My room was nice enough, but my view was that of an office window four feet from my window, complete with office worker staring back. The staff seem distracted and inattentive during my two day stay. Avoid room service - my meals were slow to arrive, were cold when they finally showed up and poorly prepared. The biggest challenge with this hotel, however, is reaching it. You have to park on the street a block away, where there is not always room for another car and walk around a corner and down the sidewalk to the hotel's entrance. This can be a huge hassle, especially when several guests are trying to check in and there is no room to pull up another car (which leaves you doing laps around the block in traffic hoping the valet moves a car). Also the walk from the car to the door can be less than pleasant on a cold, snowy Minnesota winter's day

Have been a Kimpton fan since staying at a resort in Scottsdale, AZ and this was my first chance to try another one of their hotels. Is now my top pick of chains -- only wish they had more locations.

Kimpton seems to be buying up really gorgeous landmarks and doing super trendy renos to give them a boutique feel. Don't know how they keep the prices so low, but am not complaining (i went for 3 days in Feb and it was $105/night -- about $20-60 less than other decent downtown hotels)

The Grand was an old athletic/gentleman's club in downtown Minneapolis and has a 2-level gym with a 6-lane pool in the basement. V. nice.

Also has a trendy bar, and upscale sushi/steakhouse restaurant with really good (tho slight pricey) food.

Rooms there are spacious and gorgeous -- mine had a huge tub I soaked in -- and am a big fan of the bathrobes Kimpton includes even in standard rooms.

Service was over-the-top good -- doormen v. solicitous, friendly front desk staff sent me up a kettle and tea so I didn't have to pay room service for a cuppa while working at the desk, and housekeeping left me a free pack of m&ms when they saw I'd eaten one from the minifridge (members of Kimpton's loyalty program get $10 minibar credit and free internet access)

I stayed here for business for 2 nights the first week of February. The hotel has a trendy lobby and little bar with limited menu but very tasty food and something for every type of eater. The hotel is conveniently located in downtown Minneapolis and the tunnels easily connect you to other parts of downtown.

The room is really nice with a comfortable bed, large bath tub and stand up shower. The hotel has a lot of smaller perks and some larger one such as a well equiped gym with multiple classes offered, lap swimming pool, free wifi, and a wine happy hour. I did not attend the wine happy hour though.

As far as service, the place is great. A few improvements could be the following: they should send you an email about the valet situation. The 3 times I pulled up to the valet station, an attendant was not available. After waiting 5 mins, I called the hotel and was told to leave my car on the road, (the valet booth is not in front of the hotel, it is on a different street) and bring the keys to the doorman. Everything was fine once I did this but an email in advance to the guests stating the parking options would have been great so I was not surprised when I left my car on a side road.

After working out at the gym, I really wanted a smoothie. This hotel offers a great "healthy yoga" menu but the smoothie options lacked entirely. I was told at the gym to check out Rare (hotel restaurant) for the smoothies. I went in my gym clothes to this nice restaurant where people are eating breakfast and asked to see the smoothie menu. I was told there is no menu, my options are peanut and skim milk with either strawberries or bananas and upon asking if I could have mine with soy milk, I learned this what not an option. I was not looking for a smoothie from Equinox where I workout but a few more options would have been great.

All in all, the hotel is absolutely great and the service is fantastic. They are just lacking on the valet, even if the valet guys put a sign up outside when they are not in the booth would have been better. I highly suggest to add better smoothie options to your menu especially when you are offering such a nice gym.

We stayed at the Grand Hotel for the first time and really enjoyed it. I made the reservations online and they sent a menu of possible additions or upgrades for our stay. We requested a luxury suite upgrade for a very reasonable price as well as a 4 pm check out time on Sunday. Our suite was large and the overall layout was very comfortable and private.
It was my husbands birthday and they sent us a lovely bottle of champagne, creme brûlée and cookies as a welcome treat. I signed up to become a Kimpton hotel member and we got free wi-fi for the weekend.
The Lifetime Fitness workout facility was a wonderful bonus to our stay. We ordered room service and our breakfast was hot and tasty. Every request was handled with prompt attention. The free wine tasting nightly was fun, the wine was nothing special but it was still fun. Nice bar area. Great location and easy to walk everywhere. We enjoyed the Grand much better than the Westin.
Two things, our bed was a little lumpy. It needed a new mattress. Two, we had a glitch at checkout and I didn't realize it until I looked at the bill the next day. We were overcharged for the room, so I contacted the concierge, e-mailed her my confirmation upgrades/ prices and she deducted several hundred dollars from our bill. Smooth as can be. We would return to the Grand on our next visit to Minneapolis.