The Ritz-Carlton, Denver

Attended CEDIA conference at the convention center with a colleague. The show hotel list has been getting worse and worse each year so went outside the show travel and booked the Ritz-Carlton. Many of the Bonvoy hotels in downtown Denver are not as nice as their ratings IMO. This is a great business hotel. Rooms were ready on time and were immaculate. Normal Ritz sheets/towels where were fresh and in good condition. Firm mattress. Great desk with lots of AC/USB all over the room. Water pressure for shower and tub were A+. Fantastic hotel gym. Breakfast at Elways was quick and delicious as was the bar for an after-work cocktail. Coffee and water was always stocked appropriately in the lobby. Went for a run both mornings--this property is on the edge of where Curtis gets dodgy. Go towards Cherry Creek. Would be nice for the hotel to have a house car to zip you around to close by restaurants and buildings instead of of calling an uber which sometimes picked up at valet, other times on Curtis St.

Customer service is at it's best here. I tried their sample of juice they offered in the afternoon and they bought me an entire bottle to my room after i expressed my interest in having more! I also mentioned as a side note I needed to get a banana in the am before my workout, they brought it along with the juice. Can't ask for a better stay.

This hotel is lovely. We chose a club level two queen room for our family of 4. The room was spacious with comfy beds, and very clean. If I’m being picky, there was a small worn hole in one of the bedsheets which wasn’t great, but certainly didn’t detract from the lovely room. The bathroom was very nice, with good shower water pressure. We decided on a club level room partly because it includes breakfast in the price. What we hadn’t appreciated was that there is an extra charge for children to access the club lounge (a room booking only includes club lounge access for 2, even though the room was booked for 4). The extra charge is $100 for 13 and older, $50 below that. If you could take advantage of the lounge for complimentary snacks, drinks, breakfast, lunch and dinner, it might be worth it. We were only there overnight which meant the children only had a couple of drinks and breakfast, so the charge was quite high (although they did agree to “only” charge our early teen $50 rather than the usual $100.) All in all, it’s a lovely hotel, but next time we would probably choose a normal room rather than club level (although the club level breakfast was lovely), depending on the overall price difference.

As an Ambassador Elite member and resident owner, I expected a top-tier experience at Marriott properties. We decided to stay at The Ritz-Carlton, Denver, instead of going back home for the weekend, but was sorely disappointed. Despite my status, I was not given an upgrade, even though two guests ahead of me with Gold Elite status received executive suites. It was disheartening to be treated like a second-class citizen because we paid with cash and points. Spending over 100 nights away from home each year at Marriott properties should warrant respect, especially when using earned points, as they represent precious time spent away. However, this property seemed more focused on profit than guest satisfaction. My wife emailed my Elite ambassador ahead of the stay, mentioning that our stay was for my birthday, but only received a call from the concierge offering services to purchase. We did get a hand written note thank you note for our stay with a bag of chips, a candy bar, a caramel, and a single bottle of water. It was a sad constellation of items on a plate. The best way to describe the property is a Sheraton with better bed linens. But even the Denver Sheraton adheres to the new hotel standard of 3 bath towels. Not the Ritz, you only get two towels in a king room, not the new standard of three towels. These "green" initiatives are just a way for hotel chains to save on laundry costs. But this property takes it to a new level, with only providing two bath towels. And to make matters worse, we only had one towel after turndown on our last night. There are other signs of cost cutting. The paper products were beyond subpar, with off-brand facial tissues and harsh toilet paper. And when I mean harsh, pack some preparation H as the toilet tissue is made from razor blades. Overall, our stay felt unwelcoming. This property seems to ignore brand standards and offers a far cry from a luxury experience expected. The Ritz-Carlton brand has been diluted and standards have been lowered so much it doesn’t even belong in a luxury category. The brand, and this hotel in particular, needs to go back to the 90s and stay there. A word of warning for women who wear expensive heels, the hotel drive way is brick. There are pockets of missing mortar between many of the bricks which can pose a hazard for a heel to stick and damage shoes. One positive, the standard king room is bigger than a typical standard king room in most hotels.

Hospitality is defined as the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. To most, those are just words but to those in the hospitality industry, it’s an honor code that one lives by in not only work but in life. The Ritz Carlton Denver is a role model for true genuine hospitality. The level of passion, kindness and pure sincerity that this entire Team exudes sets them apart from any and all other hotels I have ever experienced. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about our dear friend’s experience this past week and how incredibly grateful, not only the Tan family is for your hospitality but also, how grateful their entire circle of friends and family are and will never forget the once in a lifetime experience that you gave them! Harvey Tan is 6 years old and has the kindest soul that you will ever meet. You can attest if you had the pleasure of meeting him while he visited! He is a one in a million kind of kid who is respectful and sweet and so considerate of everyone around him. Harvey suffered a seizure this past May, which caused the discovery of multiple tumors found in the back of his brain. After an MRI, it was quickly discovered that Harvey had cancer, more specifically, Li Fraumeni. This is a very aggressive type of tumor so, no matter how much of it the neurosurgeon will get out l, the cells are always there beyond what the naked eye can see, growing. He has been given a timeline of 9-24 months. This is not a curable type of cancer. The family is now only buying themselves time with Harvey. Future treatments will likely start in a week, the first being a six week course of radiation somewhere in Texas. With this devastating news, everyone’s goal now is to make the best of the time we have with Harvey and make sure he lives out the happiest life he possibly can with the time he has left. We found out that his favorite band is AJR and that they had a show coming up in Denver prior to his first radiation treatment so we made it a mission to get Harvey to his first ever concert! Concert tickets were handled, flights were secured and then of course it came time to book the hotel, obviously it had to be the best because this kid deserves nothing less. I reached out to the Ritz Carlton Denver as their reputation is regarded as the best, not looking for any handouts or comp rooms, but merely to make the hotel aware of the situation for a Harvey and his mom when they arrived. I had absolutely NO IDEA that this property and Team would have made this the most incredible experience Harvey has ever had and will cherish forever. I want to start by thanking Brad Mills, GM, for personally responding to the initial email sent about Harvey and for personalizing that conversation rather than just sending a generic reply and comping a room. Thank you for taking the time to ask the questions about all of his favorite things and for your empathy; it is extremely apparent that at the Ritz Carlton Denver, it “Starts from the Top” and you are a role model Leader. I would also like to thank Cielo Bueno from the bottom of all of our hearts for the love and work you put into making the room and every single part of the experience, absolutely perfect! From the snacks to the framed family photos in their room when they arrived, to the personalized gifts, for making sure Harvey was able to swim but also for taking care of Leslie (mom) as well. We are all so incredibly grateful for all that you have done. You have given these two an experience they will hold tight in their hearts forever. Harvey brought us all to tears when he made the comment that evening, “this is like heaven”. I would like to also recognize Justin with Hermes, who drove Leslie and Harvey to dinner and the show that evening. He was so incredibly kind and thoughtful with gifts and balloons and even stopped to get apple juice in between transfers because Harvey prefers that over fruit punch. He was so patient and helped Harvey get comfortable each time he drove them to a new location. He was just such a perfect continuation of the incredible service that Harvey received during his stay at the hotel. An additional thank you to the president of this amazing operation, Jorge Sanchez, for making it all happen as well. Harvey starts radiation next week and it’s going to be a really tough, scary time for him and everyone surrounding him but he now has the absolute BEST memories that he can take with him to give him strength and make him smile. For that, we are eternally grateful as you all played a HUGE role in that. Thank you to the entire Ritz Carlton Denver Team does treating our family like your own!