TownePlace Suites by Marriott Minneapolis Downtown/North Loop — Hotel in Minneapolis

For a downtown Minneapolis hotel it's a budget friendly choice. The amenities are basic and what you'd expect to find. The photo of the pool on the website was either pretty dated or Photoshopped because the actual wooden pergola was faded, damaged and had an entire roof missing on one of the corner sections.

Nice to have a kitchenette for longer stays in case you don't want to eat out every night. I was there for 5 days on a business trip. I used the computer desk at night but it faces the wall and you can't watch TV from it. HBO wasn't working for the entire week (not good if you're expecting to catch the latest episode of Game of Thrones). Bathroom was small but fine for one person.

Fitness center is disappointing. It's small and almost all of it is taken up by old cardio equipment. Other hotel chains now put in a functional weight/cable system which is a far better choice than just cardio workouts. I've stayed at hotels that no longer waste money on inadequate fitness centers but instead offer guests a daily pass to a nearby gym. There are several in this location so that would have been my preference.

Breakfast is lacking with all of the food being processed. I opted to eat elsewhere.

Unfortunately my room window was above one of the entrances. On the last night there was a disturbance outside with a few guys trying to get in and an argument took place. Woke me up and lasted about 20 minutes. At 7:30AM the fire alarm went off for about 5-10 minutes. No explanation from management. The fire door near my room shut but wouldn't open even after the alarm was turned off. Had to walk to the other end of the hotel and use the stairs with my luggage since the blocked door on that floor was the only one leading to the elevators (doors on other floors were fine).

My colleague who stayed in another room often commented about the smell of week being smoked. I noticed it on the first night near the outside hotel and there were several butts in the ashtray outside...

This place is falling apart. Our biggest complaint were the key cards and doors. We have a dog so we have to go out quite often. All doors are locked and you have to use your key with a magnetic strip. We didn't put our keycard by our phones or any other credit cards yet they never worked. We had to get new keys 2-3 times a day every day and we were there 8 days. We had the front desk staff try our keys too and they wouldn't work for them. We saw other customers have the same problem. One of the staff said they know all of the locks are failing and that the owner is spending $100,000 to replace them but is waiting on parts from China. Ugh. Very frustrating. Also, when we first got into our room it smelled of strong urine and there was a big fan running to dry the. carpet. We had to have housekeeping spray some carpet deodorizer all over and open the windows. They tried but it didn't help much. We didn't have any water in the kitchen sink at all so the repairman had to come and fix it. The towel racks are all about ready to fall off the walls, they are just barely hanging on. The place was pretty dirty, we used our cleaners and cleaned the best we could before moving in but it's really hard to clean when things are crumbling in front of you. This place needs a complete remodel. All of the staff were very kind and helpful. We feel bad that they have to try and hold the place together while the owner just rakes in the dough and they have to deal with all of the customers. We will say that the breakfast buffet was the best we've ever had at a...

I called the hotel the day before my trip to find out if they offer a shuttle from the sirport. The employee answered with “No, it is your responsibility to get yourself here”. When checking in I was told that I had to provide a credit card which would be swiped for a couple hundred dollars for “incidentals”, even though I had pre-paid for my stay in full and offered my receipt to prove so. I then went upstairs in the barely functioning elevator to find my room reeking of cigarette smoke. When I went back downstairs to tell the desk staff about it and to ask for a non smoking room, I was told that all rooms are non smoking. Ok….well my room stunk of cigarette smoke. I was told that my concerns would be addressed. I went out for dinner, came back and there was a different person at the desk. As I was exhausted I decided to deal with it the next day. When I got up to my room, the minute I opened the door, I could smell a ton of air freshener which had been sprayed to mask the smoke. Oh well…problem solved I guess. The pool is a joke, it’s tiny (more like the size of a jacuzzi), it has been unusable twice due to being in the process of being treated with chemicals and then the entire patio was locked so sunbathing and reading were not even possible. The elevator is either slow or has an “out of order” sign on it. The water in my room was turned off with no advance warning or apology. I would avoid this place like the plague. I cannot think of one thing it has going for it, other than location....