or tell me she would be with me in a moment. Ten minutes later, we left for dinner late, frustrated, and with still no end in sight to the conversation (which was with a customer whose reservations had been lost and who was due in town the following week). When we returned, the room had cooled off only slightly, and we were really too tired to ask to move rooms. We planned to check out the next morning and move to a different hotel, but having made the reservations through Orbitz, I knew they would be non-refundable. Since we were going to be out and about all day and until the late evening again, we decided we'd just suffer through it again if they couldn't fix the A/C issue. When we went down that morning to speak with someone, the only staff member we could find was preoccupied with a wedding party. In short, the issue was never fixed and we did not enjoy our stay much at all.

The hotel is well appointed, though it shows its age in places. The bathroom was clean and tiled, with a decent shower/bath, though it was even hotter than the room (perhaps because its window directly faced the sun for several hours). The sheets are average--a little scratchy for my wife, but I didn't notice. And I was disappointed in the service in my brief attempts to converse with them. They may be understaffed, or I might have just had bad timing. Trying to be fair-minded, I really think we would have enjoyed our stay much more had the A/C been working at even a reasonable level. And we might not have noticed the problem if our trip had been in April or September. If that were the case, I would probably have rated the hotel a 4--a boutique hotel with some charm at a very reasonable value. However, our experience really did cast a fairly negative overall impression in our minds. I would not personally stay there again, or recommend it. It's kind of a shame, really, because otherwise it seemed like a fairly nice hotel. I can see how others visiting in more temperate months might really enjoy it.