TownePlace Suites by Marriott Denver Airport at Gateway Park — Hotel in Denver

This location was everything it was promised to be. I only have a few negative remarks; the first is the parking fee. This was never mentioned when we booked. Our reservation was booked through an outside site, Priceline to be exact, so there's a possibility that the failure to communicate this fee fell on priceline and not the hotel itself. Anyway, it costs $12 per night, per vehicle to park in their lot. At first I thought, "no problem, I'll just park off‐site." The thing about that is, there is literally nowhere to park outside of the lot. The surrounding streets are marked "No Parking Anytime" and the neighboring lots belong to businesses that are marked private parking with accompanying tow warning. So unless you are willing to park a good walk away from the building, not being able to keep an eye on your vehicle, you're left with no other reasonable option. Which leads me to my next complaint; the security guard. Now, this would normally be a bonus: a guard who patrols the parking lot and does frequent sweeps of it...until said guard basically stalks you even knowing that you're a hotel guest. Every single time I went to my vehicle at night and the guy saw me, instead of him being satisfied that I was a paying guest and therefore going about his way (he saw me entering and exiting more than a few times to know this,) he does the opposite: he sits right near your vehicle and watches you! Meanwhile the flashing lights on his patrol car are on, so even making my best attempt to ignore him, try to put the feeling of getting creeped out on to the side, I could not ignore his incessant, conspicuous presence! I'm not sure what his thinking is; maybe he thinks it would make a guest feel safer knowing he's close by watching...it would in a normal situation. However, what it did for me in this instance is make me feel more like he'd be the one to look out for! I dreaded having to go down to my car and heaven forbid being there longer than a second to load/unload or otherwise. It felt like I had to run and hide, hopefully his observance wouldn't reveal me! I was left extremely uncomfortable EVERY time I was in the lot at night, and we stayed for two weeks. It was just ridiculous. Even when I went out of my way to control the urge to call him out, I'd give the wave hello to (hopefully?!) make him aware of his creepiness and go away... nope! Even if he did move along, he'd just circle back around and be sitting there watching again in the next few minutes. Absolutely absurd. Also, we did have a cat, pets are allowed here. However, the $100 non-refundable pet fee was once again not mentioned during booking. Someone should work on those details, it would make a noticeable difference so people aren't surprised by them at the front desk. Other than those few things, the place was great. It was clean, the complimentary breakfast was good, the staff was more than friendly...save for the security weirdness. And the mandatory parking fee/lack of other options that lead you right into his creepy line of...

Basic accommodations. I’m a Marriott loyalist—I did not enjoy my stay at TownePlace Suites Denver Airport at Gateway Park. Reception is efficient, but the staff displayed lackluster attitudes, were not sharply dressed. The indoor common areas are updated and very clean. The outdoor appearance is updated and landscaped, but the view of surrounding vacant lots, including scrub between the main road and the hotel property, is ugly. Access to the main road (for nearby restaurants) at dinnertime was complicated by sprinklers running across the front of the hotel and scrub around the edges of the lot, forcing me and other hotel occupants to walk through scrub get to the main road—this needs to be fixed by management. There are some restaurants a short walk down the street, some across the busy main street (hint, use the crosswalk nearest the hotel if you need the cross the main street). The hotel mini-market is ridiculously limited. The morning breakfast was basic and minimal; the hot foods were not appetizing, the waffle maker was broken, and the toaster was slow. Overall, this breakfast offering is at the lowest tier. The room is okay, not great. The kitchen is stocked with utensils and appliances but at an efficiency level only. The furniture is cheap quality. The walls are made to resemble textured and painted stucco and are a sickly off-yellow color. The TVs in my two-room suite were low-end. The place smells antiseptic. The AC were noisy below-window units. The tub was very shallow, the counter space limited, and the bath products very basic. The room was generally clean. I always check mattresses for cleanliness and freedom from pests, and while my mattress was acceptable, I did see a lot of hairs and specs of materials under the sheet and top mattress at the head of the bed—doesn’t meet the quality standard for a Marriott property. The bed was comfortable. The hotel was noisy; I could easily hear hallway noise and outdoor noise throughout my stay. There is a nightlight in the bathroom and a bright light on the top of the clock, neither of which can be turned off for dark sleeping (I had to cover the clock with a towel and close the bathroom door to get darkness). The hotel offers free shuttle transportation from the airport (a multi-hotel shuttle service); the directions from the front desk for finding the shuttle pickup point were confusing, and I was one of many customers who were equally confused (however, when I finally got on a shuttle, my driver was fantastically efficient and friendly, the friendliest person in my whole experience with this stay). The price was too high for the quality of the accommodations. Overall, I’d rate this as a low value and not the level of quality I was expecting, especially for a Marriott. I will not stay at this...

The hotel itself was nice with well laid out rooms. With this being an airport hotel, even though TownePlace are typically extended stay, I would be willing to bet this hotel has a majority of overnight stays. Keeping this in mind, it would be really nice if there was a suitcase stand in the large closet. Even for an extended stay, unless the majority of your clothes hang up, or you bring your own closet organizer, there isn't much space for folded clothes.

I really like this style of desk and the office chair that makes working easy. Some hotels have moved to fancy desk chairs that are designed for relaxing, not for working at the desk.

The front desk staff were great and the breakfast bar was a standard TownePlace setting and though pretty small, was well maintained and the food was well stocked.

CONS The primary negative was noise, and that is a biggie for me. The walls are paper thin. I heard my neighbors conversations and they weren't being loud. I also had the person above me walking all around, probably unpacking, at the time I was hoping to go to bed (only 9pm - but my body was still on Eastern time). It sounded like an elephant stomping around. Lots of thumping and squeaking of the floor. By 10, both the neighbors next door and above stopped talking and moving and I could get to sleep. I was awakened at 11 pm when someone just checking in was talking on their way to their room close to mine, then again at 5 am when the person upstairs got up to get ready to leave. Again, lots of noise every time they walked across the room. The thermostats were such that you could turn the fan on all the time, but it made the room too cold. Even with the fan, you could still hear the person walking around upstairs really loudly too.

There are quite a few restaurants within a couple of blocks, but nothing right by the hotel if the weather is icky.

SHUTTLE Most (if not all) of the hotels in the area use shared shuttles that support multiple hotels. It takes some time, but they seem to be on a fairly good schedule and the drivers were helpful and polite both times I used them (once after returning my rental car in the evening to go to the hotel from the airport and then the next morning to go back to the hotel.)

For going to the hotel: The shuttle stops at the west terminal first. Door - 512 For the East terminal - door 505. For both it is the third island and has a sign for Hotel Shuttles. The shuttle company is Circle Shuttle and has...