Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center is part of the TPOL Won’t Visit All 50 States And That’s OK Trip Report.
I was in Michigan for three reasons: 1) To requalify for Hyatt Globalist (see Qualifying for Hyatt Globalist: Did You Know?) 2. To watch the Bills vs. Lions game (see Super Bowl Preview: Me vs. Myself). 3. To visit family.
Unfortunately for my primary objective, there is no Hyatt in the D. Ever frugal, I wanted to use my Marriott stay 35k cert for Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. Unfortunately, the Westin goes for 52,000 points per night, 2,000 more than can be used when combining a cert with points. Clearly, this was done on purpose.
The next choice was to stay at the antiquated Detroit Marriot at the Renaissance Center. The options were: 1) $700 a night, 2) 50,000 points, 3) 25,000 points, and $125. It should come as no surprise that I went with option 3. By doing so, I was able to keep my stay cert and only spend 10k more than I would have had I combined the stay cert with 15,000 points.
From a points perspective, this was a win. From a hotel enthusiast’s perspective, I came away unimpressed.
Location
The hotel is located at GM World Headquarters. Frequent readers will recall that I was fired from GM after four months on the job. New readers can buy my book and read all about it.
Getting There
From the airport, rent a car. DTW is not near downtown Detroit.
Parking
I am still confused by the cost of parking. Here’s what the website says:
Somehow, I was charged $56 for self-parking in the garage for one night.
Room
The room was dated but the bed was exceptionally comfortable.
View
While it’s not the Park Hyatt Shanghai, the view was top-notch. I have been told that I can see Canada on a clear day.
Breakfast
The buffet was what you would expect from a Hyatt Place, incidentally where I stayed the first three nights to requalify (see Finally, a Review of the Hyatt Place Livonia). While there was an a la carte, I made the mistake of ordering the egg white wrap. The tomatoes dominated the wrap ruining what was otherwise a nice-looking breakfast. To untop it off, there was no espresso, only black coffee served from a coffee pot.
TPOL’s Tirade: Is there anything more gross than topping off old coffee with more old coffee?
Overall
Two towers of the Ren Cen are being demolished. While they are doing that, they should also fix up this place. Like General Motors, it’s well past its prime. #yourefired
