I stayed here for one night on Nov 19th. Room was clean, although it seemed a little cramped. There was a kitchenette with a small stove and full size refrigerator. Breakfast was meager, as it was cereal, oatmeal, coffee and bananas. A little more variety would have been nice. The hotel is within walking distance to downtown.

Changed our stay from the Depot Renaissance to the Towneplace because we were traveling with little ones and the Marriott Website indicated breakfast was included. Wasn't expecting much but was expecting more than dry cereal and a muffin. Stay elsewhere more centrally located and go to Starbucks for breakfast.

Marriott Platinum member - so I know pretty much what to expect and I didn't expect this!

Two weeks in a row I stayed at this hotel. The first visit was five nights the second was supposed to be five, but luckily I got to leave a day early. When I went to check out, the very nice girl behind the desk had to get the GM. He informed me that he was raising the rate $20 a night because I only stayed 4nights and it says rate is based on stay length. I can understand, but I had just stayed five nights the previous week and have stayed over 120 nights at marriotts this year, all I wanted was to pay my bill as originally set and go home. As a frequent business traveller I can tell you that the GM Mike doesn't care how much business you do with Marriott, only what extra he can charge you. My suggestion to loyal Marriott customers... Avoid this one, there are plenty of other marriotts around that will appreciate your business. (admittedly as he walked away I said, "I guess staying at marriotts over 120 nights in a year doesn't get you much here". Not my proudest moment but very true here.)
Avoid!!!

As you would expect from a Marriott property, this hotel is clean, modern, and comfortable. When searching for accomodations in downtown Minneapolis I noticed that rates varied greatly for the same hotels depending upon dates possiblity due to conventions or other large gatherings. Because this TownePlace Suites is on the fringe of downtown, and evidently is mostly patronized by tourists vs. business travelors, I suspect the rates are more stable. We paid $101 per night plus the $13 parking. As another reviewer mentioned, you can park free on the street from 6:pm Friday until Monday morning. However you need to get a space early so what you should do is move your car from the hotel lot about 4pm and put money in the meter ($1 or so) to get you past 6. If you wait until 6 there may not be any spaces as the area has many apartment houses. In my experience, Marriot's never give you a free breakfast. This one must have received complaints because they had cereal and milk for the children but little else.

A number of eating places are near the hotel but they are not on the hotel street. You need to go out the back door of the hotel through the alley and a passageway to Washington Ave. There you will find several restaurants including a very good, a busy, pizzeria. The hotel is about 1/2 mile from the baseball stadium and several restaurants on the way. As you would expect from a yuppie area near a sports arena, several of the eating places have a dozen or so TV's all on different channels and loud, blaring noise which I suppose passes for pop music these days. There are also a number of strip joints and girlie shows in the area so maybe this is the city's red light district although I can't be sure as I am not familiar with this part of the Country.

You can walk to downtown with access to the extensive skywalk system in 15 or 20 minutes. You can also board the light rail at the baseball stadium and take it to the other end of the line which is in one of the Mall of America's parking lots. Incidentally I detest suburban shopping malls but this one seemed rather pleasant maybe because I did not have to drive to it. However in reality it is just a bigger version of your standard America suburban shopping mall with all of the familiar stores plus an amusement park for children. I guess I was expecting something unique based on all of the hype I have heard about over the years.