I spent a long weekend at the Renaissance hotel in Boca Raton. I’ve stayed here before, it’s the most convenient hotel to my grandparents’ place in Boca. It’s also the only 4* property in the relevant zone on Priceline and I managed to score the place for $55 — for a weekend in December!

While it’s mainly geared towards business travelers — the club lounge offers breakfast Monday to Friday and evening hor d’ourves Sunday through Thursday — it’s a nice escape for leisure travel as well.

The Renaissance is convenient off of the 95 freeway, all you do is turn onto “Renaissance Way” after exiting Glades Road. When I first stayed at the hotel the street name was “Sheraton Way” giving away the fact that the property used to be a Sheraton. It’s right next to two strip malls and just down the street from a major mall which has everything you could need. On the other side of the mall is the Boca Raton Marriott, a nice hotel where I’ve stayed at as well. That hotel seems to generate higher average room rates (my impression only), though I’d gladly choose the Renaissance from among the two.

Staff here are some of the friendliest I’ve encountered. Greetings from every staff member on property are on par with well-trained Ritz-Carlton personnel.

The pool area is fabulous for a non-resort hotel.

There are plenty of trees and a rock formation waterfall. The grounds are immaculate. The only aesthetic drawback to the public spaces is that tiles on the roof of the hotel are missing, victims of the late-October hurricane.

There’s free parking, free wireless internet in the rooms and public spaces, and throughout the day free treats are in the lobby. For most of my stay there were fresh baked cookies, mimosas, and orange juice.

Turn down service included the obligatory chocolates and water bottles. The nice touch was that, after the maid noticed ice in my ice bucket when cleaning the room the second day the bucket was filled with ice the second and third evenings I was at the hotel.

The rooms themselves are fairly standard. There are a handful of suites, but otherwise the rooms seem all the same in configuration. The only differences are whether or not you have a pool view, and club floor and ‘female friendly’ rooms have additional amenities such as plush robes.

Perhaps the only fault to the service was they housekeeping didn’t refresh the toileteries in the bathroom at all during my stay. I had plenty, so I didn’t go without, but I found it odd.

Continue after the jump for more photos.

Entry sign

Hotel driveway

Lobby of Hotel

The pool scene isn’t what you’d expect from South Florida — Boca sure isn’t South Beach!

The roof still shows damage from the hurricane

Entryway to my room

Bed in my room

The rest of the room

Bathtub

Toilet and sink

View of the Marriott from the Renaissance