Ok, to be fair it's been almost 10 years since I last stayed at The Brown Palace, but I did stay there quite a few times back then and hated it. Eventually I switched to the Westin, which at the time was the only other good downtown option, and I much preferred the Westin to The Brown Palace.

First of all, although the lobby is stunning, everything in the rooms -- the linens, the towels, the robe, etc. -- literally was brown. Talk about depressing decor.

Second, the hotel was not well maintained. The last straw for me was when I was awaken in the middle of the night because the pipes were banging. I tried to call to the front desk to complain, but the phone didn't work. So I ended up in the lobby in my bathrobe at 4:00am demanding another room. For those of us who are familiar with how poorly maintained the Plaza in NYC is, the Brown Palace was as bad.

Finally, while I don't remember anything particularly bad about the service, I do recall that it was not anything special, either.

So unless anyone can attest to substantial changes in the last 10 years, I would avoid the Brown Palace at all costs.

[Edited to add: Now that I've reread the original post, I see that the OP probably has stayed at the Brown Palace more recently than I have. So Maybe the OP can tell me if things have improved.]