Great Location, Pandemic Issues This historic hotel has a great location in downtown Minneapolis. That's the best that can be said. The downsides start with parking. The valet doesn't show up most of the time. The digital valet system was mostly inoperable. And this was with a nightly cost of $49 for parking. During the pandemic, most hotels have had a problem getting competent front desk staff. The W Minneapolis is no different. Most of the staff seemed indifferent. I had to ask several times to get things fixed in the room. Upon checking in, the front desk attendant had no idea how the bicycle rentals worked. He couldn't be bothered with answering questions about the internet. The room (Luxury Marvelous Suite) was quite spacious. But the one phone in the room didn't work. The water in the shower was temperamental at best (hot, cold, hot, cold, hot...). There was no dresser or any place to unpack other than a small closet. Some of the outlets did not work. The dining area had absolutely no outlets at all. Dining was an issue. There is no place to have breakfast or lunch in the hotel. The bartender at the lobby bar was usually nowhere to be found. Overall, historic building in a central location. The reasons that you stay in an upscale hotel, however, were lacking.

Genuine Care So I would like to give a major shout out to the front desk staff at The W Foshay. (Skip to bullets if you don’t enjoy clever writing and fluff) I am a former task force manager from a competing brand I will leave unnamed, but The W (Starwood, yes I am old and the merger had not happened during my tenure) was a major competitor of ours that I always admired. I get that things change over time and I have recently departed from IHG loyalty and come to Marriott due to an issue with Delta to be honest, but nonetheless here I am. I spent two months on the road staying at varying category 4 hotels as I was on business and try to watch cost when I am not traveling for leisure. I stayed at the W Seattle on my trip and left feeling like it had been a little brand washed by corporate merger (sorry, just being honest.) The Foshay is the first time I felt confident in my decision to switch and it is 100% due to the whatever whenever team (Mainly Kristen) and the front desk(Madison, Agitha, and James). I am sorry I was a little impersonal as I had a lot going on, but I am going to take a moment to describe what I consider “above and beyond” service in bullet form to reduce your amount of actual reading: 1. I lost my key a lot and no one ever made me feel like an inconvenience for doing so (you’d be surprised and i specialize in losing things) 2. We needed to add a room as a good friend lost his pet and flew in to decompress for a night, was delayed and we had to check him into his room as he would not arrive on time. Not an uncomplicated feat and the front desk made it feel effortless such that he never saw a bill, got to do what he came to do and left without ever being noticed (exactly what he wanted and he is a titanium member well on his way to ambassador). 3. Twice we ordered food from Grubhub and twice we were left thinking we had to order Taco Bell. Thank god the second time my boyfriend called down to the desk to make sure the food wasn’t dropped there. It was not, but all Madison came to us with was positivity, empathy and solution. A menu was promptly brought to our room, I opened it immediately and began dialing, ordered on cue and i kid you not the food arrived 20 min later and was out of this world amazing. If i believed in wizards I’d say I was staying at Hogwarts, because the way they flipped my hangry queeny face right upside down was nothing short of magical. What I am elaborately illustrating is that I know, don’t assume, that the staff here genuinely cares about the guest experience and shows so in what I have observed to be an unbiased, eager and creative way of offering simple solutions like Jell-O shots and laughter at some middle aged mans bad jokes. You can’t train that, you can’t buy that and for god sakes I hope you see the value in that because I most certainly do. THANKS! Shawn and Blake

very disappointed My wife and I decided on a 1 night "staycation" to celebrate her birthday. We have stayed at many other local hotels and wanted to try W this time around. I got the highest level room (The WOW Suite) for our celebration. As anticipated, staff was very friendly and check in went well. Mannys (which we have been to many times) was fantastic as always. The room was pretty nice, not quite as nice as I expected, but certainly nothing to complain about. The problem(s) were with the room itself. The sheers did not work electrically, the wall buttons had an electrical problem. The engineer came up and basiclly said that I just needed to force them open (or closed). The toilet had issues and I had to open the tank and fiddle with it a few times before it started consistently working. The living room lights has a subtle "flicker" which was not a bulb issues but another electrical issue as all of them on the same circuit did the same thing. Perhaps the worse part of it was the temperature. It was a balmy 78 degrees in the room despite it having been set on "cool" and 72. The engineer came up and fiddled with it so it could be set at 62, said he had it working and it would take some time to cool down. It never cooled down. The doorway temp was reading 80 now, and the living room display was still at 78, FOR THE ENTIRE TIME. Needless to say, my wife and I found it very difficult to sleep. We tried to contact the "whatever whenever" line and got nothing but a consistent busy signal for 15 minutes (at about 10:30 pm) until we just picked up our cell and called the number on the website. At this point we asked for fans to be brought up. We were given 2 fans, each about 8-10 inches big, and neither had been cleaned in years. This gave mild relief, but my wife still got up in the middle of the night to use a cold compress to try to cool down to a reasonable sleeping temperature. Given the cost of the room, the level of the room, and that I asked for this to be fixed with no real solution, this was entirely unacceptable, not to mention the internal phone service to call for help was completely unavailable. Overall, Mannys restaurant is 5 stars and I will continue to go back to Mannys. The service people for the hotel were very friendly, but the multiple problems with the room that remained unsolved were unacceptable, and I would NOT get a room there again, nor would I advise anyone else to. Again, with this being the highest level room they had, I cannot imagine the problems with the lower level rooms

Iconic This hotel is such an iconic place. I a, so glad they turned this into a W hotel. Manny’s restaurant in the lobby is great, and Prohibition on the 17th floor is cool. The observatory is iconic too;, beautiful Art Deco spaces. It was fun to stay there.

Staycation at its finest We wanted a night out from the house (Covid 2020) but didn’t think we were ready for a trip. Was even leery about a hotel. But knew after 10 months it was time for at least one parents night out. This place was perfect. They take social distancing seriously, and our room was immaculately clean. In between checking in guests, the entire front desk was wiped off where guests could have had contact. We also were upgraded to a better city view at check-in. We ordered food in, and brought our own wine with. Checked out the museum twice (very neat). Open aired deck is a huge added bonus. Wish the speakeasy would have been open, but that’s no fault to the W. Ended our great stay with breakfast in bed from Keys, which is conveniently located below the hotel, and offers a 10% discount to guests in the hotel. It was a great stay and night. Recommend it as a must stay in Minneapolis - especially a staycation night out. Thanks W @ Foshay