There are many finer choices in downtown Denver. Don't waste your money at this hotel!
Where to begin........I checked in on Wednesday, August 13th and stayed for one night. The hotel itself is in a convenient downtown location. You can walk 5 blocks to Union Station, you can walk 1 block to the free 16th Street Mall bus stop, and you can walk 2 blocks to the Market Street bus plaza where you can catch the "AF" bus to Denver Airport. The "AF" bus is a great way to get to DIA. Check Denver RTD's website for pickup times. Travel time is one hour, and cost is $9 payable in cash to the driver (exact change required). Super Shuttle also serves the Westin Hotel, and the cost is $19 to DIA. Super Shuttle picks up in the lobby of the hotel every 20 to 30 minutes all day long.
When I checked into the hotel, the process was smooth with no problems. However, when I got up to my room (Room #1714), I could see that I was put into a handicapped room. The room is slightly larger, but the bathroom is setup much differently than the non-handicapped rooms. I called down to the front desk to ask if this was a handicapped room to see what I would be told. The gal I spoke to said yes, this is a handicapped room. I asked her why she didn't tell me this when I checked in. She then told me that the room is identical to all of the other rooms except it is a bit larger to accommodate wheelchairs, and the shower has a metal grab bar in it. I told her that I thought all Westin rooms had the "Heavenly Shower", and she said this is correct and my room has this featured shower. I told her no, this is not the case, as my shower has a special detachable single shower head (not the dual-jet Heavenly Shower head), and there is not one grab bar in the shower but three! She was unaware of this, and did not offer a change of rooms (and I did not ask, either, as it was late and I just wanted to get some sleep). Also, the entire shower/tub/tile and the bathroom counter are all original and were NOT refurbished when this hotel had all the rooms redone. It looks the same as it did 10 years ago. Why did the Westin Tabor Center not refurbish the bathrooms in the handicapped rooms like they did all of the other rooms??? You can also see from the photo of the tub that the base of it has brown, ground-in dirt from years of use. This is not acceptable.
As you can see from my pictures, the shower itself is very "industrial" and is not to my liking at all. The toilet is obviously a different model for use in this room because it is extremely low to the floor. I'm not sure how well it shows in my picture, but I am six feet tall and when using the toilet, my knees are almost up in my chest because of this thing being so low to the floor. I felt like John Candy in the movie, "Uncle Buck" walking into the little boys room at the grade school of his nephew where everything is down-sized. I felt ridiculous sitting there trying to use this "different" toilet!
Moving on to room service......I can only describe the room service menu as "weird". If you are looking for normal American breakfast (eggs, toast, hash brown, etc), you will not find it on this menu. Instead, their breakfast offerings consist of items such as:
Spicy smoked turkey taco
Organic eggs benedict with salmon
Egg white scrambled, oatmeal-crusted chicken
Smoked salmon, silky tofu and avocado
Granola yogurt and orange pancakes
Yes, those are actual items on the breakfast menu!!! I called room service (called "Service Express" here) and asked if maybe there were two menus, and I was looking at a special menu since I was in the handicapped room? She told me no, there was only one menu. Hmmm....okay, so I asked if they had anything such as an American Breakfast like all other hotels seem to have, and she then told me yes, there is an American Breakfast available but it is not listed in the room service menu. To find the American Breakfast, you have to look at the card that you would hang on your door at night to schedule a morning breakfast. Are you confused yet? So was I. So if you stay at this hotel (but I recommend that you do not), just remember that the room service menu does not list all of the options. You have to locate the door card and see what's on there. I find this very strange----why don't they just list what's available in the regular menu? Very frustrating.
When the food arrived, the gentleman was pleasant enough and it was delivered in a timely manner. However, after he left the room, I sat down to eat and noticed that there was no salt and pepper and no ketchup for the hash browns. I've never stayed at an allegedly "nice" hotel where they don't put these condiments on your table. I did not call downstairs to have it delivered as I just did not want to hassle with another issue.
As you can see from the photo attached to this review, the window in this room has a jam on the top latch that does not allow the window to close. Because of this, you can not block out all of the noise from the street below (cars, trucks, sirens, etc).
There was a used plastic grocery bag on the shelf of the closet in this room, which of course is no big deal, but it does show the lack of attention by housekeeping staff.
It's no wonder that the Westin Hotel Tabor Center does not even rate in the top 25 hotels on TripAdvisor. I do not recommend this hotel, as there are much better options within a few short blocks of here. Give the Hyatt Convention Center a try---it's a very nice place.
