Hotel Test Drive: Renaissance Denver Downtown

Renaissance has been a solidly upscale brand that for as long as I can remember has flown beneath the radar in the hotel industry, never getting the name recognition of peers like Westin or InterContinental. Its been a somewhat overlooked part of the huge Marriott family for nearly two decades, but with a recent reshuffling of Marriotts luxury portfolio, including Ritz-Carlton, Autograph Collection and several more brands, Renaissance is undergoing a true renaissance, with both reinvestment and a sudden onslaught of high profile new openings worldwide, including nine this year, expanding the brand to 37 countries worldwide. Just last week (September 1, 2014) saw the doors open on the Beijing Renaissance Wangfujing, following on the heels of recent additions such as the Renaissance Paris Hippodrome de St. Cloud Hotel, designed by renowned architect Jean-Philippe Nuel (and the brands third Parisian property), the Renaissance Santiago in Chile, and another French property, the new Renaissance Aix-en-Provence. The additions all have an emphasis on design, and most have showcase lobbies.

(Read more about Marriotts eight distinct luxury brands, including new launches, and what segment each one is positioned for, here at Forbes.com).

The Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center is the most notable domestic opening, less than three months ago, and as a guest of Marriott I got to take it for test drive The somewhat unwieldy name is the result of there already being a Renaissance in Denver, but this new one is ideally positioned for both leisure and business visitors, located in the heart of Denvers downtown, which in turn has seen the largest recent downtown urban revival of any US city. It is within walking distance of many key city attractions, form Coors Field and its Major League games to the pedestrianized 16th Street Mall and Larimer Square (see my Great Urban Weekend Escapes Denver story for more visitor detail on the Mile High Citys red hot downtown).

A historic landmark and formerly opulent bank headquarters, the new Renaissance Denver Downtown hotel has a grand lobby.

The new Renaissance occupies the very old former Colorado National Bank building, designed in 1915 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the citys most iconic structures, the building features neo-classical, Greek revival architecture with white exterior columns and walls, built of the same Colorado-mined marble used for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Towering bronze doors guard a three-story atrium, with marble flooring, ornate bronze accents and a traditional circular vault door still on display. The bank had, and now the hotel has, the kind of architectural opulence hard to replicate from scratch, including 16 important lobby murals from acclaimed Colorado muralist Allen Tupper True, circa 1925.

The bank theme extends throughout but without being too kitschy. On the way to the elevators there is a wall of historic antique rendering of building details, and money related art all around the hotel. Coincidentally, this is the second high profile hotel opening of 2014 in a dramatic and historic former bank: I recently reviewed the brand new Park Hyatt Vienna in this Hotel Test Drive column.

The hotel has its own inset parking plaza in the center of the block, which is a rare and really nice touch for a city hotel if you are arriving by rental car. Staff was uniformly friendly, adding to the overall warmth of the grand but welcoming lobby experience. In the center of the lobby is a classy bar that makes a good place to start the evening or meet people, with both bar and easy chair seating. The hotel even has its own bank-themed craft beer, CountingHouse, custom brewed for its bar and restaurant.

The very comfortable bar in Range restaurant in the new Renaissance Denver Downtown hotel.

Guest rooms (221 of them) are sleek and quite modern, with modern art, angular furniture, brightly patterned rugs and lots of smooth surfaces. They are above average size and very comfortable, with well designed sitting areas separate from the bed, and I appreciated the coffee maker and free Wifi in rooms and all common areas, but for a brand new hotel I found the glaring lack of accessible electric outlets unacceptable, especially in light of the substantial real estate given to the desk area. I understand that at older hotel I might have to unplug a lamp or crawl around for an outlet, but at just about every new property of this ilk I have visited, there have been multiple and obvious outlets built into the work area. There is room service but it is not 24-hour. On the plus side, the fitness room was surprisingly well appointed, with all new and top end equipment, plus an uncommon Kenisis wall system.

One element hat is supposed to differentiate the Renaissance brand is Navigator, which what Marriott calls a souped-up, micro-local concierge. The hotels are themed around a sense of being a local, and the Navigator program is essentially a concierge service focused on offering insider knowledge and less obvious experiences, including activities, culture, dining and shopping. To this end, the rooms are full of these little tip-sheet cards suggesting interesting things to see and do, which are a great touch until your realize they are a jumble of Navigator tips worldwide. For instance, I found the shopping suggestion of an enclave of offbeat antique stores fascinating until I realized they were in Thailand. Limiting the Denver Navigator suggestions to Denver might make a lot more sense.

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Hotel Test Drive: Renaissance Denver Downtown