Sonesta Denver Downtown — Hotel in Denver

With one small exception, the staff were warmhearted, compassionate, amiable, and professional. Our two-room suite was comfortable and relatively spacious. Our children were cozy spending the night on the queen size sofa sleeper, and having two bathrooms was notably practical and wonderfully convenient. A previous guest had scrawled some sort of cryptic, rambling poem with a black Sharpie on the closet’s dark glass door (making it barely readable), which housekeeping must have tried cleaning unsuccessfully with a scouring pad, consequently scratching the glass. This was the only thing about the room that seemed shabby and unsightly, although it wasn’t offensively obvious. The HVAC system was curious, though. The AC worked well, but when it became a bit chilly for the kids and I increased the temperature, the heater kicked on rather than just turning off the AC. It seemed a bit self-defeating, and a little too much back and forth.

As mentioned earlier, most of the staff was friendly, but our initial front desk agent was rather aloof, and made us feel like we were bothering her. After she checked us into the wrong room, my spouse and I went back down to the front desk to request a correction (after bringing all of our luggage and three children to the room). The first thing the same desk clerk asked somewhat insensitively was, “Did you touch anything? Did you sit on the beds?” I understood why she asked this, and responded, “No, my kids and our luggage are waiting on the floor.” She placed us in the correct room, but still seemed a little put out.

The porte cochere was small and the turn from Glenarm was tight, making it difficult to park our larger vehicle for check-in without protruding into the sidewalk since there was one other vehicle already parked there. The parking garage was moderately expensive, but so it is with most downtown parking.

When my spouse and I went to look at the outdoor pool and saw the door was chained shut, we inquired at the front desk, and fortunately were greeted by a different agent, Karla, who was remarkably empathetic, accommodating and friendly. We were told the pool closed mid-September, but there was neither mention of this on their website when we made the reservation, nor at the time we checked in on September 29. The high temperature in Denver that day was nearly 80 degrees, so we had no natural reason to presume the pool would be closed. Because our children love to swim, we never book a hotel that doesn’t have a pool. Karla was sincerely apologetic, and after checking with her manager, offered breakfast vouchers to help compensate for this disappointing surprise.

Although a relatively minor thing and completely understandable, the hotel’s primary elevator was labeled “construction elevator”. Its interior was covered in white foam board to protect the walls, and it was bathed in harsh light. This became a running gag with some of the other guests, one of whom jokingly dubbed it “the muder-vator”.

On a more favorable note, we loved the location. The city view was spectacular, especially at night, and although we walked past a dozen homeless people on Colfax after 11 pm, none of them approached us or spoke to us aggressively.

The restaurant was easily the high point of our stay. The evening hors d'oeuvres (ordered from the bar), breakfast buffet, and made to order omelets were exemplary, and we experienced the highest quality service from our dining room attendant, Aleah. We will probably visit the restaurant again even if we don’t stay at the Sonesta.

Overall we enjoyed and appreciated our stay in this comfortable downtown hotel, and if we do visit again, we’ll make sure it is prior to when the pool closes...

One of the most highlighted features of the Sonesta when booking is the outdoor heated pool. We had booked our stay from May 10-14 and upon checking temperatures it was supposed to be around +30°C every day. When asking about the pool, we were informed that it would not be open for another couple of weeks. We would have been able to look past that if every other part of the hotel was top notch but our experience was so far from that. The only good thing about the Sonesta is the location. However, there are so many other hotels in the area and I’d recommend booking anywhere else.

The rooms were very small and very average, nothing luxurious or high end about them. The refreshment station in the lobby needed to be restocked the entire time we were there, the fridges were nearly empty and the snack selection was laughable. The reception staff seemed like they were brand new to guest services as they were rude and appeared to have no desire to be there. The singular set of patio furniture that is outside the front lobby was very dirty, it looked like it had been spilled on many times and had never been cleaned. Whenever we entered the hotel from outside, nobody greeted or even acknowledged us, half the time the staff were hiding in the back room anyways. The one receptionist that we dealt with several times was extremely rude, mumbled his words, was generally very unpleasant to deal with, had a miserable look on his face every time we saw him and spoke in a very disrespectful manner, as if we were inconveniencing him for making him do his job.

On the day of our checkout, our flight wasn’t until later in the evening so we had asked to keep our bags there until it was time to head to the airport. Upon picking up our bags, the person working reception pointed to several piles of bags and said “are any of these yours?”, we pointed to our pile and then he said “ok you can go behind the desk and grab them.” Any other time we have left bags at a hotel for later pickup, we have had our bags brought out to us upon presenting an identification ticket. Anybody could have gone up to the reception and said they had bags there and they could have taken whatever they wanted as they clearly had no system to keep track of guest belongings. They didn’t require any sort of identification. Overall, the staff seem very lazy and like they hate being there and having to do their job.

Now, we are attempting to get the room deposit back and they are being extremely difficult with that as well. The customer service at the Sonesta is absolutely pathetic and we have been told to contact our bank as it is apparently the banks problem at this point. Every other hotel we’ve stayed in has had that deposit back to us within 48 hours.

You could not pay me to stay at this hotel again. Every other detail of our trip was absolutely incredible, but the Sonesta unfortunately soured the experience. If you appreciate a well-ran, guest focused experience, do not stay here. If you are looking for an overpriced Motel, the...

We stayed here for 1 night. Our room, a king city view was average for the price and we booked the package with parking and breakfast for convenience. The front desk and dining room service staff were hit or miss for niceness, personality and that overall welcoming feel you should get when arriving to your hotel after a long drive. We felt like we either got someone who was super helpful or super uppity and put out when asked a question at the front desk. Tone of voice, body language and attitude towards your guests says a lot about how your stay will be. When we spoke to John on the phone he was very helpful and the wonderful front desk woman who checked us in with her Bronco colors and football eyeshadow was very nice and when we inquired about getting a taxi, she even offered to stay late to arrange a taxi for us to get to the game. Breakfast was kind of the same with Danielle being very lovely and attentive to everyone in the restaurant and the other woman that was there not being as welcoming, saying that breakfast was "just the buffet" even though just minutes before we went in the restaurant we asked the front desk what was included with our package for breakfast options and they stated that both the buffet or prepared breakfast off the menu were available. Buffet was disappointing, with very obvious fake eggs, dried out potatoes, hard bacon and borderline raw on the inside sausage. Our parking attendant Jordan was great even though he was super busy. When we made it downstairs Monday night to ask for a taxi, we had missed the great front desk woman (wish I could remember her name, she was great and what every hotel or service industry needs in customer service) instead we got a young lady who sounded incredulous that we wanted HER to call us a taxi, we didn't think anything of it because the other lady was so willing to assist us earlier, but as she turned around to get a business card for a taxi service, I noticed she flashed another front desk agent a look like "can you believe this?". I know she didn't think we noticed, but I did. Customer service at Sonesta is lacking at the Denver Downtown location. 5 stars for the few who are working hard for their guests to have a pleasant and comfortable stay. 1.5 stars for the others. As for the area around the hotel, it is okay, typical city atmosphere with traffic, people rushing by, homeless people, etc. Probably not an area I would choose to walk alone at night but that is the same for many downtown cities around the world. A quick walk to the 16th street mall/shopping area mid-day to get a few Bronco items before the big Monday night game was not what we expected, with closed businesses and homeless people pandering, police walking about, we really thought it would be different and will stay somewhere else next time we venture to...