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| - A friend and I attended a conference here (post-renovations), and I can see why they're calling this "the hotel of the future." It's overall a much more open concept than a traditional hotel, which is both good and bad. Broken down by aspect below...
Location: Right in the middle of the city, with tons of great restaurants super close. Could not be a better location, in my book.
Parking: Valet only, $25/night, charged to your room. Valets were friendly and on top of it with unloading. Though we called down before check-out to have the car brought around, we had to go through several folks on the phone -- I would expect a one-button connection. The car wasn't quite there when we got downstairs, but it was out shortly and they apologized for the wait.
Check-in: As others have noted, they have done away with the traditional desk and have an open area similar to what you'd find in the Apple store. It's different, but I don't know if it's better, honestly. We were helped immediately though, and they split the charges across two credit cards.
Room: They've put in a faux-hardwood floor that's almost a bit rubbery, and overall the room seemed designed to feel contemporary but eliminate as many "moving parts" or things that could be damaged as possible. There are almost no drawers, just open shelves, and the light switch by the door was for almost all the lights in the room (tricky to leave a light on for someone out late, for instance). The bench seating along two sides of the room was a little weird, and there was a medium-sized table that really didn't have a place without being colossally in the way. There is a GIANT TV that was on when we came in, displaying some sort of "how to connect to Marriott" thing, and it took me several minutes to figure out that I needed the remote to turn it off.
Bathroom: The sliding glass door is very clever for space, but not great for keeping light out of the main room (if you're, say, up before your roommate), and, uh, hello, it does not lock! The shower stall was quite spacious and nice, but at least when I showered, we didn't seem to have a bathmat. Also, there did not appear to be a fan in the bathroom, so a shower with the door closed led to a lot of steam that didn't dissipate very quickly. Finally, the fancy lights around the mirror make a humming sound that I could really do without.
3rd floor "event hub:" I loved this big open space. We had several receptions and breaks here, and there was plenty of space to mill around, sit, and talk to people. The "show kitchen" was a little strange at first -- there are two, well, kitchens, complete with islands, in this area -- but were kind of nice for serving food.
Conference rooms: Only a little too cold, which is pretty good for conference space. The chairs were reasonably comfortable and projection equipment was all set up. The provided clickers did seem a bit jumpy though -- many presenters had trouble advancing their slides without jumping ahead by several.
Catered food: Food provided during coffee and snack breaks was overall very good. I could really go for one of their blueberry muffins about now, actually... However, serving cream for coffee in old-fashioned milk bottles is cute, but doesn't make for super tidy pouring. Along that same line, the waffle-battered fried chicken was amazing, but as a passed item that had maple syrup, not well-thought out -- sticky fingers when trying to shake hands is bad!
Lobby bar/restaurant: Service here was not great. I get that large groups ordering all kinds of combinations of food and drinks is tricky, but just getting a glass of water usually took a while. Manhattans were alternately served with and without the nifty balls of ice, which is kind of a bummer for what they charge. The food menu is one that just lists ingredients, leaving me wondering what they actually DO with those items, but...the food was amazing. The pretzel bread appetizer was sooooo good and the flat iron steak with roasted garlic was delish beyond words (though if that was what they call medium, I don't want to see what they think medium-rare looks like...). So if you can get past the service, this is a great place to eat.
What does this ultimately all shake out to? A brand new, really nice hotel that is damn good by any standard. If you've got a little money to spend, check it out.
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