IHG Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver review

Recently we were in Denver for a long weekend and stayed at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver.  I do like to disclose when I give reviews at places where I wasn’t the one paying – in this case our stay was courtesy of Frontier and Barclays.  So even though it was not the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver itself paying for the stay, and to me it didn’t appear that it affected the service provided by the Denver Hotel Monaco, I can’t be sure.  In any case, on to the IHG Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver review

Hotel Monaco Denver location

The Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver is located on Champa Street between 17th and 18th streets in the LoDo area of Downtown Denver.  It’s only a block or so away from the 16th Street pedestrian mall which is a big outdoor shopping complex.

It’s also convenient to Coors Field and Amtrak Union Station, about a 1/2 mile away.  We walked back to the Hotel Monaco Kimpton after a Rockies game and it was an easy and safe walk.

(SEE ALSO: 3 reasons my Amtrak trip was a blast and 4 reasons I’ll never ride Amtrak again)

The main lobby is fairly ornate with a large seating area

Hotel Monaco Denver Kimpton social password

We arrived to the Hotel Monaco Denver in our rental cars and checked in about 330pm in the afternoon on a Thursday.  One of the things that the Hotel Monaco Denver does as well as most Kimpton hotels is use the Kimpton social password.

When we were there the Kimpton social password was “Out of Office” but it changes periodically.  Since we had 2 rooms, we got 2 spins on the wheel.  We won a “succulent” which is a cactus-like plant (just what every traveler needs!) and also a flask (also what ever non-drinker needs!)

I think the front desk agent took pity on our family because she also came back with the “Movie Night” prize for us, which was a box of snacks and a free in-room movie, which indeed was a much better fit for our family than either of the other prizes 🙂

IHG Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver room

We had 2 rooms at the Kimpton IHG Hotel Monaco Denver, with an adjoining door between the two rooms.  This is our preferred way of staying in hotels in places that don’t have a suite big enough to fit our family (like a Residence Inn, Homewood Suites or Staybridge Suites)

We were staying in rooms 518 and 519, which caused me to do a bit of a double-take when I stepped off the elevator on the 5th floor to see this sign.  Ummmmm…

As you can imagine, the rooms at the Hotel Monaco Kimpton are arranged in a square with a central courtyard, so all this meant is that our rooms were on the opposite sides of the square from the elevator

Our 2 rooms were identical – both with 2 queen beds.  The beds themselves were quite comfortable

The bathrooms were slightly different – one of our rooms had a standard tub / shower, while the other one had a more modern shower.

One thing that either was wrong or maybe I couldn’t figure out was that the locks on neither of the bathrooms seemed to work.  One of the bathrooms didn’t seem to have a lock at all (see below), and the lock on the other room was one of those old sliding door turn knobs but didn’t seem to actually engage any sort of locking mechanism

I asked the front desk about it and she said that she’d have someone come “take a look at it” which seems weird since if there’s no lock, there’s no lock.  In any case, I never heard back about my concerns and there were no updates or fixes to the locks.

IHG Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver amenities

The IHG Kimpton Hotel Monaco Denver does not have a swimming pool (they have discounted passes available to a nearby athletic club) but they do have an onsite fitness center

An interesting touch that my youngest daughter enjoyed was that each of the rooms had a yoga mat in the closet that you could use.

There is no self parking available at the hotel – just valet parking which is available at $46 / day (!) with full in and out privileges.  Pets are allowed with the mantra of “if your pet fits through the door, it’s okay to bring”.

Hotel Monaco Denver food and drink

Like many “fancy” hotels (SEE ALSO: Why “budget” hotels DESTROY fancy ones), the Hotel Monaco Denver Kimpton does not include complimentary breakfast.  They have a restaurant onsite (Panzano’s) or you can also order an in-room breakfast by filling out a card.

Our breakfast was covered as part of the trip I was on so we ordered the in-room breakfast, pictured below

Turns out food for 8 people is expensive :-D.  Actually even filling out the CARD for breakfast was a bit challenging since it was hard to even put down what we all wanted.

The food was good though I found it a bit galling that the “continental breakfast” which basically consisted of a muffin and a cup of juice runs $16…

Hotel Monaco Denver pricing

The Hotel Monaco Denver Kimpton is a Category 8 hotel which means it costs 50,000 IHG points / night, though you can also offset some of that with cash and points bookings

(SEE ALSO: How to always buy IHG points for 0.7 cents / point)

Cash rates run about $250 – $300 / night – you can check rates for your dates at HotelsCombined

You can also read other reviews at TripAdvisor

Have you stayed at the Hotel Monaco Denver Kimpton?  Leave your thoughts in the comments?

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