I recently booked a room with the Red Lion Hotel through Hotels.com. I realized I would be checking in late so I called to let the hotel know. They told me that since I was already charged it would be no problem. I got to the hotel after a concert (around 1:30am) only to be told that they gave my room away. They were incredibly rude and would not do anything other then send me down the street with a voucher. The manager on duty, Nick Vallagus, took 20 minutes to deal with the situation and was almost angry at me! Do not patronize this hotel!

I booked a room at the Red Lion via Priceline for $50. Afterwards, I read all the terrible reviews on TripAdvisor and then became quite worried about the hotel. FYI, I am a seasoned business traveler and have spent 1,000 nights of my life in hotels. The hotel is fine - I'd say above average, maybe 3.5 out of 5. I will agree that the hotel is a little tricky to find and it looks rundown and uninviting on the outside. Don't judge a book by its cover - the lobby is really nice and my room was clean and bug-free. Because of the reviews I read, I asked for a room on an upper floor and away from the railroad tracks. The young foreign kid that helped me told me that he had a room on the first floor, not by the tracks. I was only staying one night, so I said that was fine. Incidentally, that kid needs some pointers on customer service - he did not smile or greet me when I approached the desk, and he was pretty cocky. Otherwise than that, my stay was fine and quiet. I didn't hear any trains, but my room was poolside. The hotel is very convenient to I-70 and it only took about 20-25 minutes to get to the airport (very early in the morning).

Denver Oct 8 10 2006 Trip

My experience at the Red Lion Hotel Denver Central 4040 Quebec St. started with problems at check in (October 8th) and got worse. The hotel receives internet booking from Hotels.com via fax. The hotel could not find the fax or on their reservations computer. I explained that my copy on an internet-based email. The hotel offered me a free-pass card for their business center internet.

Despite trying the pass card several times on each terminal, the card didn’t work. I returned to the desk and was given internet access from the hotel business office. I printed out my reservation. Even with the print out the Staff had to call Hotels.com to find the reservation on their computer. It took well over 25 minutes. My roommate was upset and asked if the hotel was going to make any compensation, they gave us a free breakfast in their dining room.

After returning from eating, we tried the TV. It fuzzed out, as it was a 50’s style Black and White set. We called and went down to the desk but no one show up to fix it that evening.

The next morning (October 9th) my roommate tried to use the exercise equipment. The two machines he wanted to use were not working. He reported it to the desk. When we returned in the afternoon, they were still not working.

We left for the MNF Broncos game. When we returned from the game, we were able to get into our room without using the key card (the cable was working). We reported it to the desk and they offered to move us. We declined since it was late and we were leaving the next morning. We locked ourselves in our room.

At 5AM the alarm went off, I unplugged it.

We went down to the hotel dining room for the compensatory breakfast. At breakfast, the milk and orange juice were cold but it wasn’t good that the eggs, bacon, sausage and French toast were also cold even though they were in steam tables.

After breakfast, I reported everything to the desk (again). The desk clerk admitted he had no authority to make adjustments or compensation. She promised she would have the general manager of the hotel call me. It has been over a week and I’m still waiting for the call.

I got this hotel as a 3* Priceline hotel in the Stapelton area. My wife and I were just hoping to catch some rest after flying into Denver and before driving to Aspen. However, we were barely able to sleep at all. The room was uncomfortably hot and worst of all our room (#345) was located right next to some train tracks. A train came by every 90 minutes or so throughout the night and blasted its horn right next to our window - shaking us out of bed... In addition, our shower was stuck on a violent massage mode. I would not recommend staying here even if it was free. Breakfast is not free - but a pricy buffet ($10.25) that was mediocre at best.