Renaissance Minneapolis Bloomington Hotel — Hotel in Bloomington

I stayed on January 7th, before a flight the next day. I was put on the 6th floor near the emergency stairwell (RM 625), and while the property/room was very nice, I noticed midway through the night it was absolutely freezing. I turned up the heat and found an extra blanket in the closet. I still could NOT get warm. I couldn’t understand. I took a hot shower. I layered up. Nothing worked. I was up ALL night. At 6 AM, I decided to go down to the lobby to get something to snack on. When I left my room, I noticed the emergency door was propped open (LEADING TO DIRECTLY OUTSIDE) with some old carpet. And it was FREEZING! No wonder I couldn’t get warm, especially with there being a wind chill advisory. How could no one walk around the hotel all night?! Doesn’t seem very safe/secure! When I went to the front desk to talk to someone at 6 AM, a female came wandering from a random hallway with a walkie talkie, and when I told her I was upset, she goes, “I was wondering why it was so cold!” The woman followed me upstairs, and said, “Yes, I can feel how cold it is from here.” Overall, she was friendly gave me the card for the general manager. The next morning, I checked out with the “Operation’s Manager” and told him of my problem, and when I told him I wanted to be compensated for my horrible experience, he first offered 25% because they “provided a service.” I disagreed because the purpose of a hotel is to get a good night’s SLEEP and told him I would still be contacting corporate. He then offered 50% as his final offer. I reluctantly accepted because at the very least I had a place to keep my stuff. Overall, he was very condescending and made me frustrated because he acted like I should’ve gotten out of my room and figured out the problem. I asked why no one had walked around the hotel and he said they only have one person on at night. I found it ironic since when I came down that morning the woman was NOT at the desk AND she followed me upstairs- obviously walking around. It’s January 11 and I have NOT received any refund. My advice- GO ELSEWHERE.

UPDATE (JAN. 22, 2022): YOU HAVE TO CALL PRICELINE DIRECTLY TO FACILITATE A REFUND. THE OPERATIONS MANAGER DID NOT MENTION THIS (PERHAPS HE DIDN'T KNOW), BUT I DID RECEIVE MY 50% REFUND, SO I HAVE INCREASED MY RATING FROM...

We decided to do a staycation with our teenage son nearby to use up an expiring credit with Marriott. There were lots of other options nearby but we chose the Renaissance because we wanted a hotel with a nice pool area, good reviews, cozy atmosphere and having a bar/restaurant onsite was preferred.||Lobby: The theme of the hotel is an outdoors, camping, cabin vibe which we loved. As soon as you walk in the lobby it’s so cozy & inviting. Staff were very friendly & helpful. The outdoor theme flows throughout with creative nook areas on the way to the elevator to the rooms that, I wish we would have thought about it in advance, would have made for a great place to relax & play a card or board game. ||Off of the lobby area there is plenty of space to mingle. There were two large families hanging out with one theme celebrating a birthday together.||Rooms: The guest rooms were decorated with the continued theme. The decor coloring is on the darker side which meant we turned on all of the lights during the day. We like it dark when we sleep so this made for a perfect sleeping. The beds were fine but the pillows were fairly flat we could have used some extra ones. There is lots of open storage when you walk in & a nice desk area that our son used for his games, phone & snack eating area. ||Pool: the pool area is good size with lots of chairs & tables. They have a shallow end at 3’ then roped off for the deeper end. Plenty of room to swim even with it being busy. A word of caution as the pool deck it’s very wet and doesn’t look to drain well. There’s a nice hot tub but we didn’t use it. Showers in the pool area. ||Food: Lars is the restaurant onsite. It wasn’t busy which made us hesitant to grab dinner as most of the guests in the bar & lobby were only ordering drinks & had purchased pizza & door dash orders. We did want to drive anywhere so we decided to just go for it. Our son loved his burger. We split the chimmichurri wings and a salad which were tasty & reasonably priced. Drinks were very good we ordered the smoke old fashioned highly...

I came here to spend two days working on a novel I'm trying to finish, so a quiet, clean room with inspiring surroundings was important. I spend a ton of time researching local hotels because in the past I've ended up at hotels where there are kids running around at all hours or loud neighbors, music, uninspiring decor, etc. The good reviews and the recent remodel of this hotel led me to take a chance on this hotel. I'm glad I did. The room was just beautiful--I love the design. The ambient lighting is really conducive to creativity, but more important fo my purposes was the desk and the chair because that's where I spent all my time. The chair was ergonomic and didn't hurt my back, despite the many hours I spent in it. And the desk had quirky postcards and art clipped to its lattice front, which was really fun.

I did ask to be put on a "quiet" floor (high floor) and was accomodated by being put on the 5th floor. My first night was silent as the tomb. Second night there were kids running in the hall until around 11:30pm, which was a bummer. I used my noise-canceling headphones to work. I saw some athletic teams were here for a tournament. No avoiding that, but I do think hotels should, if at all possible, try to put blocks on lower floors so regular business guests can have the quiet upper floors. But it was definitely not as bad as other hotels I've been to. I do wish they'd had room service, but maybe some time in the future.

I did not leave my room to use the pool, fitness center, or restaurant--maybe next time. I did bring my own Keurig machine (and cream) because I suspected that the coffeemaker wouldn't be what I needed, and I was right (would be great if they had higher-end coffeemakers in the rooms) but if you don't need to be fueled by caffeine for 48 hours you should be fine. The fridge was more than sufficient for the food I brought. I am already planning my next stay (novel isn't...