Alex P.
Yelp
JW hotels are one of the more odd specimens in the lineup of the Marriott Bonvoy chain. Not quite a five star hotel, but not quite a four star either. I guess, the modern day term for it would be "affordable luxury." But, we all know that the definition of luxury does not exactly contain the word affordability, thus making this a very confusing space for hotels. Having stayed at a few other JW properties, none of them are impressive, but some of them are certainly much better than others. JW Marriott Denver hits somewhere on the lower end of the chain.
To start off, on approach, there is lots of depressing architecture to absorb, the style of which can best be described as monotony meets budget. Parking is expensive, but there is a deck just around the block, which was roughly half of the valet cost.
Visiting with Titanium status, I was able to successfully apply a suite nights certificate to get a one bedroom suite. The suite was very spacious, with some good furniture and an excellent view of Denver. The bed is very comfortable as expected at a hotel of this caliber. There were however several issues throughout the one night stay.
The upkeep of the room was fairly disappointing, with a decent amount of mold throughout the shower area and a very poor paint job. That alone is not something one should find in a three star hotel, much less a four or five star hotel. That was a bit of a deterrent right off the bat. The shower was also clogged and thus, one would end up standing in a thick layer of water. How housekeeping would not notice that when cleaning the room is just incomprehensible. Arriving late at night, having a maintenance team come would be more inconvenient than dealing with the shower, so ended up just telling them to fix it after checkout.
The second pitfall came about with the breakfast. For Titanium guests, the breakfast benefit is seemingly straightforward during the pandemic as it is through room service or restaurant pickup. In order to get the proper silverware, plates and cups, I decided to pay extra for the normally massive room service fees in order to get the breakfast brought to the room and eat in comfort with plates and silverware on vacation. To my surprise, the breakfast was brought in a paper bag in a full to go fashion, which immediately begs the question, why is there a room service fee? I could have easily avoided $20+ of fee just to have a paper bag brought up to the room. The hotel did remove that charge after a complaint, as they should. However, they did not feel the need to offer any points or credits related to the room upkeep or clogged shower. The chilaquiles for breakfast was one of the worst preparations to be had, essentially being just soggy chips, minimal other ingredients.
All around, this JW Marriott struggles to function as a four star property and is nowhere near five star. The service is very basic throughout the experience and there are several issues that the hotel needs to work through.