As I continue to try out Marriott brands during my status challenge period, the Renaissance Hotel in Oklahoma City seemed like a perfect property to review. All hotel brands put their best foot forward in key destinations, like the stunning grounds and adult pool at the Holiday Inn Resort in Aruba. I prefer to try the brand outside of markets where every chain will try to make the best impression. My first Renaissance experience was not what I expected.
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Location
Oklahoma City is spread out like many Midwestern metros. The Renaissance is convenient to business travelers looking for meetings downtown. For leisure travelers, the property is walking distance to Bricktown.
Checkin
I arrived at the hotel and checked in late in the afternoon. My room was ready when I arrived and was upgraded (to a higher floor but not a materially different room). I have mentioned this was my first exposure to the brand so having a suite would have been a really nice upgrade giving me a better impression of the property.
This was also my final stay of the Marriott status challenge and I would soon be Platinum, so I was hoping for a warm welcome. I have often said, “Book the experience you want to have” meaning that if I really want a suite and even if my status qualifies me for a suite, I should book a suite outright if I want one bad enough.
The status upgrade rule with Marriott is vague. Entitlement to a “better room” is about all we are left with and as I commented in this post, an upgraded room is essentially whatever the hotel wants it to be.
But I still asked. I will always ask, and if there are suites available for sale and I have the right to ask for one, I will persist further. That is, I will persist further with the exception of this stay, as I was but a lowly Gold and not yet Platinum until checkout. I was upgraded to the 14th floor, a club floor though the room was no different than any other.
Room
The best description I can place on this room is “dated with touches of luxury.” The size of the room is average, not too small but not too big. I actually prefer the new design of the much smaller Hampton Inn rooms because they use the space a little smarter.
Walking into room 1419, the entrance to the bathroom was on the left followed by a closet with a safe and robe. Then the room opens to the bed and a chaise lounge against the window.
The bed was the highlight of the room. Sheets were soft, premium and the duvet was satin with an updated design. Each side had a bedside table, with a reading light and a plug. The plug was too loose to hold a charge for anything. I like to plug my phone in next to my bed but the plugs on the lamp were useless on both sides of the bed. The wall plugs were hidden behind the bedside table and occupied, each powering two of the three lamps in the room (almost all of the light) the other slot: a speaker on one side and cordless phone on the other.
The TV was opposite the bed on a mostly useless cabinet. There was space for a mini-fridge but instead there was an ice bucket and plastic cups. I failed to take a photo of where the fridge should have been. The TV on top was reasonably sized but suffered from satellite viewing options over cable. Unfortunately, Oklahoma City was also suffering from thunderstorms that night so there was no TV available for me. It seems so strange that so many hotels offer satellite TV service that is still susceptible to being blocked by a cloudy day.
Desk
At the far end of the room was a desk with ample room for two laptops, a modern cordless phone like a luxury hotel would have and the most amazing desktop plug I have ever seen. This multi-port power triangle more plugs than devices that needed power (an impressive feat considering my travel gear).
Bathroom
This is where the hotel shows its age the most. Odd wallpaper lines the room but can’t cover up for some clearly dated flaws. While spacious, the bathroom as a whole has wasted an easy opportunity. The toilet is set off to the right and when they update a small door would add some privacy.
There are points of strength and weakness throughout the property and sometimes at the very same time. For example, the housekeeping staff put in time creating a fan from the Kleenex but failed to remove all of the hair from the tub. The hotel management thought enough to include a coffee maker in the room (low-grade, poor quality) but then leaves it in the bathroom like a Motel 6. There is an amenities box on the bathroom vanity but the bottom is beat up and should be tossed in the trash.
When they remodel, which should be soon because it’s a simple and cheap way to bring this hotel up a star level, the shower over tub should be swapped for glassed-in shower with a door. Switch the wallpaper, add a rain shower head, clear that damaged amenities box off the counter and I could justify a higher room rate the next time I return to Oklahoma City. Wait, did this just become “Love It or List It?”
Lounge
As stated in the benefits, breakfast is offered in either the lounge (if they have one and it’s open) or in the restaurant. This hotel had a solid lounge and I was looking forward to breakfast. I don’t usually make it to the afternoon happy hour in the lounge as I am not a big drinker and there is often very little in the way of food – well, good food. This time however, I thought I’d give it a try.
The lounge was crowded even at 7PM when I made my way up. The food they had was great, and even a little over-the-top, but staff had a difficult time replacing items. I’d say it was full, but there weren’t more than 10 guests in the room, and yet some items were full and others completely empty.
One great example is the first station in the process. There were spoons but no forks nor knives. There were three chafing dishes, two of them may have been the same, but I don’t know because there weren’t any labels. Were they holding chicken noodle soup? Probably but no one knows. We can surmise that the ingredients are consistent with chicken noodle soup but there’s no broth, no ladle and few white items which might be noodles, so who knows?
Meanwhile, the macaroni and cheese was amazing and even an idiot like me could identify it without the placard.
Value
My room rate was $129/nt before adding the taxes, and concession fees or the $25/day valet charge. I found the property to be fairly priced for the location if not a little under market value if you are self-parking or taking a cab. When adding valet (and the associated taxes) it takes the price per night to nearly $180/nt which is about the top price I would pay for this market and area.
When thinking about the stay and where I might stay when I return, it’s probably not going to be this property. It’s not that the property was so horrible that I can’t imagine returning, I might be back. But newer properties just seem to feel cleaner and the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center is showing cracks in the armor. It’s a classic full-service downtown hotel
Would you rather stay in a dated and tired full service hotel or a brand new “select service” property without the bells and whistles?
Great review. While this hotel doesn’t look very good, all the Renaissance Hotels I have stayed at have been really nice. I have stayed at the Renaissance Edmonton Airport which is ultra modern, the Renaissance Cleveland which is a nice historic hotel, that isn’t too dated, the Renaissance Dusseldorf which has been newly renovated and is now quite modern and the Renaissance Montreal which is also quite modern. I think you should give the Renaissance brand another try, just at a different hotel. I find them nicer than a typical Marriott and even on-par with a JW Marriott. Of course there are some not so good properties of a brand and this seems to be one of them.
From what others have said, and my view from outside of the Marriott family, I had higher expectations. I will give some others a try.
To answer your question, I’d rather stay in a “classic” full-service hotel. Part of it is some of the design touches in more modern/updated properties, such as minimalist lobbies, see-through bathrooms, and ditching bathtubs for shower only, are big pet peeves of mine. The bigger thing for me, though, is the price break you can often (but not always) get by settling for an older property. I’d rather have the $30 than the bells and whistles personally.
We couldn’t be more opposite on this point of view. I would rather a shower outright with no rub option over one of the groping shower curtains. I know they make some that swing out and don’t grope as much, but they still aren’t for me. Have you ever seen a housekeeper cleaning those things?
“Oklahoma City is spread out like many Midwestern metros, the Renaissance is convenient to business travelers looking for meetings downtown, for leisure travelers, the property is walking distance to Bricktown.”
Periods, man. Periods.
Yeah Grace, I’m just going to own that. I went back and corrected it, you had a valid point.
Thanks for the review! I travel to OKC regularly. If you go back and would like to stick to Marriott, try The Ambassador. Cheers!
Sounds good! I’ll try it for my next trip.
This hotel, while a Renaissance, is managed by JQH (or maybe it’s Atrium, i don’t remember. They split the company last year and I can’t remember which hotels went where). It and the Tulsa Renaissance are very similar and most Marriott members/employees don’t consider them true Renaissance hotels because they don’t have the uniqueness a Renaissance should have. They should just be considered standard Marriott hotels. Sorry your first Renaissance was a JQH.
I will give them another try certainly, I have looked longingly at the Renaissance Bangkok from the Grand Hyatt Erawan for many years. I do feel that the hotel chain has a little responsibility here too though. They should either force some changes or a brand name change. Either way, it didn’t match the reputation it had built and if I was a different traveler, it’s possible that I just wouldn’t try another Renaissance or be willing to pay the premium for their properties. That damages Marriott more than the individual proprietor so they should probably step in.
It’s not a bad hotel, it’s just not what I expect from a Renaissance.
This is pretty depressing, particularly given the fact that Marriott has tried positioning the Renaissance brand as “corporate boutique.” Basically, the furniture — bed, desk, side tables — are from 2000. I recognize it from another older Marriott, which had a year 2000 manufacturing date stamped underneath the desk and side table drawers.
The patterned duvet is circa 2o10 design while the rest of the room decor is 2005-ish. The bathroom looks mostly unchanged from the early 2000s Marriott design. I’m curious if this hotel was re-flagged Renaissance from Marriott, as the rooms look more Marriott-ish.
I’ve never seen a Marriott portfolio hotel with the coffemaker in the bathroom. Weird.
As for the lounge, that’s a horrible coffee machine. Again, it shows the age of the hotel because I’ve never seen that brand in at least 10 years.
Please start a post subscription service.
I had a lengthy project in Oklahoma City and stayed at the Renaissance close to 80 nights in 2016/2017 due to the price and convenience of my customer.
You basically had the same review I did. This wasn’t my first Renaissance so I had some expectations going in and was woefully letdown. A remodel would do wonders but they have no motivation because the hotel sells out an unbelievably high percentage. Even the Courtyard downtown just 3 blocks away sells out and I think it’s even more outdated.
As far as suites go, you’re not missing much. You get the same features of with a sink, extra half bathroom and a table. You also get an extremely small balcony that 1 person can stand out on at a time. With there only being just about 20 of them, they regularly sell out.
If you wanted a true modern hotel, the aloft in Bricktown was probably your best option. It’s brand new and has that minimalistic European design. Stayed there a few times when I couldn’t get into the Renaissance.
I’ll agree with the commenter that said the Ambassador being a much better property and with it being a Marriott Autograph Collection it is an amazing points value too. However I only got to stay a few times because of my customer budget. Rates are regularly in the 220-240 range.
There’s also a renovated Renaissance called the Waterford in North Oklahoma City but I found the staff to be horrible so I only stayed one.
Hope you enjoyed Oklahoma City. It’s good in small doses, not 8 months in a row.
That’s a pretty extensive account and matches some of my thoughts on the hotel and the market in general. The Aloft just down the road or the Autograph will be my next hotel in the city depending on the price on the day. I can justify a higher rate for the Autograph because of breakfast and evening snacks that reduce meal expenses.