Quick Hotel Summary
| Category | Details |
| Hotel | Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West |
| Location | Plano, Texas |
| Brand | Renaissance (Marriott) |
| Room Type | Corner King (Upgrade) |
| Price Paid | $319/night |
| Length of Stay | 3 nights |
| Booking Method | Group Booking |
⭐ Overall Rating: 6 / 10
The Verdict
This is the second of what I refer to as the “Plano Marriott Trifecta” (see prior review of the Westin Stonebriar) and my least favorite of the three even though it is also often the most expensive. This is also the newest of the trifecta and this hotel was clearly designed with business travelers as their primary (sole) focus, but I’m not sure that’s necessarily a good thing. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it and it checks all the boxes, but after having spent easily more than 50 nights in this hotel over the last several years – and rarely ever sleeping well – at least personally to me there are better options.
Location
Like the Westin, the Renaissance likes to point it’s Dallas lineage first, but the reality is this hotel is in Plano and not where you want to be staying if you want to be in downtown Dallas more than 20 miles away (and with the traffic in the area that trip can take easily over an hour if you leave at the wrong time). However, if you’re visiting one of the numerous corporate headquarters nearby – as I always am – the location is great. It’s also very convenient to DFW which is only about 20-30 minutes away and about $50 in an Uber Comfort.
While this area of Plano is generally not good for walking, the Renaissance is attached to Legacy West which is a street of high end shopping, electric car dealerships and mini chain restaurants which pretend to be “higher end”, but are generally not very impressive.
Booking & Price
This was booked for me as part of a group for a larger set of meetings. The room rate was $319 for a standard king room which is not a terrible price for this hotel. In fact, I checked the other members of the Marriott Plano Trifecta and this actually was the best price for these particular dates. After taxes and fees the nightly charge was about $364. Note because I stay at this hotel so often, I will include images of both the standard king I was booked into from a prior stay and the corner king I was upgraded to on this trip.
Check-In Experience
I arrived at the hotel around 8:30 with about a dozen other colleagues, but the hotel was ready for us and had all three check in desks staffed and they processed us all relatively quickly (the biggest delay were the several of my colleagues who have not learned that when the stay is part of a group reservation, they have to add their Bonvoy number manually to the reservation and instead were doing it as part of check in). I was informed I had been “upgraded” (more on this below) to a corner king room on the top floor and proactively offered 1000 points as a welcome amenity along with a welcome gift consisting of mini chocolate cookies that were so good that I forgot to take a picture of them before I wolfed them down one evening.
Room
As mentioned, I had booked a standard king, but was upgraded to a corner king. The standard king I was booked into is marketed as being 358 square feet. The rooms do not feel big and while they permit up to three guests, I would not want to share this room with anyone including my wife. It just feels small and the bathroom is basically next to the bed. Additionally the closets are tiny and much of the limited hanging space is blocked by the in room safe. Again, though if short stay business travelers are your key demographic the space is sufficient for a couple sport coats and a few shirts.
It seems like thought went into the room design with kitschy touches like cowboy hats and odd Asian kitty statues, but it’s not my style and I find the rooms dark and kind of depressing. On the plus side the rooms offer plenty of charging options on both sides of the bed and at the desk so your devices should never be without needed juice.
The corner king I was upgraded to really isn’t that different (including the bathroom practically next to the bed). It was slightly larger at 375 square feet, but that added square footage is basically the entryway isn’t all that useful and a slightly larger closet (which is certainly an improvement over the tiny standard closets). In fact, I think it actually has inferior non bed seating options.
The other big difference is that the room has floor to ceiling windows spanning two sides of the room. However, this is also why I hate this room because it features a major design flaw. On the large set of windows directly in front of the bed, the design of the walls makes it impossible to close the blackout shades completely leaving a sizeable gap of several inches. My room also happened to face Legacy West, so even in the dark of night, my room had a constant glow from the signage at Del Frisco’s across the street. Even more annoying is that I was awakened literally at the crack of dawn with a laser like beam of sunlight directed at my forehead.
Note that regardless of the room type, for whatever reason I never sleep well at this hotel. I think the mattress is too firm and the street noise too prevalent for me, but a number of my colleagues have expressed similar sleep issues here.
The room featured Renaissance standard Kevin Murphy toiletries which I happen to like so that is a plus.
High speed internet was free and the connection was fast and easily supported streaming. This was especially important because the hotel was having issues with its cable during my stay with channels pausing for several seconds every minute or so which made watch anything quite annoying. The hotel also offers streaming HBO (for free) and Netflix (via your own account), however, the streaming directly to the tv seemed to have a weaker signal than the general wifi and was somewhat choppy with occasional buffering needed.
The rooms look on to the corporate landscape that is this part of Plano regardless of direction your facing.
Interestingly, this hotel also offers rooms with “Asian style” bathrooms which I assume is to cater to Asian business travelers (primarily I’m guessing for Japanese travelers visiting Toyota’s North American headquarters nearby).
Hotel Amenities
The hotel has a decent sized gym with a good selection of machines and weights. I’ve been told the gym can be very busy in the morning, but my afterwork workouts generally let me have the gym mostly to myself. The hotel provides water and apples in the gym which is appreciated.
The Renaissance Plano also has an outdoor pool that is “rooftop” on the third floor. It would offer ok views if there was anything of interest to see in the area. Again, perhaps due to the hotel mostly being occupied by business travelers, I don’t recall ever seeing someone using the pool during my many stays.
Food & Dining
The Renaissance Plano has a few dining options, but it’s a somewhat odd setup. First there is Oma which feels like it should be the all day restaurant for the hotel, but in fact it is now only open for breakfast. I think it once was a dinner restaurant as well if my memory is correct, but not recently. I imagine it was difficult to compete with all of the restaurants easily accessible in Legacy West. The evening restaurant is actually the bar at Whiskey Moon. There is also room service available and a very overpriced take away market off the lobby.
The Renaissance Plano also has an above average executive lounge that offers a hot breakfast buffet and evening snacks that can double for a meal as it always includes a couple of entrée options like bao buns, pulled pork sliders and shrimp taco as well as salads and cheese and charcuterie options. I should note that I once got food poisoning here from a bad shrimp (I realize it is hard to pinpoint a source of food poisoning usually, but I had a shrimp that tasted off and I didn’t finish and then found myself worshipping my toilet about six hours later, so I’m confident that was the culprit). It was probably a one off occurrence of bad luck, but I no longer eat the shrimp offerings in the lounge. The lounge also has an honor bar in the evening and desserts later at night.
Service
The lounge service is always very good at this hotel. Additionally, the hotel offers an on demand shuttle to and from nearby offices which is convenient if it’s leaving when you need it. Otherwise, the service is unmemorable, but certainly not bad.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Nice to have walking access to shops and restaurants in this area
- Good gym facilities
- Above average lounge for a domestic US hotel
Cons
- Rooms feel small and dark
- Not great on site dining options
- I never sleep well here