Best Detroit Hotels

Greektown Casino may not be much—in fact it's the dingiest and smokiest of the three casinos in the city—but the shimmering new smoke-free hotel next door is one of Detroit's best hotels for the money. Rates here can sometimes be as low as $99, although you can expect to pay more on the weekends. Greektown Casino Hotel sits near Monroe Street, one of the liveliest after-hours commercial strips aside from 8 Mile Road. It's mainly a place to party, so while you can get a good night's sleep and a good deal on a room, it's usually a wild night outside.

When it debuted in 1924, this 33-story palace hotel wasn’t just the tallest building in Detroit, it was the tallest hotel in the world. Everyone who was anybody passed through its doors, perhaps most famously, Lou Gehrig, who fell ill here while in town for a Yankees-Tigers matchup. As the city’s futures began to sag, so did the hotel. It was shuttered in 1984 and remained closed until 2008, when it opened to much fanfare. Now managed by Westin, it’s much more than just another chain hotel. For years it was the heart and soul of the Detroit social scene—on a busy weekend evening here, it feels that way once more. Celeb chef Michael Symon oversees a carnivore-friendly restaurant, Roast, while the airy Motor Bar upstairs off the sleek lobby is once more a popular after-work gathering place for a local crowd. Rooms are typical Westin—comfortable yet corporate—and there’s a good pool and fitness center on the ground floor.

Located steps from the Cobo convention center and Joe Louis Arena (Go Wings!), this somewhat modest entry is yet another renovation of a historic hotel, long ago left for dead. The experience is typical Doubletree—free cookies at check-in, generously-sized rooms and suites—but the lobby is bright and pleasant for socializing. A local coffee chain, Bear Claw, operates a counter just to the left when you enter the hotel. A fine-dining restaurant on site has scaled back to serve breakfast only, but the hotel’s Round Bar is open from 11:30AM each day, and 24-hour room service is available. There’s a small but complete Precor-stocked fitness center on property.

A short stroll to Ford Field, Comerica Park, the Fox Theater and other theaters, this comfortable, clean chain outpost is popular with short-stay visitors just in town for cultural and sporting events. Built by the same developers who rebuilt the Book Cadillac years prior to that hotel’s relaunch, consider this much-simpler hotel something of a market test—one it appears to have passed. Yeah, it's a chain and there are one or two other properties at this level of affordability downtown, but this one is definitely our top pick, for atmosphere and comfort. Saturdays, skip the hotel breakfast—it’s not complimentary, anyway—and take a short stroll to the Eastern Market.