Sentral Union Station | Denver Apartments — Hotel in Denver

If you don't like long & personal reviews & do not wish to know the score, look away now.🤪||||Excellent facilities - EXCEPTIONAL hottubs! But a huge disconnect between a long term residents experience & a hotel guest's experience; especially if you are neurodiverse & there for one night.||||I think if you want to be a hotel as well as a long stay place then training needs to be improved on how to deal with the hotel side of things, to bring it in line with other four star experiences & competitors.||||Before writing this review I went back to check on hotels.com what they advertised as. They do state it's an "aparthotel", so perhaps it's my bad a little - that I didn't put two and two together enough to make four. As a hotel it has been classified as a four star.||||Because I'm literally OBSESSED with hot tubs, and I found the best I've EVER experienced here, it was absolutely impossible therefore, & would have been unfair for me to review this hotel lower than 3 stars. ||Secondly, the fact you got a whole apartment, with 4 separate rooms & a walk in wardrobe, for only 145 quid it was exceptional value. ||Thirdly, in the morning, I think reception realized I was a bit perturbed from my check in experience, & they made loads of effort to be extra friendly with me. When I came back from my vintage shop quest, for example, they asked me how it went, did I find any bargains etc & I did appreciate them making that effort, to make the guest feel welcome & cherished.||||If I ever came back to Denver on a job for work, I would ask the production company to put me here. And if I was reviewing this place as a long stay apartment rental - it would get five stars easy.||||However, the issue lies with some of the ways they handle hotel guests, and the systems that are in place for residents that make things a bit annoying for hotel guests, and probably vice versa.||||First of all, I am not a fan of having codes etc to get into a building to check in. This is amazing security wise for Long Stay residents, but it's annoying for a hotel guest. Despite what some people may think, ADHD is a real disability and not something we all make up for attention - and having to use codes for everything, everywhere ALL The time, made it a bit of a nightmare, especially when you're staying there one night.||||A kind resident noticed I was struggling when I arrived at the main door, and informed me you don't need to use the code for daytime check in, as there is a reception team to check you in. As a 4* Hotel, it would be nice to have a doorman there to welcome people & take note of people struggling, as ordinarily would be customary in a hotel of its classification. To be fair, there is a sign listing reception hours on the door, but you don't look at that small print when you arrive - you look instead at the email you've just been sent from the hotel, to facilitate check in. ||||Once I arrived - reception weren't rude at all - but they were also not as friendly as you would expect in a hotel of its classification. I guess this is because they are used to mainly dealing with residents who don't want that over the top welcome each day, right? ||||Then came the lift -which is one of the most annoying things - and the reason for the three star rating. ||You have to enter a code every single time you want to use the lift, in place of The Regular touch key card operation most hotels have. EVERY SINGLE TIME. I can't imagine how annoying this is for long-term residents of this building. ||||I could see the internal eye roll permanant residents are doing as we Hotel guests fumble, and try to scroll through our email looking for that damn code AGAIN, as they are trying to go about their business and get to work on time! I don't blame them! They can't even help us out and ask us what floor we are going to and do it for us, because - get this - each code equates to only one entry. ||So if they then press our floor they have to enter their code again to get to where they're going. It's literally the most inconvenient system ever, and I think you should rethink this and make it so that guests of the hotel can simply use a hotel key card, at least for the sanity of your permanent residents!||||Because of the resident/hotel guest duality, the hotel lacks the friendliness and welcoming vibe that you may find in other four-star hotels in the United States. I choose to travel solo rather than with friends or partners, because I love to adventure and meet people. Even in the UK hotel guests will smile and say hello to each other in lifts etc - none of this here - they're just doing their day to day - and so of course they're not interested, I would be the same!||There is also no bar or restaurant where guests would congregate which doesn't help.||||It is also very difficult to tell whether people are residents, or staff up front when you're arrive and, you don't recognize the uniform. So when I was asking questions about the event I detail below, I spent some time bothering residents incorrectly, until I found a staff member lingering around the food table. His name was Connor and he was very helpful once I located him! More Connors on check in & throughout hotel for we guests pls!||||Because I love reviewing places as a little hobby I always scout out the hotel and it's facilities. On my walk around, I was pleasantly surprised to discover they were hosting a Super Bowl party for residents and guests.||||This was a lovely touch but I was absolutely astounded that they hadn't given me this information at check-in. I literally would not have known had I have not done that walk around. Surely, one of the duties of reception is to let you know what is going on in the hotel that night? Again, they would not think to do this because they understand that residents already know that it's happening.||||On my way out to dinner, I did ask the girl with blonde hair on the desk why I hadn't been told about that and advised her that perhaps it would be nice, that they tell guests at check in.||I PROMISE you I said this with smiles - and politely as well. ||||This is where I did get really annoyed and the only child princess in me started to rage.||Her response?||She looks at me with a "OMG-here-we-go-ive- got-a-right-Karen-here" face & says;||||"Well, it IS on a poster in the lift," in a condescending tone of voice.||||This serves to make your guest feel stupid number one, and number two - even if I am - that's not the response of a four star or five star hotel staff member. ||Also, very few people actually look at those posters in the lift upfront, (well the 20% population that's neurodiverse anyway), when they are busy trying to find their room and deal with the codes that you've given us. Her attitude really did get my goat, and royally piss me off. ||||Because her reception colleagues were - at the very least positive and professional - if not overly friendly upfront, (and made loads of extra efforts to be friendly the next day - the funky lady with tats & the younger dude, thanks for that I noticed & appreciated it), it is literally down to her solely that it dropped the hotel a point.||You don't say s* like that to guests, especially in the US. You take responsibility, and do better next time. ||||Because of the weird atmosphere/disconnect between people living there & guests those reception experiences - my first thought of Denver was - my god it's unfriendly! ||So when my uber driver pulled up full of smiles and positivity, and the Meow Wolf staff were gorgeously friendly too, same yet again with the bartenders in a random Denver bar I stopped at - I was like - oh okay, it's just my hotel...||In the end I found Denver such a beautiful and friendly city, so it's a shame that I had this experience upfront in my hotel.||||Other basic things that one would expect in a four-star Hotel, the little stuff - for example, tea bags in the rooms - or at the very least the option to purchase them from somewhere within the hotel - they don't have this.||This is because they are, again, largely a residents only establishment. They have a shop on a site, so why not sell tea? You are catering to Worldwide guests and many of us really need our tea in addition to our coffee. I know you're going to tell me there was a Whole Foods next door which is what they did say, but we don't want to bother trekking out - not in a four hotel. You expect all those kind of things in a two-star of course, not in a 4. You expect the free tea & biscuits in your room.||||Now to the positives;||||Omg the hot tubs! ||They are superior to anywhere I've stayed and you simply have to try them! Excellent pool area and this was probably one of the benefits of staying in wealthy Denver folk's residences.||||I didn't go to the Super Bowl party in the end, because my new friend from my Retreat I'd just been on came back to meet me to enjoy the hottubs after my banging on about them so much! But I really appreciated that they had that on if I wanted to partake. They even had a free spread out with Super Bowl themed cupcakes etc!||||There's a kitchen area, a little library Reading area, a cinema room (!), the gym is of excellent standard for the permanent residents - not just one of those basic little hotel gyms with a few bits of equipment in it. Free filter coffee in the AM for residents & guests. Aside from not having a bar or restaurant which I did miss for my usual nightcap, the facilities here are incredible!||||The location is unbeatable; bars and restaurants all around you under Whole Foods with so many takeaway options literally embedded into the hotel.||Tip - try the Fabulous 'Eggs Inc' over the road for breakfast! However, make sure you get a free flyer from reception - it's a very generous offer you get a main for free!||||It's literally opposite union station too, with a direct train to the airport. If like me you usually take ubers to the airport because you're on hol & wanna treat yourself & don't want the faff.||Trust me - Dont! It's SO easy! you literally download the RTD app, buy your airport route ticket, and then jump on the train, which is so easily signposted and comprehensive to people not from the city.||||I did find the decor in my hotel a little corporate & soulless; it's definitely not your funky decor you experience in the other modern hotel chains; (Moxy, W, Citizen M). However, because that is just my personal taste, I would never let that affect my review.||Instead, the points to note are that spacewise it is exceptional value for money. And that the bed is comfortable for a good night sleep. I agree with previous reviews that the pillows are a bit hard, and it could do with having some softer ones. However a few people have complained about the hard mattresses? I didn't find this at all, I had a really good night sleep with zero noise intrusion from outside or inside.||||I also really appreciated having access to a dryer in my hotel room to dry out my swimsuit before my red eye back home to LDN. ||||By the way, it's not because I'm used to old skool traditional corporate chains like Hilton that I have reviewed this very modern hotel in this way. I absolutely love the modern hotel chains that I mentioned above, especially the CitizenM and the way that everything there is controlled by an app. ||I simply have issues with all the ridiculous codes as a neurodiverse person.||||Make your hotel more neurodiverse friendly, identify hotel guests and give them an extra special welcome/all of the information about what the hotel is doing that night, take responsibility and apologize when guests POLITELY call you up on stuff that can be improved ||--and this could be a five star hotel experience easily.||||My apologies from any typos, long sentences and grammatical errors from the voice to text software, and my being too lazy to correct them. it's the only way I can write such a detailed review, otherwise I would be here until...

I lived at Union Denver for 7 months. I signed a shorter term lease because, at the time, I was going to be moving in with someone not long after but that did not work out. I'm here to write a fair and balanced review based on my experience. I do have evidence to back up what I state below. Overall, my time living on the property was good. I enjoyed it. The concierge staff was always welcoming and they are great people. I did not interact much with leasing or management staff much, except walking by on an occasional tour, but they were generally pleasant and welcoming. The amenities are great... pool is fantastic and well-maintained and the gym is top notch for an apartment community gym. I thought the property was generally pretty clean. I agree with other reviewers that having Whole Foods on the first floor was very convenient, but also dangerous in terms of how much money I spent! WF and CVS are great perks of the building, though! The property is also situated in a great spot near Union Station.

Overall, I did like the floorplan I lived in, however, the quality of furnishings inside the units is not the best. There were blemishes on the floors, cabinets and fixtures before I moved in and, overall, it was hard to keep clean because of the materials used. The bathroom shower flooring and drain, at least the walk-in I had inside my unit, was poorly constructed.

I'm adding a disclaimer upfront here that I realize that rent and monthly rates depend on many factors and market conditions, some of which I don't fully understand, so I am speaking on behalf of my case only. When it came time for lease renewal, I was shocked to read the proposal left on my door by the property that my rent would increase anywhere from 14-38% year-over-year, based on lease term. As I write this review, the unit I lived in is still showing available on the website at a 7.5% increase over what I was paying monthly, which is about half (on the low end) of what the property proposed to increase me to before I left while I was still living in the unit! So, while I understand there will always be some YOY rate increases (which should be more in-line with general cost-of-living increases), the percentages presented were just ridiculous, especially considering how much vacancy they have. I understand that location plays into it and it is also a new-ish property, and I also love Denver, but this seems more like S.F. or NYC rate hikes. I even heard the concierge staff making comments about how many residents were moving out as I was on my way out of the property.

Before I turned my keys in, I spent a majority of the last day cleaning the unit from top to bottom (scrubbing, mopping, cleaning baseboards by hand, etc.). Upon receipt of my move-out statement I was surprised to find that $125 had been deducted from my security deposit for cleaning/maid service. Now, it should already be expected and factored into the property's cycle of turning these units around that they will be sending a team in themselves to do another cleaning to make them "move-in ready" for the next resident(s), however, I've lived at several properties and always clean them before I leave and never been charged for cleaning upon vacating a property. I wrote the property asking for explanation and was told that they would get back to me but never did. So, for those of you leaving the property who will be taking the time to clean yourself or pay someone to do it, keep this in mind.

So, this comes down to an above average experience for me all things considered with the absurd rent increase as the primary reason I left. There are many good features of the property if you are willing to pay for them. For those of you looking to move here, I think it will be a good experience but, I would recommend signing as long of a lease term as you can, if you are comfortable with the rate presented, and hope market rates are in your favor at time of renewal and supply finally surpasses demand in Denver positively impacting rates from renter's perspective, all things outside of...

When I first toured Sentral, roughly 18 months ago, I was thrilled. A beautiful building, situated right at the heart of downtown, with a great pool, above a Whole Foods? I signed up without hesitation. Little did I realize at that point, I had made a tremendous mistake

Building : To their credit, the Sentral building is great. The common areas, gym, and decks are some of the best of any building I've rented in Denver. While there is clearly some deferred maintenance, both on the pools (chipped tiles, frequent outages), and in the gym (frequent broken treadmills), the location is fantastic, and easily accesses the rest of downtown Denver.

Leasing : Leasing is where my experience turned sour, and quickly went down-hill. Repeatedly (4x during a 18 month stay) I had issues with the Sentral team after they either billed incorrect charges to my account or failed to honor the terms of my negotiated lease: (twice, for failing to update a back-end system after I had updated my rental insurance in the portal, and kicking off an automated and, in my opinion, usurious $100/month charge for their own "rental insurance policy", once by going back and manually removing a concession that I had negotiated, which resulted in my account being marked 9 months overdue, and once by failing to update their back-end system after a renewal to attribute my existing leased parking space to my unit, resulting in the towing my vehicle from my registered spot, with the parking tag still hanging in the dashboard.

None of these issues were caught by Sentral. If I had not been vigilant in watching for incorrect charges on my statement, I suspect they would have continued to bill me without notification. Resolution of these issues always took months, and Sentral leadership failed to take accountability, always blaming "past staff who had since been laid off for these types of errors", or on "them being a start-up and still figuring things out." While eventually, they did eventually remove fraudulent charges and offer compensation for towing the car (although they did then want to bill me, at full-rate, for my parking space for the period of time that my car had been towed and was sitting in a tow-yard), it always took months of constant reminding of management, and management failed to offer any assurance or concrete steps that indicated that these types of problems would not continue.

Security: Security is also a massive issue at Sentral. The building consists of three towers (Wewatta, Chestnut and 18th St), and the 18th St entrance is rarely, if ever staffed. It was not uncommon to frequently run into uninvited, unhoused guests in the building. The 18th St intersection was (as of Summer 2023) a frequent gathering place for individuals to use illicit substances, and that usage often made its way into the building itself.

Beyond that, the building also utilizes a key-less pass-code system, with each resident being offered a code to allow them access to the building. This system in and of itself presents massive security risks. Did someone look over your shoulder to see your code? They can now enter the building, enter your apartment, and access everything you own. The only rationale, I can fathom, behind them choosing this objectively poor security solution, is to allow them to "home-share" or short-term rental, their apartments to visiting guests, but it results in an objectively worse experience for existing long-term renters, and massive security risks.

Summary: Unless you want to watch your statements like a hawk, and risk the potential that a back-end system mistake will result in your vehicle being towed, your account being marked delinquent, or your being charged incorrectly, I would strongly recommend looking at some of the better-run down-town apartment complexes (like The Confluence, AMLI Riverfront-Green,...