I was developing a piece on Best Western’s Free Night summer promotion and today I came across Tim Winship’s piece on SmarterTravel.com. I hadn’t considered the airline miles earning angle in my Best Western promotion analysis. Ironically, the central topic my July InsideFlyer column is earning airline miles from hotel stays. Since I did not include Best Western Rewards in my magazine column, I will present the airline miles option here with a discussion of the free night promotion for two stays.

Best Western Rewards loyalty program offer: Summer promotion 2009 earns a free night voucher for every two stays between June 21, 2009 and August 16, 2009. A maximum of two free night vouchers may be earned.

There is also a Best Western Rewards online booking bonus of 250 points per completed stay for reservations booked online during promotion.

Restrictions:

- Promotion limited to residents of US, Canada, and Caribbean Islands.

- Free Night Voucher is equivalent to a level 3/16,000 points voucher – a relatively low level hotel redemption.

- Free night voucher expires six months after issue.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis:

My first thought on reading the terms and conditions of this promotion is a 16,000 points voucher is not valid for many hotels in my area. I made a survey of the hotel category for the 66 Best Western properties shown within 100 miles of Monterey, California.

Best Western free hotel nights are based on the hotel level. There are eight Rewards levels for Best Western hotels starting at 8,000 points per free night and increasing by 4,000 points for each level. A Best Western hotel will be categorized at one of the eight redemption levels for a free night:

Level 1 = 8,000 points

Level 2 = 12,000

Level 3 = 16,000

Level 4 = 20,000

Level 5 = 24,000

Level 6 = 28,000

Level 7 = 32,000

Level 8 = 36,000 points

Hotel Level for 66 Best Western Hotels within 100 miles of Monterey, California

8,000	12,000	16,000	20,000	24,000	28,000	32,000	36,000	NA*
0	0	6	28	4	8	12	4	4

 

* NA = Four hotels were not available using points for the date I checked. The hotel level was not indicated for these four hotels. I did not bother to search for an available free night date to find the hotel level for these four hotels.

To see the redemption level for a specific hotel requires the Best Western Rewards member be logged into the website and search for hotels using points. There are 66 Best Western hotels within 100 miles of Monterey. Only 6 of these hotels are at level 3 which is the free night voucher level. The other 60 hotels are higher points levels for the free night. It is unclear from the terms of the promotion whether a 4,000 points upgrade voucher can be used with this promotion to get a 20,000 points room.

My free night hotel choices within 100 miles of Monterey consist of 6 Best Western hotels. Nothing here looks too enticing for my travels. These are all inland valley places and I try to stay along the California coast as much as possible.

1.       Best Western Apricot Inn, Firebaugh, CA

2.       Best Western Villa del Lago, Patterson, CA

3.       Best Western Pleasanton Inn

4.       Best Western Luxury Inn, Tracy

5.       Best Western Town House Lodge, Modesto

6.       Best Western Executive Inn, Manteca

 

Best Western can be a good program for padding airline miles

While the free night voucher may not be a widely useable free night, I find there are good miles earning options with Best Western Rewards. There are 17 airline partners for earning miles from your hotel stays and most earn 250 miles per stay. Southwest is 0.5 credit and Miles & More is 500 miles per stay.

1.       Air Canada Aeroplan

2.       Air Berlin

3.       Air France/KLM Flying Blue

4.       Alaska Airlines

5.       Alitalia

6.       American Airlines

7.       Asiana Club

8.       China Southern

9.       Continental

10.   Czech Airlines

11.   Delta

12.   Hainan

13.   LanPass

14.   Miles & More (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, LOT Polish) = 500 miles per stay

15.   Northwest

16.   Southwest = 0.5 credit per stay

17.   US Airways

Special Bonus Miles Hotel Offers

In addition to setting your earning preference to airline miles instead of Rewards points, there are also special hotel specific bonus mile offers.

Example: Best Western Inn Santa Clara Double Miles per minimum 3-night stay. This offer will earn double the normal 250 miles for 500 miles with most airlines or 1,000 miles with Miles & More.

The best special offer I saw was Halifax, Nova Scotia for triple miles on a one night stay.

Best Western Travel Cards and Bonus Airline Miles (link)

Tim Winship mentions American Airlines miles or Southwest Rewards credits as an additional promotion bonus miles when buying Best Western Travel cards. There are actually six other airlines for earning miles with these cards. Air Canada Aeroplan and American AAdvantage have the best earning at 500 miles per $50 Gift Card. Alaska, Continental, Delta, Northwest, and US Airways are 500 miles per $100 gift card. The Southwest Rewards offer of 0.5 credit per $100 is not as good as Aeroplan or AAdvantage miles in terms of the percentage of award miles earned towards a free domestic ticket.

All in all the limitation of the free night to the lowest hotel levels diminishes the value of this promotion in my evaluation. Don’t go out of your way to take advantage of this deal.

But keep in mind the opportunity to earn airline miles through Best Western hotel stays and Best Western Travel card purchases. This is a good way to pick up miles when you find yourself needing a Best Western hotel.

The little nuisances of travel purchases and loyalty programs rear their ugly heads when it comes time to cancel, change, or follow-up on missing credit, points, miles, and refunds.

I know some of you out there must be like me and blow off  some miles, points, or cash now and then just because it is too time consuming to track down the travel details and receipts to seek a fair solution.

As consumers we play with a double-edged sword on the travel field. We have an expectation that we will receive benefits automatically and we trust our points and miles will post correctly without our intervention. The sharper edge of travel is when we need personalized attention and just want a rational response to exigent circumstances that require a change of travel plans.

All too often we then face the travel rule book known as the “terms and conditions” or “fare rules”. Bending the rules in favor of customer service can be a daunting journey for the traveler consumer.

I have loads of travel issues going on currently that many other travelers face at some time or another.

Trip Cancellations

First on my travel woes is canceling our sub-$500 V Australia tickets to Sydney, Australia next month.

Last October I landed the incredible fare launch with V Australia, the new low-cost airline for Australia and the USA. The deal was a $185 fare + $300 tax for a $485 roundtrip ticket Los Angeles – Sydney, Australia for two weeks in July.

After calling to check my ticket options I was informed that I can have a whopping $97 credit on my ticket or rebook for a change fee of $100, but the trip has to begin by October 2009. The young woman at V Australia told me it was 4am in Australia and perhaps a supervisor can provide more assistance if I call back in another five hours.

I’m pulling the cancer card and hoping to get some relief. After missing a half year of work for cancer treatment scheduled to end in September, my wife will not be excused from her classroom to use her $500 ticket to Australia for a much needed vacation in October. The Sheraton Noosa and Noosa Beach must be grand in October. I’ll have to be a sweet talker to work this one out.

Cancellation Fees

Starwood Preferred Guest free weekend nights are supposed to be about planning that dream night in a favorite city. Well, I had no problem making a reservation at the lovely St. Regis San Francisco using one of my free nights earned last month (I am currently at 7 free nights).

The lowest room rate currently listed for the St. Regis San Francisco comes in at $397 all-in per night for a AAA rate Superior room. On the other rate extreme is $1,017 all-in per night for a high floor Metropolitan Suite.

So here is the part of the dream hotel stay that gives me a cold sweat. The cancellation penalty is a stellar $649 for the night if I no-show for the hotel.

Is there tax added to that?

I can imagine a San Francisco car crash (it seems I narrowly avoid one every drive into the city) and telling the ambulance driver – “Please stop off at the St. Regis so I can check-in, and then take me to the hospital.”

Missing Points

After 16 nights in Starwood Hotels in May 2009 I went through my points earned. The new Starwood Preferred Guest activity listing specifying hotel name and points earned or redeemed certainly is an improvement for the member tracking hotel activity.

I was missing about 8,000 points from 5 different hotel stays in May.

I probably spent close to 30 minutes with the Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum desk agents. I am confident the points will post over the next week, but tracking down points and miles is just another chore that is an inherent task in maintaining a loyalty program account.

Overcharges – Last week I paid $58 for parking at the Burlingame Parking Center for a week. That is an incredible deal for parking at San Francisco Airport. My issue was that this great deal was actually advertised as $40 per week on the sign at the parking lot entrance. The entire lot is automated so I could not complain about the overcharge when I paid the fee with my credit card.

At home I call the number on the parking lot receipt. The number is the parking lot ticketing machine company and they are simply equipment suppliers. I look up Burlingame Parking on the web. The contact number does not work as a functioning business number. The message just loops and never connects to a person.

I call the website number listed for persons needing after-hours parking lot pick-up service. I am surprised to reach the front desk of the Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport. I guess Burlingame Parking is owned by the hotel owners. I explain that I have been overcharged and she connects me with a hotel accountant. Supposedly I will receive a credit to my credit card. 

Something else I need to follow-up on and verify next month. 

(Update: the credit posted on my card within one day of my call.)

OMG – I am Passport-less

My passport expired two weeks ago. I am trapped in the USA.

Trying to get an appointment at the San Francisco Passport Agency, but the process requires having a ticket for a trip out of the country within 14 days.

The passport renewal fee is $75 whether by mail or in person at an agency.

There is a $60 expedite fee for mail-in applications for passports and this speeds up the process from 4 to 6 weeks down to 2 to 3 weeks.

Alternatively, there is only a $25 fee to get a same-day passport at a U.S. Passport Agency.

I have a feeling I won’t be canceling that July 2009 travel V Australia ticket just yet.

 

 

 

How small is too small for a comfortable hotel room?

I have stayed in hundreds of hotel rooms. I have lived in hotel rooms at around 2,000 square feet of multi-room living space. I have had hotel rooms where I had to get up and move from my chair to let Kelley pass by me to walk around the bed.  The average room size in the US is about 325 square feet according to Bjorn Hanson in a Kitty Bean Yancey article three years ago in USAToday. Bjorn Hanson (bio link)is one of the most frequently cited experts I see on hotel industry statistics and trends.

 

Last week I stayed in a 325 square feet room at the Westin Westminster.

The room had a standard closet, bathroom with tub, shower, sink, and counter, bedroom with a King bed, two nightstands, a dresser with tv on top, small desk and desk chair, little table surface, upholstered chair and ottoman. All the essentials were present, but not much extra space to lounge around in between the furniture. Exchanging the chair or desk for a couch would have been an even tighter fit, but would have offered expanded seating for two.

 

 

Think 13’ wide x 25’ door-to-window as the average 325 square feet room. Within the space is the bathroom.  A big bathroom is a real treat and a way to improve a small room space.

Do most people even comprehend room size when making a hotel reservation?

I thought about some of the small hotel rooms where I have lived over the past few years and I came up with four examples of functional rooms in a small space (some more functional than others). They always have the essentials.

Design is a big factor for making a small room a comfortable environment.

#1: Singapore Changi Airport, Ambassador Transit Hotel, approximately 75 square feet; 100 sq. ft. with ensuite bath.

These rooms are still low priced at $68.27 Singapore Dollars (about $47USD) for a room with bathroom or as low as $41.20 SGD (about $28.40USD) for a room with a shared toilet/shower down the hall. The showers were down the hall in the fitness room area of the hotel floor and consist of individual locked shower stalls comparable to what you would find at an upscale gym club. The photos on the website look like the rooms are more stylish than shown in my Singapore Airport Transit Hotel photos from 2003.

http://athmg.com/index.htm

The hotel had a TV and clock and coat rack hangar.

 

 

 

 #2  Ramada Hotel Amsterdam, approximately 125 square feet.

This room had lots of cool and the perfect room for a July bed-in watching Tour de France.

The TV was mounted on a wall of carpet over the foot of the bed.

 

 The shower stall doubled for luggage storage when we were not cleaning.

Admiring the clear sink takes up at least 30 minutes of your daily room time:

#3  Golden Tulip Amsterdam Art, approximately 160 square feet.

This place was a bit off the main tourist track and seemed to have more Dutch guests then central Amsterdam hotels.  Centraal train station was about a 30 minute walk east along Haarlemer Straat.

This room actually had enough space to move and sit comfortably. I had one night solo and the room was much better suited for one person rather than two.

The Amsterdam Art room was about 10 feet wide yet had space for movement and standing and even exercising.

A TV and full desk counter rounded out the room.

Creative design made this one of the smallest, yet fully functional rooms for a hotel stay.

 

 

The bathroom was large for the small room. The bathroom actually had a separate tub and shower.

 

#4  W Sydney, bi-level loft approximately 350 square feet (rebranded and is now BLUE Sydney, a Taj Hotel)

This hotel was a funky W with lots of character built in a remodeled Sydney wharf building.

 

The W Sydney guest rooms were only about 8 feet wide.

 

 

 

 

Stairs led up to the loft bedroom and bathroom.

The bathroom had a rooftop view usually occupied by seagulls.

The attention to detail was apparent throughout the room to make the use of the limited space and maintain easy mobility within the space between furnishings.

A total room size below 300 square feet can feel claustrophobic to me.  I was reading a description of a grand deluxe room at the Westin St. Francis, San Francisco and the size was listed as 200 to 360 sq. ft. That is quite a range of room sizes for a $280 per night room – before taxes. 360 square feet in a high ceilinged room can feel cavernous. 200 square feet is going to be much closer to a small standard sized hotel room. The lowest cost rooms at the St. Francis Hotel are listed as 145 sq. ft. with a double bed and no view and range from $109 to $229. 

Most rooms in upper upscale hotels like Hilton, DoubleTree Crowne Plaza, Marriott, Renaissance, Westin, and Sheraton will be somewhere in the 300 to 400 square feet range. Closer to 300 is more probable than the 400 square foot range. 

I think 400 square feet is a good number for when a room starts to feel comfortably sizeable for a hotel stay. 500 square feet feels like a substantial upgrade and allows two people to have some private space. 600 square feet to 800 square feet is feeling suite. Over 800 square feet and you have scored a hotel “living” room.

I really enjoy a room over 400 square feet and closer to 500 square feet has a real feeling of hotel spaciousness. In the past month I have stayed in several hotel suites in the 700 to 800 square feet range and that feels comfortable when I am away from home; sometimes downright luxurious.

When you have a small room the primary factor that can improve the stay is a room window with a view.

 

San Jose bought a derelict estate in the 1990s called Hayes Mansion located on the southern end of the city not far off Highway 101. Fortunately the place is on the National Register of Historic Places and there are numerous landmark street signs or you would probably find yourself making U-turns in the residential neighborhood assuming you were not in the correct location for a nice hotel.

Hayes Mansion is now a city-owned, Dolce Hotels managed hotel property, restaurant, and conference center known as Dolce Hayes Mansion in hotel search engines.

This hotel property is a unique experience and low rates make this hotel one of San Jose’s best kept luxury bargains for the hotel guest. You would be hard-pressed to find another hotel suite in California with the kind of furnishings surrounding you in the Hayes Mansion at a rate even $100 more than these rooms. Weekend nights in a main house upper floor suites have been as low as $110 these past few months and are running $139 this weekend ($126 AAA rate).

Hayes Mansion was built as a Santa Clara Valley estate in 1905. The Santa Clara Valley is more familiarly known around-the-world these days  as “Silicon Valley”. Hayes Mansion is located in the southern part of San Jose in a city district known as Edenvale. The remaining agricultural fields and orchards from here south over the southernmost 20 miles of Santa Clara Valley has maintained some sense of  open space in the narrow part of the flatlands between the coastal mountains and the inland hills despite the creation of more housing tracts and golf courses in the past 20 years.

Before freeways and silicon chips this land was known for fruit. Our climate here in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties is one of year-round crop growing. Temperatures below freezing rarely occur this close to the Pacific coastal waters of California.

This is Steinbeck Country where life maintains a pace of year-round production. We have the sun, we have the rain, and we now have lots of people. I’ve seen agricultural land cut in half in my lifetime from newly built housing developments in most neighborhoods where I have lived in California.

Hayes Mansion transports me back to an earlier time. The hotel is situated in a park-like space surrounded by residential neighborhoods. I feel like the estate stopped the clock of passing time while the city grew around Hayes Mansion to surround it with people’s homes. One feature I particularly enjoy about Hayes Mansion is the small city block park, a natural setting that seems to be part urban cultivation and part neglected just outside the Hayes Mansion northern fence.

The kind of architectural and style detail you see in Hayes Mansion is what you might find in Victorian B&Bs that would cost triple the nightly rate of Dolce Hayes Mansion.

Here is the wording of the plaque displayed at the historic site:

“Mary Hayes Chynoweth, matriarch of the Hayes family, built this 65 room, 41,000 square foot Mediterranean Revival-style mansion to replace an earlier Victorian one which had been destroyed by fire. While she did not live to occupy the mansion herself, her two sons and their families lived in the house for four decades.

Everis Anson Hayes and Jay Orley Hayes were two of San Jose’s most influential and illustrious citizens. E. A. Hayes served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1904 to 1918. J.O. Hayes was founder and president of the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association, which later became known as Sunsweet Growers. Together the two brothers owned and published the San Jose Mercury and the San Jose Herald Newspapers.

The Edenvale Estate was a center of social and political activity for the Santa Clara Valley and was visited by many distinguished public figures.

The Hayes Mansion was designed by architect George Page and completed in 1905. Renovation and remodeling was completed in 1994 by the public/private partnership of the City of San Jose and the Renaissance Conference Company.”

 

On a weeknight the early bird guest will fare much better than worms with a Steak Dinner for $14.95, available until 6pm. Kelley and I thoroughly enjoyed being the youngest guests (I am still 49, while Kelley is an old AARP 50) dining at the darkly lit dining room on a sunny April evening.

 

The Hayes Mansion pool has been disturbingly unoccupied on my last three trips to the hotel. This place is paradise on an 85 degree noon sun bake in San Jose. Palm trees rustling overhead and blue sky, clear water is constant heaven (when you can’t be on Carmel Beach).

 

Loyalty Traveler recommends you check this hotel out when you come to San Jose. You will be surprised at what this place offers compared to some of the other city hotel offerings.

There is a full service spa at the hotel:

This hotel has over 200 rooms and almost all those rooms are in wings around the Hayes Mansion original estate house. Two floors of corridors with regular rooms wrap the south and east side of the estate house, restaurant, spa, and pool. Some rooms at Dolce Hayes Mansion may not feel much different than a Hilton Garden Inn overlooking the parking lot if you end up in the backside hotel wing room.

The cost to upgrade big-time at this hotel to a parlor suite is so low compared to most hotels of this caliber that you should really splurge and do Hayes Mansion in style. This might be one of the best $50 upgrades you ever bought to get in an historic estate hotel suite at Hayes Mansion.

Spread the word, but not too loudly. I don’t want the $125 weekend suites in my Santa Clara “Big Silicon Valley” fantasy estate home to become an urban legend I reminisce about in the 20-teens.

Links: Wikipedia – Hayes Mansion, San Jose, California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_Mansion

Dolce Hayes Mansion website: http://www.dolce-hayes-mansion-hotel.com/

 

 

There is so much beauty to behold in this hotel. The St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco is huge. The historic building and the Pacific Tower combined have nearly 1,200 guest rooms and dozens of floors and hallways to wander. The location on Union Square is ideal for a downtown San Francisco location with easy access to cable cars, restaurants, theater district, shops, and city buses.

 

The historic St. Francis Hotel faces Powell Street with one of the city’s few remaining cable car lines. The St. Francis Tower opened in 1971 and is built behind the older hotel. Originally, the hotel opened in March 1904 and only consisted of the two left-most wings. The interior of the hotel burned in the firestorm the days following the Great Earthquake of April 1906. The hotel re-opened in late 1907 and plans were continued to expand the hotel. The right end hotel wing was added in two additions which opened in 1908 and 1913. The 32-floor St. Francis Pacific Tower was constructed between 1969 and 1971.

The St. Francis Hotel is a San Francisco icon. The hotel was financed by the Crocker family of California. Charles Crocker was one of the big four railroad magnates who owned and built the western U.S.  trans-continental railroad in the 1860s. These guys made a lot of money, and today, about two blocks from the St. Francis on ritzy Nob Hill, there is a major hotel named for each of the three other railroad tycoons: Huntington Hotel, Stanford Court (Renaissance Hotel), and The Mark Hopkins (InterContinental Hotel).

Room Rate history:

Westin St. Francis can be $119 one day and $389 the next. Chances are you will find rates available for $119 to $149 many weekends over the next few months. Sunday nights can also be a bargain. Best deals are usually holiday weekends. Weekday rates can be astronomical when a conference is in the city with $300+ rates.

The AAA rate of $107.10 was the best rate I saw for a May 2009 stay. Reports on Priceline show $70 per night bids have been successful in the past month.

Historically this hotel was rarely under $149 night in 2006. I stayed several times in November 2007 when there was a special $100 Meet at the Clock rate. The hotel features an urban legend with the 1907 Clock in the lobby as a long-time meeting point. The hotel added The Clock Bar adjacent to the lobby just this past year.

Rates continued to stay high most of 2008 and then all room rates dropped after the financial collapse in November 2008. The rates in the past six months have had some of the lowest rates in years.

The Lobby and Building:

The lobby of the St. Francis is usually busy with guests and visitors wandering in from Union Square. There are glass cases with historical artifacts from past decades of the hotel. Be sure to see the Ansel Adams display by the Concierge desk showing photographs of the historic St. Francis.

The lobby now holds the Clock Bar, added in 2008, and the Michael Mina restaurant. The Oak Room is the location for morning dining and a wider selection of dinner entrees. The fitness room is down the hallway just past the Oak Room. There is a daily use fee for guests who are not SPG elite members.

There is a popular morning cafe for coffee and pastries in the reception desk area of the lobby near the valet car port.

 The St. Francis Hotel  historical showcases are in this section of the lobby.

Hotel Rooms:

Many guests prefer the Tower rooms due to more uniform size and the view across San Francisco from the higher floors. Kelley and I prefer the traditional rooms in the historic building overlooking Union Square.  The noise from the cable cars can be loud and you hear much more of the street noise when you have the windows open in the old building rooms. The Tower rooms tend to be much quieter, but have no sense of the hotel history felt in the older building. I have been in Tower rooms where the window opened slightly and others with windows that were sealed closed.

The size of the hotel means that you can stay in a variety of locations within the hotel featuring different room layouts, furniture, and views.

A Union Square view places you directly in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Open the window and you feel and hear the city around you.

The views of San Francisco are great from the high Tower rooms. The glass elevators ride the exterior of the building and offer a quick view of the San Francisco skyline.

The rooms on this side of the tower on the upper floors have an excellent view of the city square block Hilton San Francisco. The skyscraper tower of the Hilton Hotel is 46 stories and the Club Lounge on the 45th floor is one of the highest locations in the city. The top floor of the Hilton used to house a restaurant that was just closed in this current financial recession.

Most Tower rooms will face Union Square.

The Tower is 32 floors and the historic building is 12 floors.  The top floor of the Tower is called Victor’s Palace and there are a couple of large rooms with panoramic window views around the city. The top floor is only open for special events.

Most of the time Victor’s Palace on the top floor at 32 is inaccessible to guests.

I photographed these rooms and the view from top floor windows in late 2007.

You need to be at least in the upper half of the Tower for good views. You need to be a few stories above the 12^th floor historic building for unobstructed views toward Union Square. Otherwise your view may consist of the back side of the historic St. Francis building. There are some really undesirable small rooms with no views shown here with interior wing facing views in the historic building. These room types may be your fate if you decide to Priceline or Hotwire this hotel.

Floors above 20 have more open views above most of the other buildings. Floors 25 to 31 are best as windows are unobstructed by most nearby buildings.

The view from rooms on the back side of the St. Francis historic building are really as bad as it looks in the photo. There are too many nice rooms in San Francisco to settle for a brick wall vacation. There are 10 floors of rooms from 3-12 on the backside interior facing walls of the historic hotel and probably over 100 rooms with a brick wall and other room window views.

The lower floors of the Tower building do not have views either. You need to be in the Tower corner room or high enough to see over the 12-story historic building.

The Rooms:

Rooms on the Union Square side of the St. Francis Hotel have ornate cornace to view

There are a variety of room sizes in the historic building and various furniture arrangements. The quality of furnishings tends to be better in the historic wings.

The Tower rooms have more generic styles of furniture.

The beds have always been quite comfortable for my hotel stays.

Westin St. Francis Tower room bed

I have stayed in a Tower corner room where I had to walk 16 feet down one entry hall and make a right turn for another 10 feet to reach the main bedroom. There was the coffee maker, a bench, and art pieces in the hall.

A 10th floor junior suite contained a couch:

Bathrooms tend to feel well designed:

Wandering the halls of the St. Francis also reveals some interesting design elements.

There are beautiful features and detail to observe in the simple elements like lights:

Old stairways have a beautiful symmetry:

Wall art worthy of admiration:

And look above to ceiling detail:

This kind of attention to detail is not apparent in many modern buildings.

The right room and the right eye to hotel detail can make the Westin St. Francis a special hotel experience.

Rate Search History May 2009:

The Westin Tabor Center is the showpiece of Starwood’s Denver hotels.

 

Rates were highly variable for this hotel. Weekday rates were $289 for most of the month of May. Even weekend rates for Friday or Saturday night were $200+ for the first half of May. The lowest rate I saw was $129 for Sunday night, May 31. That rate was only available from April 27 through May 12 when the rate increased to $149 and remained at that level until my hotel stay. Rates dropped to $149 during the second half of May for rooms on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The rate for Monday June 1 was $209 April 27, dropped to $199 May 19, and down to $149 by May 30. 

Stayed Monday, 6-1-09. Booked Cash & Points SPG Category 4 for $60 and 4,000 points.

Westin Tabor Center had a $99 Starpicks rate available for June 4-6 and 11-13 weekends for bookings between June 2-5 just after my stay. Now that is a good hotel deal.

 

 

 

 

Arrival:

We had arrived. I thought I might spend a week in Denver without a hotel suite upgrade, then the Westin Tabor Center showed us a solid hotel. Our Cash & Points reservation received a complimentary upgrade to a Tabor Suite 1816/1817.

The Denver Westin Tabor has urban upper upscale hotel ambience. We thoroughly enjoyed the stay.

 

 

 

 

Hotel is 19 floors with guest rooms on Floors 4-19. Starwood Preferred Guest floors are on 16-19. There are not that many suites (I saw 8 named suites in hotel) and mostly large mountain-named suites on Floor 19.

Lobby:

A lower lobby is at the street level containing the Palm Restaurant and a Starbucks Café, a seating area and elevators.  The Westin Tabor Center hotel entrance with a drive-thru carport for arrival and departure is on one-way Lawrence Street just past the 16^th Street Mall going east. Pedestrians can also enter the hotel from the Arapahoe Street entrance.

 

 

 

 

Escalators take you up from the lower level to lobby level for reception. The reception desk is separated from the bar and lobby seating area by a wall dividing the room, yet open at both ends to freely move around the large room from one side with seating and the bar to the other side with the reception desk and doors to the adjacent Tabor Center shops and restaurants.  Elevators are across the room from the front desk.

 

 

 

 

The lobby seating at the Westin Tabor is an inviting space. Complimentary coffee and chilled water with added fruit slices was available when we arrived at 7pm.

A woman was playing a grand piano when we arrived at 7pm. Westin Unwind is from 5:00-7:00, however, only one person was in the lobby bar area at the time. The lobby is large and spacious with seating for about 50 at bar stool tables around the rock fountain and chair or couch seating for another 20 to 30 people around the room. Lobby had soft adult music playing most of the day.

 

 

 

 

Check-in agent took time to explain the Tabor Suite is not a traditional suite, but is actually two adjoining rooms with a traditional bedroom and a second room with a couch and Murphy fold-up wall bed.

The rooms have identical facilities and the Tabor Suite room without the adjoining room would simply be a traditional room with a pull down bed. On crowded nights the Tabor Suite could be a single room with just the Murphy bed. I tried it out and it was quite comfortable with the Westin bedding. I would prefer the Tabor Suite room as a stand-alone room if I were traveling single. The room has the couch and open space and then just pull down the bed when ready to crash.

 

 

 

 

Front desk also explained the mini-bar is electronic and moving an item will trigger a charge. I expected $100 on my tab because I jerked the entire mini-bar a few inches in the Tabor Suite trying to open the door with no success. There is no key lock on the bar so I do not know why the mini-bar in the bedroom opened, but remained locked in the Tabor Suite room.

Fitness Facilities:

Pool is indoor/outdoor on 4^th floor and adjacent to Westin Workout room.  The empty pool looked gorgeous when we arrived in the evening during a dry spell, but the temperature had dropped nearly 20 degrees in the past 24 hours and rainstorms were habitual.

 

 

 

 

The pool deck was large and this place must be cooking with bodies, beauty, and sun on a good summer day in downtown Denver.

Spa tub is outside on 4^th floor and elevated from the pool.

 

 

 

 

Workout room had six treadmills, bikes, weights, and looked adequate. (Sheraton Denver West has largest fitness facilities of the Starwood Hotels in the Denver area and the largest pool).

 

 

 

 

Dining Facilities:

Palm Restaurant in lower lobby level had a summer lobster for two special starting at $90 with a 4 lb. Nova Scotia lobster, salads, and a side dish. I ate a lot of lobster in my two years living in Maine and a 4 lb. lobster is huge. The board actually showed 6 lb. lobsters available. My gut feeling is two 3 lb. lobsters would be a better tasting meal than an old 6 lb. lobster.

 

 

 

 

Starbuck’s in the lower lobby was far more active than the hotel’s Augusta Restaurant during the morning hours.

There was no coffee or fruit water in main lobby in the morning like the set-up available the evening before. Starbucks is in the lower lobby of the hotel and coffee makers were in the guest room.

Hotel Layout:

The 3^rd floor mezzanine level is the conference center rooms. There were lots of athletes around the hotel. A rugby tournament is scheduled for a Denver suburb this week.  There were some big men in the hallways.

 

 

 

 

Floor 4 has rooms on the north side of the hotel with patios and seating for guests who desire outside access from the room. This level gives guests direct access to the pool area patio. Floor 4 also has Room 406 Mile High Suite.

 

 

 

 

19^th floor has the major suites of the hotel. The top Floors 16-19 are SPG floors. 16 did not appear to have a suite. 17 had one north facing Tabor Suite. Floor 18 has two Tabor Suites – one facing south (our room, better view I think) and one facing north.

Floor 19 has four large named suites. Skyline Suite 1916/1917 above us looked to be the size of four standard rooms. Pikes Peak Suite is two rooms 1921/1923 at west end of hotel. Mt. Evans suite 1901 was also huge at 3 or 4 rooms length on north side and Longs Peak suite is two rooms at 1907 located on east side of hotel. There are also several single rooms on the 19^th floor, each with step out balconies with no furniture.

 

Hotel Room:

The south side of the hotel appeared to have the better view. The Westin Tabor Center is surrounded by taller skyscrapers and the side of the hotel with the Clock Tower has a more open space feeling due to some lower lying buildings and the view over to the 16^th Street Mall pedestrian shopping strip.

 

 

 

 

The windows are an outstanding feature of the rooms. The room wall has a window ledge large enough for sitting. A center window 64” wide x 60” high and two adjacent windows at 20” wide x 60” high provided a beautiful view to the Denver Skyline south. The windows have pull shades and curtains. The room was 27 ft from the door to the window wall with another 18 inches to 2 ft of window ledge. One of the 20 inch room windows opens 4 inches. There is a bolt to prevent the window opening more. The open window gave us cool city air and noises.

 

 

 

 

The window view to the Denver Skyline and the colorful building lights at night was the highlight of the room for me. I spent about an hour in the middle of the night admiring the city lights. Being from small town Monterey where few buildings are over 5 floors makes urban architecture and skyscrapers a treat.

The Tabor Suite couch in 1816 has 70” of seating space and arms and four pillows. A large oval ottoman with leather top and wooden table beneath served as both a foot rest and table-top. Stylish lamp with two outlets on the desk and the desk front has an AV connection box built-in.

 

 

 

 

The absence of a hard table top for eating was one feature lacking in the room. An end table next to the couch had a Colorado Visitors book, Denver Visitors Guide, Colorado Expression magazine and 5,280 magazine. The end table could serve as a small table top, but the piece was rather heavy to move.

 

 

 

 

The wall unit looked attractive as a piece of furniture. Pulling down the bed used up much of the available floor space, but the room felt very much like a suite when the wall bed was closed.

 

 

 

 

37-Inch LG TV had many HD channels and watching CSI Miami was rather colorful.

Closet has interior light when opened. Robes, iron, board, entry hall furniture counter and plenty of counter space around room on different pieces.

 

 

 

 

Bed was firm and bedding included two comforters. Kelley worked that bed for a good 12 hours.

 

 

 

 

Bathroom décor is minimalist with a softly lighted large rectangular mirror. Only one picture on bathroom walls. I think a second picture would brighten the room. There was a piece of furniture under the bathroom counter that looks nice, but I am unclear on its function. The toilet flush was abnormally loud. (Denver West has quiet low flow toilets).

 

 

 

 

The bathroom was about 70 square feet and rather stark. I thought it needed more color. The tile was too neutral in color and the abundance of empty wall space made the room feel a little uninviting to me. There was only one hook for a towel, despite all the available wall space. There was no high magnification vanity mirror and the soft lighting in the bathroom was pleasing on the eyes and skin, but made face work a little difficult.

 

 

 

 

The ceiling was about 7.25 ft in the entry way of the room and in the bathroom, but higher in the bedroom at about 8.5 ft. My perception is when hotel room ceilings are 8.5 ft and above the space seems larger.

 

 

 

 

Each room we had was about 365 square feet with additional window ledge space. The hotel website repeatedly states rooms are 400-square-foot rooms, but my measurement was 27’x13.5’, plus the window ledge.

A single room is not particularly large, and our bedroom had only one upholstered chair and a desk chair. Having the two-room Tabor Suite setup with a bedroom and the second room with a couch and the wall bed closed made for a spacious two-room layout. I was able to close the door to the bedroom and work at the desk in the couch room while Kelley slept in during the morning hours.

 

 

 

 

Kelley liked the fact the room had a recycling waste basket and there were recycle bins in the lobby outside the elevators. None of the other hotels we stayed at in Denver had room recycle bins which are commonplace in California.

 

 

 

 

The Westin Tabor is upper upscale city living. This was a solid 4-star hotel for our stay.

 

The Daniels and Fisher Tower clock on Arapahoe Street chimed every hour.

Parking:

Valet parking is $26 overnight on weekdays and $23 on weekends. Self-parking is $19 overnight. Metered parking on the streets in the blocks around the hotel is available, but much of it is metered until 9pm and has a two hour limit. There are independent garages with rates at half the hotel price within a few blocks.

Westminster, Colorado – just off Denver-Boulder Highway 36, 10 miles northwest of Denver

 

 

 

 

Room Rate: $111.20 AAA on a Friday night May 30, 2009.

Regular low rate for this hotel during the month long search between April 27 and May 30 was $139 for Friday night and $179 for weeknights. The AAA rate at a 20% discount for this hotel is one of the largest AAA discounts I have seen this year.

Impressions:

I felt like I had arrived in Disneyland Denver.

This is Westin Westminster. Walks in the park, frisbee golf, the latest movies showing at a 24 screen megaplex with movies starting at 9:30am on a Saturday morning, a dozen food styles in restaurants on the Westminster Promenade, a hockey ice skating center with three rinks and five-year-old kids that can kick my ass on skates. Pitchers of Molson or Coors for $6.75 at  Bender’s bar next to the rink after the kids go to bed make this location family-oriented fun.

 

Location:

Westin Westminster is located in a suburb between Denver and Boulder in a location that could be considered an a-la-carte resort due to the variety of restaurants and entertainment options within walking distance of the hotel.

The hotel is the centerpiece of a conference center, sports, and entertainment complex. Physically adjacent to the west side of the hotel is an entertainment complex with a fountain lake, ice skate rink, bars and brewery, movie theater complex, bowling alley, and restaurants. All of the businesses look relatively new, upscale, and part of a suburban planned community entertainment center in a location that seems resort-like at the foothills of the Rockies just outside of Denver.

Physically adjacent to the eastern side of the 14-floor Westin Westminster hotel is a sports complex and open space park in several acres of paths around a creek, planned ponds, frisbee golf course, baseball park, and sports center.

This is urban planning recreation in the suburbs.

 

Hotel:

Hotel architecture and multi-colored façade design are visually appealing.

 

The hotel has 14 floors. There are actually 12 full floors of rooms and the top floor is only a half-hotel-length-floor in the center section of the hotel. There is no floor 13 and floor 12 is the top floor for the north and south end rooms.

We received a basic 12^th floor room on the mountain-view side of the hotel in one of the four south end rooms that form the top floor of this end of the hotel. The hotel has some suites, mostly in the center section of floors and mostly on the park side of the hotel facing east.

The bed was the best we have had in the past month. I also made that same comment for the bed at the Sheraton Denver West hotel the night before, but then I slept in the Westin Heavenly bed and I felt the Westin Westminster was even a little bit better. This bed was really firm.

I know Kelley loved the bed. She slept in the bed for 15 of the 20 hours we were at the hotel.

 

Our room view in 1233 was as good as it gets at this hotel. The snow covered Rocky Mountain peaks towering above two layers of closer mountain peaks was quite a sight to behold in the 6am hour as the sun lighted the western mountains. In the morning we watched birds flying between the rafters along the rooftop.

 

There are no added amenities as a platinum elite with this hotel.

Parking is free. There is no lounge. Internet and the business center computers are fees. Breakfast is additional. There was a coffee maker in the room and one bottle of Panna water. I was unclear whether the water was complimentary. Usually there is a tag on the water to indicate if complimentary. The fact that it was a Panna water made me hesitate to open it. I looked on the mini-bar list and the water appeared to be $6+ all-in.

 

Facilities:

Outdoor spa tub on 2^nd floor provided a great view over the fountain pond. Indoor pool on the 2^nd floor is not as large as the Sheraton Denver West. Fitness room can be accessed via the pool or a hallway corridor entrance.

 

Large, high-ceiling lobby has several seating areas.

 

Hotel restaurant O’s on the patio had a Friday 5-9pm Fajitas and margarita special – “Fajitas & Ritas”. There was even live flamenco music outdoors. Unfortunately, just mentioning fajitas to Kelley made her nauseous.  The fajitas and ritas patio party looked like a couple could have a fun time for under $50. Rock Bottom Brewery in the Westminster complex about 200 yards away would run about the same price.

Conference Center is east side of hotel. There was a banking and investment conference happening. Lots of suits in the halls and elevators.

Hotel Likes:

The carpet, draperies, furnishings, and walls were in good condition. The desk set-up was the only inferior quality aspect of the room. Room closet has light which is a nice feature seen in upscale hotels.

 

Lovely views and the location in a sports and entertainment complex is great for easy access to services outside the hotel. I absolutely enjoyed being able to walk around the paths in the small park outside the hotel.

 

The restaurant patio was open to the Westminster Promenade and had a feeling of inclusiveness with the community. Visitors can walk around the fountain pond outside the hotel and directly into the hotel.

 

This is as safe a resort environment you can expect to find for a family. There are lots of yuppies, mostly white and educated with enough local teenagers hanging out in the adjacent park and entertainment complex to keep the kids entertained if they are in tow.

Observations and I almost always have something to point out:

- Almost every staff person I interacted with looked to be under 25. I said this felt like Disneyland.

- The air conditioning had a loud, irritating hum all night long. I realize AC is my complaint at every hotel in Denver. I guess living in Pacific Ocean coastal towns for the past 20 years without AC makes the noise more acute. Outside of some of my college years and five years in New England, I have lived along the cool Pacific coast my entire adult life without the need for an air conditioned home. The refrigerator is the loudest thing in my home.

-37-inch LG TV was fine, however, the remote was temperamental and only worked occasionally. Sometimes there was no way to adjust volume with the remote or change channels. Changing channels or volume required repeated trips to the side of the tv to manually adjust the settings. The problem was probably just a dying battery and I could have got off my ass to see the front desk or make a phone call, but I didn’t. The Showtime movie station was the channel with poorest reception and a somewhat snowy picture.

-There was little counter space in the room. We quickly filled all the space.

 

- The desk chair should have been tossed. I could not sit in the chair and work comfortably. Unfortunately the room only had one upholstered chair and the desk chair, so I ended up spending a couple of hours sitting in the desk chair and each time I stood up I thought the chair’s creaking had signaled a final death.

 

- Self-park signs sent us to the back side of the hotel with the hotel conference center. Most guests park across the street from the hotel lobby, however, the street signs do not direct guests to that section of the parking lot. I moved the car twice during our 20 hours at the hotel as I realized I could park closer to the hotel lobby entrance.

- Room service menu was quite expensive. The dining bargains of Sheraton Denver West were not present here.

Entertainment and Restaurants on Westminster Promenade:

Bender’s Sports Bar, not affiliated with the hotel, about 100 yards outside the hotel restaurant patio has interior windows which look over an ice skating rink. The bar has daily happy hours and $6.75 pitchers of Coors or Molson beer after 10pm every night.  The Westminster Bender’s was connected to the hockey rink and had a family-style atmosphere during afternoon happy hour and a Friday after-work partying clientele.

 

 

 

 

Rock Bottom Brewery, across the fountain lake from the Westin Westminster is a Colorado microbrewery that I have thought was overpriced for more than 15 years. I still go there because the beer and food are fine.

Microbreweries were my primary interest in the late 80s before I left alcohol for public education and travel. My fermentation science academic advisor at UC Davis introduced his brewing class as a program for students seeking careers in major breweries. Students interested in microbreweries were wasting his course space. He became a microbrewery consultant after I graduated in 1987.

Westminster Promenade link: http://www.thewestminsterpromenade.com/

And check out these special offer deals that I discovered on the Westminster Promenade website as I was writing this article: http://www.thewestminsterpromenade.com/specialoffers.htm

Stayed 5-28-09

Link to Sheraton Denver West hotel homepage:

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/search/hotel_detail.html?propertyID=883

 

Sheraton Denver West is across the city and a world apart from Sheraton Denver Tech Center.  This hotel offered great value. From the time I started looking at Denver hotel rates in late April to my arrival, the room rate dropped from $144 to $79 for any night Thursday through Sunday, May 28-31. The Friday and Saturday night room rates were $104 and dropped to $79 over the month of May.

There is an underground parking garage beneath Sheraton Denver West in addition to outside parking at the street level. Parking is free at the hotel.

The first impression was hearing classic rock Allman Brothers “Melissa” over the speakers outside as I approached the lobby. This hotel made me feel like I was finally on a Rocky Mountains vacation after our unsettling night at Sheraton Denver Tech Center. The lobby was bright and spacious. We had a room facing the mountains, although the city view rooms looking across to the Denver Central Business District skyscrapers five miles away would also be a decent view.

I was upgraded to the top of the hotel 12^th floor Club Level, room 1202 with spa tub. The Club Lounge was an open room, however, due to lack of guests there was no concierge or food service. We were given restaurant and bar vouchers instead.

·         Received a complimentary cocktails and appetizers for two coupon at the Red Rocks Grille. ($20+ value)

·         Breakfast Buffet for two at Red Rocks Grille ($20 value)

·         Complimentary room internet and free internet access at Link@Sheraton computer center.

I felt guilty paying a $79 weekday rate and receiving so many complimentary hotel benefits.

The Club Floor guest room had an entry hall of dark wood flooring with a closet. Turn left and you face the bathroom door with the toilet and walk-in shower stall (5’ x 3’ ft).

Booked $89 rate with 6pm day of arrival cancellation policy and the rate dropped to $79 so I changed reservations to the lower rate on the day of my arrival.

 

The sink and counter and a spa tub were in an open space on the left.

The 9 ft high ceilings made the 460 square foot room seem even more spacious.

The bed was the firmest hotel bed we slept on in the past month. I loved it. Nice padded headboard too.

My main complaint about the room, and it is subjective, is the 37-inch TV should be a 42-inch TV for the size and layout of this particular room. Laying in bed we were 16 feet from the TV screen and a 42-inch screen would have been nice. The 37-inch TV screen was adequate for our second stay in Room 1210 where the bed was on a different wall and only 12 feet from the TV. The main difference in the rooms was no spa tub in 1210.

Also, I noticed in both rooms that some fixtures had been mounted to the walls with a disregard for vertical alignment. The wall paper has vertical lines so it is quite apparent when the mirror is not aligned vertically straight against the wall paper. The shower knob plate in the bathroom of room 1210 was also not aligned vertically when it was mounted on the tile.

 

The second floor workout room is massive. There are actually two fitness rooms adjacent to the pool.

 

 

The indoor pool was divided for a lap swim lane. I swam each day around noon with my niece and sister-in-law and the pool was empty most of the time both days.

 

 

There is also a sauna in the fitness center. The fitness center had multiple showers and lockers so guests do not need to ride the elevator back to the room in wet swimwear.

The “Link @ Sheraton experienced with Microsoft” is a communications concept introduced last year for computer centers in Sheraton Hotel lobbies. Sheraton Denver West had the most expansive set-up I have seen yet. The Denver West  Link@Sheraton center was located in an open space room next to the check-in counter. There were five computer stations, a large TV, and a seating area. Each computer had a mounted webcam and instructions were provided for creating and emailing a video postcard. Guests receive 45 minutes free access.

The waitress at the Red Rocks Grille was so nice and friendly that Kelley made me double the $5 tip I left for our complimentary drinks and appetizers.

The buffet Friday morning had omelettes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, potatoes, juices, pastries, breads, and cereals. Denver Tech Center had only bread pudding and oatmeal as hot items.

5-31-09 our second stay at Denver West in room 1210. The main difference in rooms is this one had a single bath area with no tub. The shower stall had a seat ledge and a second rain shower head.

Two items we did not notice on our first stay was the abnormally loud AC. And when I closed the curtains in the morning I could see light spots all through the drapes where the evening sun had eroded the plastic coating cover on the interior side of the fabric.  We never closed the drapes on our first stay. 

Kelley was exhausted after five days in Denver and my hotel hopping tour. Waking her up for morning breakfast by 9am was a challenge at both Sheraton Denver Tech and Sheraton Denver West. We went to breakfast at 8:55am Monday morning Sheraton Denver West for the 6-9am complimentary buffet.

Staff were around, but we waited ten minutes and specifically had to request service to get a glass of water. This was definitely not the same service level we had last Thursday and Friday during our stay.

All in all, this hotel was the best bargain hotel of our Denver trip. The hotel location was ideal for a day trip to Golden, Colorado.  The hotel is also next to a downtown commuter parking center for easy mass transit access to downtown Denver if you don’t want to take a car into the city center.

Stayed Wed 5-27 and Sat 5-30

 

Rate Search History: The hotel was priced at $74 for weeknights and $59 on Friday and Saturday when I first started my searchs at the end of April 2009. On May 5 the room rate increased to $98 for Wednesday night May 27. I had already planned to stay there but I had not made a reservation. I saw the rate was $74.13 on Orbitz.com and filed a Best Rate Guarantee. The weekend rate had increased from $59 to $71 so I also filed a BRG based on teh $59 Orbitz.com rate for Saturday, May 30.

Starwood Best Rate Guarantee representative approved both claims.

For the nights I was in Denver and could have potentially stayed at Sheraton Denver Tech Center the nightly room rate had a range of $59 to $71 on the weekends. Weeknight rates ranged from $74 to $143 as the lowest nightly rate.

Arrival:

We arrived late – around 10:00 pm.  Agent spent some time reading the computer while I waited. I was curious what was in the file.

Desk agent stated that all the upgrade rooms had already been given out. The Club floors are Floors 9 and 10. The top floor is 10 and the elevator exits into the Club Lounge. Key card is required to reach Floor 10. I was given Club Lounge access on my key. We had room 832.

Lobby:

 

Room:

We walked into Room 832 and the smell of smoke knocked us over. The 8^th floor is a nonsmoking floor and the room contained a card stating a $200 charge would be assessed for smoking in the room.

This room had the strongest smoke smell of any room we have been in since Amsterdam a few years back. Kelley was exhausted and didn’t want me to bother changing rooms.

The room entry had closet to the left and bathroom to the right.

King size bed and two endtables with clock radio.

 

A long desk area with the TV, coffee maker and AV panel with comfortable desk chair. Two upholstered cushions and a coffee table as a seating area. 

 

The room seemed a decent size at 305 square feet but the larger space room was at the expense of a small bathroom  under 40 square feet.

 

Features: Curved bathroom shower rod. 37 inch Philips flat screen TV and long desk counter. Two red upholstered cushioned chairs. It was nice to have two chairs in the room.

Bathroom had no working fan. Windows do not open. Toilet did not refill immediately after flushing. More than two flushes an hour cleared the toilet out and no more flushes allowed. We hoped this would not be a night with Kelley vomiting from her chemotherapy which unfortunately has been occurring more frequently the past couple weeks.

No robe in room which apparently are in rooms on Floors 9 and 10. Only one decaf Starbucks coffee packet in the room so no morning jolt. Fortunately we had lounge privileges beginning at 6am for my morning coffee pick-me-up.

Hotel Facilities:

Outdoor pool and hot tub open 7am-11pm. The pools were covered when we arrived. A posted sign stated management would be happy to uncover the pools for guests during pool hours.

 

 

Fitness room is accessed via ground floor and is located in the conference center wing. Fitness room is relatively small with only about 6 pieces of equipment. The door key card lock was broken to the fitness room and I needed two trips to the front desk and an engineer just to get inside the room.

The hotel design is such that a person must either walk through the ground floor conference center wing to reach the fitness room or pass by the hotel restaurant and bar to reach the pool and hot tub.

Two suites on 10^th floor and one suite on 9^th floor of hotel were the only ones I saw.

10^th Floor lounge had one computer terminal and printer. Breakfast was primarily fruit, yogurt, cereal, and pastries. One hot item was bread pudding. No eggs or meats.

The pictures in the guest room were hung at a level that would be appropriate if guests were all 5 ft 0 in tall. I laughed looking at the room hangings. I don’t think I have ever seen wall hangings so low on the walls of any hotel I’ve ever stayed.

 

M

y criticism of Sheraton Denver Tech Center is focused on the hotel itself and not the staff. The staff were all pleasant, accommodating, and friendly. The Club lounge concierge was highly attentive, friendly, and talkative with guests.

The hotel is a Category 2 for SPG award night redemption and will remain a decent value given low rates and an option to use a relatively small number of points for a free night. The hotel lobby looks nice and the pool is a decent size for a warm day. The appearance of the hotel is fine, particularly the public spaces. Hopefully you won’t experience any room surprises. 

My first impression of this hotel after my stays was this hotel should probably be gutted and remodeled from scratch. The hotel has done a decent job with the public spaces, but the rooms still need some major remodel work.

5-30 revisit to Sheraton Denver Tech Center

Kelley really did not want to return to this hotel after staying at the Sheraton Denver West and Westin Westminster. I had a nonrefundable Best Rate Guarantee rate of $59 and decided if the room was as bad as before then we would leave and head to the Sheraton Downtown Denver.

We enjoyed the several parking spaces with the sign “Starwood Preferred Guest”.

  

Once again the Front Desk read the computer for an inordinate amount of time before checking me in.

We received a 10^th floor, top floor club level room this time. The main difference in the room is a wall of windows with electronic shades. Also the room had a red upholstered couch rather than two chairs.

Bathroom was same miniscule design. The bathroom is only 7.5 ft x 5’ and the door, if you don’t close it, rests against your knees when sitting on the toilet.

I was there for an hour thinking I needed to re-evaluate my criticism of the hotel since the smoking smell was not apparent and there was a couch, and the atrium windows are great, and the full-strength coffee packet was present. And hey the toilet actually flushed properly.

The standard hotel room at Sheraton Denver Tech measures out at about 305 square feet. A high ceiling can compensate for a smaller room. There are fifteen 10^th floor atrium rooms with a wall of windows and where one-third of the room has an 11 ft. high ceiling. These rooms are more desirable and open than the other 247 hotel rooms.

 

 

 

My main complaint on second stay at Denver Tech Center that we did not notice before is the paper thin walls. The voices I had been hearing and wondering if the noise was from the parking lot became clearer as we sat in a quiet room. There were at least three people next door and I could actually understand 70% of the words being spoken in the next room. The people did not seem to be speaking abnormally loud, but the words were fairly clear through the wall.

All you tech industry people discussing secure business matters should be aware that conversations can be heard and much of what you say, particularly when speaking in a slightly higher than normal speaking voice is clearly audible to your neighbors.

The room hotel guide lists the restaurant as Browser’s Bistro when it is Redfire, so the hotel room guide is even out of date.

 

 

37 inch Philips TV and couch and the windows of Floor 10 are the highlights of the hotel. Lounge is nice for computer access and morning breakfast although the color ink had not been replaced between my two stays and I still could not print out hotel driving directions on the lounge printer.

The 10^th floor room is great on the north facing side of hotel because a portion of the ceiling is 11’ high.

I just kept telling myself that two nights only cost $150 all-in and I earned a free hotel night that will be worth at least double that amount and over 5,000 Starpoints (4,000 Best Rate Guarantee points and 1,000 platinum amenity points). 

Hotel stays are a matter of chance:

It was highly improbable to have so many issues occur during our stay. The heavily smoked out room of 832 was not present in 1026 three nights later. The missing coffee in 832 was fully stocked in 1026. The toilet that did not flush correctly for several hours was working again by morning and there was no toilet flushing issue on our second stay. The fitness center door that was broken on Thursday was working on Sunday. The noise of Saturday night was not an audible concern on Wednesday night.

 

Before leaving the Denver Tech Center area I toured several other hotels.  There is the Marriott Denver Tech Center, Hyatt Regency Tech Center, and DoubleTree Tech Center within a couple miles of the Sheraton. I enjoyed my past stay at the Four Points Denver Southeast and would recommend that hotel for people loyal to Starwood and needing this part of Denver. If you just want a Starwood Hotel in the Denver area and downtown is too expensive, then I recommend the Sheraton Denver West for the best value.

 

 

 

Hyatt Summerfield Suites is next to the Sheraton Denver Tech Center. I would stay there next time given all other factors being equal. The rooms were recently remodeled and looked great and they are much larger with better furnishings than the Sheraton Denver Tech Center.