21c Museum Hotels turned downtown St. Louis's derelict Renaissance Revival YMCA into a 173-room boutique hotel wrapped around a genuinely free, round-the-clock contemporary art museum. It opened in August 2023, pairing Idol Wolf's Iberian-leaning tapas with more than 14,000 square feet of rotating exhibitions.
The essentials
Group 21c Museum Hotels (Accor)
Opening August 2023
Rooms & suites 173 rooms
Segment Boutique/Lifestyle
Designer Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaf + Goettel (architecture); Hufft Projects & Bill Rooney Studio (interiors)
Entry rate From $240 Learn more → The place The hotel occupies the former YMCA at 1528 Locust Street in downtown St. Louis, a ten-story Renaissance Revival building that had sat institutional and closed to casual visitors for years before its conversion.
The concept 21c's formula (a serious, curator-led contemporary art museum bolted onto a boutique hotel, open free to the public 24/7) lands in St. Louis inside a building that spent decades as a YMCA, its original swim and athletic facilities now repurposed as the Locust Street Athletic and Swim Club spa. Architects Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaf + Goettel handled the historic shell while Hufft Projects and Bill Rooney Studio designed the interiors, and the inaugural show, ‘Revival: Digging Into Yesterday, Planting Tomorrow,’ filled more than 14,000 square feet with work from 47 international artists.
The brand's signature move (a site-specific animal sculpture standing in for the museum's unofficial mascot at each property) and large-scale commissions like Nick Cave and Bob Faust's ceiling piece ‘Until We Meet Again’ give the public spaces a genuine gallery feel rather than hotel-lobby art. It is one of the more ambitious adaptive-reuse projects downtown St. Louis has seen this decade.
Dining & wellness Idol Wolf serves Spanish-inflected, tapas-style dining built around local and seasonal ingredients; Good Press handles coffee and pastries; the Locust Street Athletic and Swim Club, housed in the building's original YMCA pool and gym spaces, covers fitness, massage and swim.
Our take The art program is the real draw here, not the rooms: 21c earns its keep as a free public museum first and a boutique hotel second, which is unusual and mostly works in its favor. Anyone indifferent to contemporary art will find a solid but unremarkable boutique stay underneath the concept.
Google guest reviews 4.1/5 · 956 reviews
If only google had a sixth star. Let’s be real, we allll want a super clean room, modern decor/furniture, beautiful art, working amenities, great location… jetted pool, suana, heated pool, with great food and drinks right? Well this hotel has all tht plus the products they stock the bathroom with are so high quality I had to find them on Amazon so I can use them all the time.
To top it off the art gallery, simply beautiful, the people who work here… lovely.
I’m leaving this review before my stay is over because I’m that confident tht nothing is going to change my mind. We chose this hotel for our 2 yr anniversary and we couldn’t have made a better decision!
[Parking.. wasn’t bad we normally have to pay 50$ on avg for a nice hotel in STL bc of valet but this one had parking meters so we had no fee the entire time since came for the weekend]
Check in: room came with water and a cutesy snack .. some type of seasoned nuts and olives JUST TRY IT. It was so gooodd
Overall, thoroughly impressed and proud that we have something this beautiful in the city.
This boutique hotel was so nice in the lobby and the rooms. My only complaint was tge elevators- because there is a gym in the basement i think the seat permeates into the elevator leather pad wall, and it smells like BO. The staff was nice, the safe in the room was nice, wish there had been more than one chair. I did not eat in restaurant, but the lounge was nice with pool table. Great hot shower and loved the brand of shampoo and conditioner.
The place is gorgeous and the location is unbeatable. It had a vibrant atmosphere and all the staff were friendly. However, our room was not the best. The toilet would not flush unless we filled the tank manually. Everyday we asked for it to be fixed and we felt embarrassed asking multiple times. Also, the shampoo bottle was broken and wouldn't pour shampoo. We asked for a replacement, after no success we left a note for housekeeper to replace. Interesting how the $20bill was gone but still no working shampoo bottle. Lastly, our room was never cleaned, only beds made. The mirror had the same splash marks, the floor had the same trash (including a deodorant cap left from previous guest) and we had to ask for new towels. It truly made us feel naggy and uncomfortable.
I had a very disappointing stay at 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis.
The AC in our room was not working at all, and the room phone was also not functional, so I had to use my personal cell phone to call the front desk multiple times. After several calls, they finally sent a technician, but he was unable to fix the AC. Even after contacting the chief engineer, the issue was still not resolved.
We requested to move to another room, but the front desk told us no rooms were available. However, at the same time, we saw people checking in at the front desk, which made it feel like the hotel chose not to move us even though rooms were being given to other guests.
That night was terrible. The room was extremely hot, and because there was no AC, I had to leave the door open just to let cool air from the hallway into the room. This created a serious privacy issue because people walking by could look directly into our room. My family was extremely uncomfortable and could not rest properly.
When I asked to speak with a manager, the front desk staff said he was the highest-level person available and told me to email Anna Mayorova-Hodge. I sent an email but received no response. The next day, I spoke with Drummond Riles, who stated that complaints come to him and that he was the top person handling complaints. His offer was free breakfast, which is worth about $40 when booking the hotel. For a stay that cost more than $600, where my entire family suffered through a night without AC and without privacy, this was completely inadequate.
A hotel at this price level should provide a functional room, working phone, reasonable customer service, and meaningful resolution when basic room conditions fail. Unfortunately, this stay was unacceptable, and I would not recommend this hotel based on my experience.
Updated replies based on hotel comments
I want to clarify one point in the hotel’s reply. They stated that they “provided a $100 dining credit,” but I did not accept or use that credit. Presenting it as part of the resolution is misleading and does not accurately reflect what happened.
Also, this “$100 dining credit” appears to be another word game. What was offered to us was basically breakfast for four people, and breakfast was only about a $40 add-on option when booking the hotel. Calling it a “$100 dining credit” makes the compensation sound much more meaningful than what was actually offered.
This also raises concern about the accuracy and communication in their response overall. If the hotel’s statement about the dining credit is inaccurate or misleading, it is reasonable for me to also question the explanation that no rooms were available, especially since I personally saw guests continuing to check in while we were told we could not be moved.
As a guest, it felt like the hotel was more focused on checking in new arrivals than resolving a serious issue for a family already staying there. We were in St. Louis for the VEX Robotics competition, and it left me with the impression that the hotel may not prioritize one-time event travelers after check-in, because they may assume those guests are unlikely to return. Whether or not that was their intent, every guest deserves the same basic level of care, especially when the room has a serious failure.
The hotel’s public response still does not address the seriousness of the situation or provide a meaningful resolution.
Very nice hotel, having a art gallery was a different touch. Pool and hot tub were very big. Rooms had a masculine feel. Toiletries were also masculine. Didn't hate it, but it was a different touch.
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