RTWSTARALLIANCE

Preface: Found a reasonable price on UA for roundtrip. Visit CU Boulder which my wife attended a few years back.

Rate: Prepaid rate of $69.

Transportation: Rented a car.

Check-in: I checked in via the web and upon arriving was motioned to the kiosk. The kiosk said my room type was not available and offered 1,000 points or free breakfast. The kiosk motioned me to the front desk. The front desk had no idea what I was talking about in terms of the offers made by the kiosk. I was given an amenity card and one continental breakfast coupon. Had to ask for another.

Perks: This Hotel does not have a Club and I was not able to use my suite upgrade coupon which is set to expire. I was given an upgraded room at the end of the hall. Other perks as noted above.

Room: We had a slightly larger room than normal. The room was on a rounded corner. The bathroom was very small. We had a king bed with a worn mattress, two sitting chairs, a wet bar area, desk and chair. There was also an extra side chair. Some pieces of furniture were new but the others well worn. The carpet had spots, the walls had paint chips and cracking. In short. You get what you pay for. A disappointment.

Communication: The Hotel offers wireless HSIA. The problem is they want you to pay with a credit card which is something I prefer not to do wireless. I called down to the front desk and got the user name / password of the day. I say this as it changes everyday something they do not mention. So I had to call down again the next morning. The rate was $9.95 for 24 hours. Kinda slow.

Parking: The garage was not tended. The gate was up. I told the front desk agent we had a car in the garage. My slip was stamped but we were not charged. That seems fair.

Gym: Part of the swim pool area. Looked ok.

Spa: ?

Eating venues: There are a number of places nearby. Either by walk or car. We tried a Japanese restaurant nearby which is a definite pass. In the morning we tried the Cafe onsite which cooked the saddest eggs I have ever had. Should have gone with the buffet which my wife tried. That was good. The staff was very efficient and courteous here.

Local markets: There is a small liqour store nearby. Sells mostly liqour only.

Location: Commercial.

Negatives: The Hotel did nothing for us. We should have stayed at the Sheraton which was actually less and has a Lounge. Needed the Hyatt stay.

Closing: Would not be our first to tenth choice in the Denver area.

dingo

This hotel, as I've said before, is tired and run down. On my last stay, the kios told me I had a standard smoking room w/ two beds despite my having booked a king non-smoking deluxe room. I went to the front desk, the lady looked at it and said 'oh no, you've got the room you reserved.'

So don't trust the kiosk and don't walk bare foot on the carpet in this tired old place.

BoulderHyattHopper

...this is MY Hyatt!

Although, what you say is completely accurate, how could you have possibly come to Boulder and not let us know???

Seriously, they really do try if you just ask. I just got a packet in the mail and I think they turned over their rooms exec again!

pdb

Over the weekend, I stayed at DTC and was given a refurbished room on the 11th floor. Frankly, I found this to be more than acceptable. Yes, the bathroom was small and somewhat outdated, but the room was very tastefully decorated and furnished. Breakfast at the cafe was excellent--a mere $3 to upgrade from continental to full American. For a weekend rate < $70, I was satisfied.

rwsatl

bump...

any recent reviews on this property -- condition, club lounge, gym, ect?

The Bargain Hunter

We do a couple of leisure stays at this property each year. The RC is typical. Completely meets, but does not exceed, expectations. The health club is very nice and occupies about half of the 2nd floor, with many windows. About half a dozen each ellipticals and treadmills, 3-4 stationary bikes, 12-15 weight machines, free weights, a lap pool (2 lanes, I think), hot tub, locker rooms, chilled post-workout towels (I love those). Good breakfast buffet at Altitude restaurant, with views of the big blue bear at the convention center and the tram. Lobby is open and airy. Customer service has always been good. Before I even knew about hotel loyalty programs, I felt that guest treatment at this hotel was far better than just about any I had stayed at.

We'll be staying there on my husband's FFN Saturday night. We'll see whether they continue the trend (started at HR Minneapolis and GH San Fran) of giving my Plat husband Diamond privileges. I'm Diamond, but he so far is always offered RC access and even suite upgrades.

snwire

The Bargain hunter above is describing the Hyatt at the convention center rather than the Tech center. I spent about 3 months last year at the tech center property. It does not have a RC. The hotel is nice it was remodeled about 3 years ago with Flat screens, granite topped desks. all the rooms have a fridge except the deluxe rooms. They charge for parking, but they will wave the charge sometimes if you are staying several days. The pool is nice. The gym is typical. There are happy hour specials on food and drink in the garrity's sports bar.

The Bargain Hunter

Ah, thanks for catching my mistake. I was indeed describing the Convention Center HR. We've also stayed at the Tech Center property. I don't like the location as much, and can't tell you about the health club. The breakfast buffet is good, and the warm cookies make for a very good Diamond amenity. You can often get very low rates here for weekend nights. We were pretty disappointed with the dinner meal we ordered at Garrity's sports bar. Very greasy and rather poor service.

rwsatl

I had a two night stay recently and thought I'd share my experience.

Lobby / Check-in:
Lobby is pretty large and open. Front desk is to the left as you enter with a cafe to the right which serves togo breakfast, lunch and coffee. Indoor pool, hottub, and gym are located to the rear of the lobby behind a bank of elevators. Check-in staff was very pleasant and offered me my choice of Diamond perks (I took the 1,000 pts.). The also upgraded me from a standard king to a Premier King. Desk staff informed me that I had a choice of free buffet breakfast or a togo breakfast from the cafe if my time did not permit me to take advantage of the buffet.

Room:
Premier King room is a long narrow room with a plenty of windows. Bathroom is located next to entry door across from the closet. Room has a fridge, couch, coffee table, and loung chair on the entry side. King bed is in the middle of the room and a work desk is located on the far end of the room. Wi-fi signal was strong but a bit slow at times.

Bathroom:
Herein lies my only complaint with this property. The hot water was well, not all that hot. I am accustomed to hot showers and that is not what I got here. The water was very warm at times but no where near what I usually like. Other than that the bathroom was fine. I told the front desk staff my issue with the water on my departure the following morning. They aplogized and posted 1,000 pts to my GP account for the trouble. Honestly, I wasn't fishing for pts, and 1,000 pts didn't really offset my disappointment with the situation. Anyway, I've run into this occsionaly at other hotels for whatever reason so I managed to make the best of it.

Dinning:
I tried both the cafe and the buffet for breakfast and was pleased with each. The cafe offers an assortment of bagels, coffees, mufffins, ect. The buffet had a good selection and the service was attentive. In both cases the charges were applied to my room and then automatically removed from my bill before check-out based on my Diamond status.

Parking:
When I arrived at the hotel I parked in spaces directly opposite the front entrance. There were signs posted along the row of spaces but were obstruced by several feet of snow. I inquired at check-in if I needed to move to the parking garage. The desk agent said "no" to leave my car where it was, that it would not be a problem. Nice gesture I thought. I believe the normal parking charge is $10.

Location:
The property is located south of downtown Denver at the interchange of I-225 and I-25. This is an office campus area so a selection of off-site resturants nearby is nill.

Overall:
Aside from the hot water, or lack thereof I had a very good stay. I will return.

heffa

I had a stay there a couple of days ago. I didn't run into the hot water issue as rwsatl did.

However, the breakfast @ Cafe was a strange encounter. I got there about 8:30 on a weekday and it was very empty. Maybe only 4-5 parties. I had to wait a while for someone to turn up and show me a table. Then, I waited at my table a couple of minutes for someone to turn up and take my beverage order. However, no one came and I went ahead to the buffet, filling up a couple of plates. Still, no one around to take my beverage order. Now, I don't want to wait any longer and I enter the small kitchen by the buffet and fill up a glass of orange juice. Then when I'm looking for a way to get hot tea a lady comes, and seems be be embarrassed, and fills up a carafe of hot water. During my breakfast no one comes around asking if everything is fine, nor gives me the breakfast bill. Finally after waiting for a while *again* I go to the remote corner where all the waitresses seems to be clustered and ask for the bill. One waitress starts walking with me to my table, but stops half ways and tells me that so much went wrong on this breakfast and that they wouldn't charge me for breakfast. I agree, and off I went...

Was this an isolated occurrence, or have anyone else had similar breakfast troubles?

baliktad

Also had a stay there a few days ago with somewhat similar experiences at the breakfast buffet, although I just attributed my experience to the early hour.

I showed up shortly after 6:30 to an empty host stand and empty restaurant. After poking around and eyeing the buffet alone, a host appeared, seated me, and poured a glass of OJ. The buffet was good quality but the staff was non-existent. The pancake syrup was missing a ladle and I had to summon a busboy from the kitchen to obtain one.

Halfway into breakfast the omelet chef appeared and started slowly setting up the omelet bar. At this point another guest entered the restaurant, but finding no host, wandered around a bit before finally selecting his own seat. My server was lightning quick with my check, and, to her credit, did refill my glass once during my second trip to the buffet.

Although there were only 2 guests at this early hour, it was surprising to observe the staff literally abandon the entire restaurant for long periods of time. I finished my entire last plate and left the restaurant without so much as a "buh-bye!"

I don't mean to the denigrate the hotel at all, as I actually had a wonderful stay there. The quality of the food was excellent and I actually prefer a non-intrusive breakfast, but it was surprising that the staff made themselves so scarce.

CIAO LAX

Checked into this hotel last night, always stay here for about 8 weeks a year because work frequently brings me out to DEN. You think they would know me by now, and most people do... but the lady who checked me in at the front desk did not look excited or happy at all (I believe she was the front desk manager or assistant manager). I did not recieve the usual Diamond VIP welcome card, and no diamond ammenity offered. Also, as a Diamond I typically recieve a premier room on the end of the floors that wrap around the building. Then I realized that my # might not be on my reservation. When I asked the agent she said 'you have diamond?!' - I am a little young but young people travel a lot for work too - its not always old men! So, she gave me the diamond ammenity card and that was it. Usually the front desk is very good here and happy to great everyone, especially Diamonds.

So, when my coworker checking in next to me got an upgrade, I asked for a better room... again, the agent looked like she could care less and informed me the hotel was compeltely booked. I thought it was strange that she couldn't look to move around any other rooms, and I was obviosuly not the last person to check in for the day. She then offered me an additional 1000 points, which was nice of her, and I took it and went on my way. Well, when I got to my room on the 4th floor, I found that the windows didn't even look outside! They looked down into the lobby of the conference rooms! I thought this was unacceptable - I travel all the time and I really don't need an amazing room, but I do appreciate how Hyatt usually tries to give me better rooms. I would have hoped once the lady at the desk heard I was diamond that she would have been all over finding me a better room. So now I was mad again.

I went back to the desk and talked to a different guy, and said just move me to a room with windows that look outside, I don't care what type of room. So he informed me that all rooms are taken, and I informed him that I clearly wasn't the last person to check in for the day, so to give me a different one. He then told me they had been blocked for Platinums and Diamonds - annoying considering I am a Diamond! So I had to tell him that I am a Diamond so move a Platinum that hasn't arrived yet (Also, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't only diamonds/plats left to arrive for the day). Now, this whole situation sounds to me like they pre-blocked rooms for Monday/Tuesday arrivals because Sunday's are typically very slow at this hotel, and this lady was just unwilling to move me to a new room. The guy went in the back to the office talk to the lady that checked me in (the Manager)... and he came back out with new room keys. They ended up moving me to a room with 2 double beds (which I don't like because the Hyatt double beds are very tiny, even for 1 person!)... but at least it has a window! I just have a bad taste in my mouth after all this because I've always had good experiences at this hotel...

Not sure I have grounds to complain anymore, but just wish this situation worked out differently... and wish I wasn't in a standard small room with 2 double beds all week! Sometimes going the extra mile makes all the difference. The check-in experience really sets the tone for either a great or horrible stay. Management needs to remember that...

jayer

Was she built like Sponge Bob with dark hair? I think I've had her tick me off too.

You know, I click right past ranting posts about a matched status Diamond not getting a suite on their first visit to a sold-out hotel in high season, but your post is not a rant. I would be frustrated too if I read you correctly and you spend eight weeks a year in that hotel.

Its thankfully been years since I spent a week at a time on business, and I really, really try and be low maintenance. But if I had that much time in a single hotel this year and got stuck in a bad room with the wrong bedding I might just introduce myself to the GM and mention for eight weeks a year I really think my Diamondness should count for something, and I felt blown off in asking an oversite be corrected. You seem to be able to stay calm enough to accomplish that without losing it.

By the way I just looked and there are Deluxe Kings available for booking all week. While fully understanding holding back suites for walk-ups with Kryptonite cards, and I suppose there could have been cancellations, the place does not appear to be sold solid any night this week.

You mention you are young. I am "middle age" (which of course is a misnomer since neither of us know a lot of 110 year old people). At the risk of offending you by giving unsolicited parental advice from an old person, this is the sort of situation that taught me to always check my own reservations online for accuracy, and always drop the Diamond card on the desk on top of the credit card as a last chance to make them notice.

CIAO LAX

Yup, that's definitely her! She probably thinks that she is providing excellent customer service too, just by showing up for work!

I was thinking about contacting the GM but I really don't feel like making a big deal over this, and I'm not necessarily fishing for anything out of it... it just really rubbed me the wrong way. Also, another good point in contacting the GM is that i am usually the project lead so not only am I giving the Hyatt my business, but since I make the decision on where to stay, I bring along 2-3 other coworkers as well. My company gets the same negotiated rate at the Marriott across the street... so I would have a strong case in that respect if I did decide to address this.

I checked into this around 6pm and both the website and the front desk says sold out (even when logged in as a diamond). Also, when I approached the front desk Sponge Bob was there so I really didn't feel like dealing with her.

Good point - I should have checked so I can't really blame anyone but myself... I had just hoped for better service. I do usually log into my account but this trip popped up last minute and I didn't really have time to check. Not to mention I just spent last week at this hotel and had no problems. I guess I'll have to start to carry the card around now!

snwire

I have also spent about 8 weeks there last year. A couple of times I went and bought a cup of coffee and waited for her to help someone else before I approached the desk