Description: We had no intention of spending the night in Denver. We arrived at Denver International at 11 am, having woken up in San Diego at 4. After spending 9 hours waiting through cancelled flights, delays, and unsuccessful standby lines, we were stuck. Something about DIA’s free wireless internet was interfering with the date selection slots on hotel web pages, and we had to turn to an old-fashioned phone call to start finding a place to sleep.
Like lots of other folks, United steered us to the hotel service for accommodating stranded travelers. If you don’t know about that, it’s worth investigating when you’re forced to spend a night because of airline troubles. For $59 a night, we were given a room at this Embassy Suites, which included shuttle (about 20-25 minutes from the airport, just off I-70), beds for the five of us, and Embassy Suites’ cooked-to-order breakfast.
It’s easy to have a standard, adequate hotel experience these days, but this place really impressed me. Everyone we interacted with, starting with Bruce the shuttle driver, was friendly, professional, welcoming, and helpful. A number of people went out of their way to make sure we had or knew what we needed. Bruce was courteous and kind, and briefed us on the hotel and the return shuttles as we pulled into the hotel driveway. The front desk staff was the same way, as was Nathaniel, the breakfast court attendant. We were moved to a second room (trading one king for two doubles), outfitted with a bag full of toiletries (since our luggage was at O’Hare), and dealt with promptly and kindly.
The hotel itself is an eight-story atrium layout, with the rooms around the exterior of the large open space. The balconies are ringed by wrought-iron gates that suggest New Orleans, and the breakfast/dining space is set a few feet below the entrance, with large stone tiled flooring. I’d guess that the building dates from the eighties, since the rooms are standard but somewhat smaller Embassy layouts. We gave the kids the bedroom, and slept surprisingly well on the sofa bed in the living room. We were woken at 6 by the drawback of an atrium layout: a particularly loud group of early breakfast guests could be heard by everyone who was sleeping in the front of their room.
I was comfortable enough to fall back asleep after they quieted down, and came down myself to enjoy a fresh omelet and hashbrowns, cooked by a guy who served people as efficiently as I’ve ever seen. All of the breakfast area staff took turns greeting a young family who, I’m guessing, had spent many nights with them while seeking ongoing medical care for a young child. It seemed perfectly in keeping with this place, which gave a family of tired travelers a night to recoup after a frustrating day.
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