Ok, but I expect more from Sheraton and SPG hotels.
I recently stayed at the Sheraton Downtown Hotel in Denver, Colorado, as I was attending a conference at the hotel.
I stayed in a room on the 18th floor of the 'tower' building. There are 2 main buildings in the hotel, the plaza building and the tower building. They are connected either via the walkway on level 2 or via the concourse level (below ground).
I had read other reviews of the hotel and most people make some complaints about the tower building suggesting it is better to be in the plaza building. With that in mind I had asked the hotel to locate me in the plaza building, however that did not occur. There was no explanation upon my check-in as to why they were unable to meet this request. In deed at the time I checked in, there was no acknowledgement that I was an SPG member and I often stay at SPG hotels. I assume the whole concepts of SPG membership is to seek loyalty, however with no acknowledgement etc., they certainly don’t make you feel valued in any way.
In any event, my stay was in the tower building. The rooms in the tower building and the plaza building were apparently renovated at the same time. The tower building is a fair distance from the hotel lobby and it is often much quicker to go to the street level and walk across the road, rather than go to level 2 and walk across the connecting walkway. The benefit of the tower building is that the gym is on the ground level of that building. The gym is well equipped and quite good.
The room at the hotel was ok. I had a king size bed that was comfortable. There is no refrigerator provided in the room (which I find really odd) and similarly there was no mini-bar or snacks provided to purchase. I wanted a small refrigerator and one was delivered to my room. The desk set-up in the room is a little odd. There is a main desk and then an oval shaped desk which slides under the main desk. All seemed a little odd.
The air-conditioner system in the room was very noisy and I had significant difficulty in working out how to turn it off and night so I could sleep. Still don’t know how I managed to turn it off, but once I did, I just left it off for my whole stay of 6 nights. I am quite technically minded, however there was no on/off switch or anything similar.
The bathroom was extremely small. There is a shower over bath and barely enough room to stand on the floor outside the bath and in front of the vanity unit. With the bathroom door shut when you shower, the whole mirror fogs up as there is a lack of sufficient ventilation. Hotels these days make little investment in quality toiletry products and the Sheraton is no exception. If you like good products (shower gel and shampoo etc), then bring your own.
The rooms, whilst comfortable, need updating and are a little ‘tired’.
You have to pay for internet connection in your room, which in this day and age, seems a little odd. I paid for the highest speed wireless connection at $14.95 a day. There is free internet in the Lobby area of the hotel, however I needed access from my room so I could work.
A number of people have commented on how quick the lifts are. Well…..yes, they move quickly between the ground floor and the 18th floor, however my experience was that you always had to wait many minutes for a lift to arrive. Because of this, the lifts were always full and it felt like we stopped at every floor. There are 6 lifts in the tower building which sounds sufficient, however there was always a long wait.
When I checked out, the lady at reception simply said that there was a zero balance (I had already provided my credit card) and that they would email me a copy of the invoice. Whilst still at the hotel I checked my email and a copy of the invoice and noticed that they had charged me twice for the internet usage. I then went back to reception where they rectified this. In hindsight, I am surprised that they did not show me a copy of the invoice and ask for confirmation of the expenses before they charged my credit card.
All in all, only an average hotel and next time I am in Denver I will be seeking somewhere else to stay.