The Westin at the Denver International Airport is by far the nicest Westin I have ever stayed at anywhere in the world. It’s beautiful. Extremely convenient. And the views of the airport (not so much the airplanes) are excellent.
Unfortunately, there’s a steep price to pay for all of that beauty and convenience. Don’t be surprised if the best deal you can find is still three or four times the price of any other Denver Airport hotel. That’s normal. And very very cruel IMHO.
Location
The Westin at DEN is the only hotel attached directly to the airport. The next closest hotel (probably the Denver Airport Hyatt House) is miles away.
The easiest way to access the Westin from the airport is from the arrivals level. It’s located on the far south end of the airport, and it’s easy to find just by following the sign signs from inside the terminal.
Westin Hotel, Plaza. Going that way, I am. This place is pretty easy to find from inside the airport. Just follow the signs!You’ve basically got two choices at this point. You can either go down those escalators to hop a train to Denver, or you can avoid forfeiting your very expensive prepaid hotel reservation by continuing around the escalators to the main entrance.Looking back towards the airport just before I walk into the main entrance of the Westin. This must be the ‘plaza’ they were referring to, eh? Looks like a pretty nice place to take a dump if I’m being honest (if I were a golden retriever that is).The main entrance, flanked by two very important looking structural anchor platforms. Who says they don’t build hotels like they used to?
The lobby (and checking in)
The lobby is located on the second floor, which requires taking either the escalator or an elevator to reach. The reception desk will be on your left with a bar and lounge straight ahead and to your right.
OK. I think I’m already liking this a lot more than the dark and dreary lobby of the Westin DTW. There’s like…natural light in here.And lots of curvy lines too. I can almost hear the conversation at the check in desk: Receptionist: “Yeah, I know! It’s just like the TWA Hotel!”Guest:“I could’ve done without the swoops if it would’ve made my reservation cheaper.”
It wasn’t all that busy when I checked in on a Tuesday afternoon at 3 PM. However, they seemed to be understaffed at that time and I ended up waiting for about 10 minutes (even though I was the first in line).
In need of a stiff margarita to dull the pain of spending so much on a hotel room? You’re in luck! There’s a bar and lounge right in the lobby (just across from the reception desk).
Standing in the lobby taking it all in, this hotel makes one heck of a good first impression. Perhaps it was because I spent the previous night at The Inverness Denver (where style and design was stuck in the 1990s), but I was really impressed by this.
Getting to my room
There are two separate banks of elevators leading to the guest rooms. Make a note of your floor number, as that will determine which set of elevators you will use.
The budget for all those swoops only went so far I see. Only rectangles and parallel lines up here on the 9th floor, y’all.It’s pretty obvious that I passed on the margarita, isn’t it? Here I am mentally calculating the hit to my net worth by staying here just one night.Room 927 is mine for the night. At least I didn’t pay that much I guess.
Traditional room overview
I had reserved what they call a ‘Traditional’ room (with an airport view). This is far from being the fanciest (or biggest) room they have at this property, but it was the cheapest they had.
Lotsa wood with dark muted accents, so yep, this is a Westin all right. Lookin’ pretty good so far.“Thank God, I thought you were never gonna show up.” Should I have been worried that bed seemed a little bit too anxious to see me?“Chill bro. I’ve got a hotel review to do.”*snaps pic*The way that the bed kept sighing as I took pictures of the rest of the room was as antagonistic as it was annoying. “Make sure you tell them all about my medium firm feel” he said (as I continued taking pictures from the other direction).“And my consistent edge to edge support as well!” Focusing all my attention on other elements of the room (such as the medium size TV and small desk) only made things worse. The sighing was starting to sound angry.I wonder how comfortable this side chair would be to sleep on? Because the way things are going so far, it may come down to that.Using this side table might be a good place to prop up my legs (so that I can stretch all the way out). Just an idea.“Tell me about your pillows”, I said. His reply? “Screw you. You’re dead to me.” Whatever. I found them to be a bit too large for my liking, but soft enough to be squished down into something smaller.Two complementary bottles of water are included. Though considering how dry the air typically is in Denver, you’re probably gonna want more. The coffee situation: 3 packages of Starbucks’ finest with a CV1 hot water heater-upper. What a unit!I had a heck of a time finding the refrigerator (the bed wouldn’t even give me a clue). “Would it have been that hard to tell me that it’s in the closet?”
The view
They certainly weren’t lying about the ‘airport view’ thing. I did indeed have a pretty good view of the airport. Unfortunately, I didn’t see very many airplanes. I suppose that I had to expect this however, considering how large of an area the Denver Airport covers. The runways are very far away from the terminal.
Good luck resisting humming the lyrics to “Sailing” by Christopher Cross as you throw open the blinds. “Well, it’s not far down to paradise…“This is easily one of the most unique (and interesting) views I’ve ever had from a hotel room. “Oh the canvas can do miracles…”“…just you wait and see, belieeeeeve me!”
The bathroom
The layout of the bathroom made sense I guess. The fact that I could find my way in and out in the middle of the night in complete darkness (without stubbing a toe) made it pretty alright.
The bathroom. Everything you need (and more) to wash away your sins.Flushing them down the toilet is an option as well.FYI, there are exactly 516 bricks surrounding the vanity mirror. You’re welcome.I like how they automatically assume that our sins are small enough to wash down a tiny little drain like that. Otherwise, it’s a pretty nice shower.A showerhead big enough to wash away both sins and cooties? Nice!The shampoo and body wash did a good enough job on the sins, but I needed an extra helping of conditioner for the cooties. Those little buggers can be stubborn!
Restaurants and room service
The food situation is probably my biggest criticism of this particular Westin. There are several on-site restaurants, but they all looked fancy and expensive.
24 hour room service is available, but it’s an extremely expensive option once you factor in the taxes and added gratuities.
Whoops, looks like I canceled out a perfectly healthy meal with a giant piece of tiramisu. You would’ve done the same after having to deal with such an a**hole of a bed all afternoon like I did.
Walking over to the airport terminal to grab a bite to eat was a total letdown. The only thing available pre-security are coffee shops.
Pros and cons
I’ve stayed in a lot of Westins over the years, but I ain’t never stayed in one this nice. I also ain’t never stayed in one this expensive, which is unfortunate considering how convenient it is.
Pros
It’s connected directly to the airport, with quick and easy access to the main terminal (and all airlines).
The architecture is nothing short of stunning. I don’t know why they went so hard on style and design (it’s just an airport Westin after all), but I’m glad they did.
It’s built right over top of the train station, so hopping a train into Denver is quick and easy.
Cons
You’re going to pay dearly for the convenience of staying in a hotel connected directly to the airport.
The food situation is abysmal. There are restaurants of course (and room service) but all of it is obscenely expensive.
Scott has been traveling the world since 1997, and is the founder and author of SleepAndReview.com. He never had any aspirations of being a hotel reviewer, but one thing let to another, and...well...here we are.
