Whitney Peak Hotel Reno (with world-record climbing wall): Bottom Line Review

A few months ago I was staying at the Hyatt Place Reno/Tahoe Airport when I noticed on Google Maps that there was a Tapestry Collection (one of Hilton’s brands) property downtown – the Whitney Peak hotel.

I took a look at it on Google Street View to see what the area looked like and immediately knew I needed to cut short my stay at the Hyatt Place and book a stay at the Whitney Peak for my remaining time. The reason why is what I saw on the exterior of the hotel – an enormous climbing wall.

Thankfully I’d booked my stay at the Hyatt Place as a six night stay and a five night stay, so I cancelled the second reservation and booked the Whitney Peak instead. Due to all the planning involved with the Million Mile Madness challenge at that time, I didn’t end up taking as much advantage of the hotel as I could have, but it was a great stay nonetheless – two thumbs up.

Whitney Peak Hotel Reno Bottom Line Review

The Whitney Peak is in a fantastic location, putting it within walking distance of everything downtown.

Staff members were friendly and the hotel is not only pet-friendly, but pet-welcoming. When checking in with our dog Truffles, they gave her a small Whitney Peak-branded tote bag containing a doggy bandana (which was about the same size as her!), a rope tug toy, collapsible water bowl and some poop bags in a fire hydrant holder. Considering she was cooped up in the room with me for much of the stay due to how busy I was work-wise, it was fantastic having a dog park only a block away in order for her to run around and chase after her ball.

For anyone into rock climbing, the hotel has incredible facilities both inside and outside the hotel. I’d intended to take advantage of the indoor bouldering park, but being up until 5am or later researching flights around the world for the Million Mile Madness challenge left me with little motivation to go rock climbing!

A surprising feature of the hotel was that it has a club lounge. I think this might’ve been my first Tapestry Collection property, but it wasn’t something I expected from that brand. Breakfast wasn’t provided in there, but the evening hors d’oeurves were decent enough.

If we ever return to Reno and want to stay downtown, I’d definitely look into booking another stay at this hotel.

• Points Price: When we stayed it cost 46,000 points per night. Seeing as I’d booked a 5 night stay and I have status with Hilton, we were able to take advantage of Hilton’s 5th night free feature on award stays which reduced the cost to 36,800 points per night.
• Cash Price: Cash rates for our dates in late October were $202.45 per night including tax.
• Points Value: Fair, although Hilton’s dynamic pricing means that this could vary depending on cash pricing and how heavily the hotel implements dynamic pricing on award stays. For our dates, we got 0.55 cents per point of value, but that does also take into account the 5th night free; otherwise it would’ve been 0.44 cents per point.
• Resort or Destination Fee: None.

• Parking: Yes, although it’s not on site. The parking lot is a block away and costs $7 per entry rather than per day. I’d parked there for four days before having to leave the garage to pick up my wife from the airport and only had to pay $7 rather than $28 which was nice; less nice if you’ll be coming and going a lot. You can also pay for valet parking for $25 per night.
• King Room: I booked a standard King room on their website which ended up being much larger than the photos on the website. It felt like a corner room, but that’s not a room type listed on the site, so perhaps I just got lucky.
  The reason it felt so large is because there was a massive amount of floor space. Despite all that space, somewhat inexplicably there was no couch. Instead, the only seating was a single armchair and an office chair by the desk.
  The room’s retro mini fridge was a fun touch, while all the colorful and patterned decor (particularly the wallpaper in both the bedroom and bathroom) gave the room personality.
• Housekeeping: I think I declined housekeeping throughout the stay as I was either working in the room or sleeping.
• Turndown service: None.
• Internet: This was good. I spent much of my five days there researching for Million Mile Madness and never had any issue with slow internet.
• Dining: The hotel’s restaurant is called Café Whitney and it’s open at the following hours:
  • Breakfast: Mon-Thur 6am-10am / Fri-Sun 6am-11am
  • Brunch: Sat-Sun 11am-1pm
  • Lunch: Mon-Thur 10am-3pm / Fri 11am-3pm / Sat-Sun 1pm-3pm
  • Dinner: Sun-Thur 4pm-9pm / Fri-Sat 4pm-10pm
  • Happy Hour: Mon-Thur 4pm-6pm
• Club Lounge: Yes. Morning coffee service is offered from 6am-9am during the week and from 7am-10am at weekends, while hors d’oeurves are provided every day from 5pm-7pm.
  The hors d’oeurves weren’t the most extensive offerings I’ve ever seen, but there was always a very good charcuterie board, vegetables and crackers, something else (e.g. turkey wraps) and a couple of dessert options. I ate up there on a few nights and was plenty full by the end of it. Soft drinks are complimentary, while beer and wine is paid for.
  There’s plenty of seating, so there was never any issue finding somewhere to sit. The club lounge is on the 15th (or 16) floors, so it provides some lovely views of the area (see photos at the end of the post).
• Spa: None, although there is a steam room and sauna.
• Fitness Room: This was a decent size with quite a lot of cardio and weight options.
• Rock Climbing: One of the most notable features of the hotel is its rock climbing facilities. The hotel is home to a 7,000 sq ft indoor competition level bouldering park, along with a separate bouldering room for children.
  Not only that, but the exterior of the hotel has a rock climbing wall all the way up its 16 floors which means it holds the Guinness Book of World Records award for as the world’s tallest artificial climbing wall. It truly is something to behold, but you have to pay $60 if you want to attempt it.
• Other Amenities: There’s a guest laundry area which costs $2.50 per load for washing and $1.50 per load for drying which is reasonable; laundry detergent is available for purchase.
• Pool: None, but there are the aforementioned steam room and sauna.
• Welcome Amenity: None
• Service: I didn’t have much interaction with staff members beyond checking in and out and ordering take out from Café Whitney, but they were always very friendly.
• Pet Policy: The Whitney Peak Hotel Reno is a pet-friendly property. There’s a $75 pet fee per stay (rather than per night). You can have up to three dogs in your room and there’s a weight limit of 150 lbs, so most dog owners won’t have a problem with their pup being too large.
  You get a doggy bag when checking in containing a tug toy, collapsible water bowl, bandana and poop bags with a poop bag holder. When exiting the hotel, turn left and walk a block; you’ll then see the Biggest Little Dog Park, an Astroturfed dog park with separate sections for large and small dogs. It’s fairly narrow, but both sections are long which gives a good opportunity for pups to run around.
• Location: It’s right next to the Reno Arch welcoming you to the city, just around the corner from Caesars and other casinos and there are lots of dining options nearby.
• Elite Benefits: Hilton Honors members with Gold or Diamond status get a $15 food & beverage credit per day per person (with a limit of two people). This can be redeemed for any meals – not just breakfast – but it’s ‘use it or lose it’ each day rather than being cumulative. Seeing as I was always up so late, I was rarely up in time for breakfast, so once or twice it went to waste. On our final morning we ordered breakfast, another time I ordered some appetizers and another time I ordered an entrée for dinner rather than going to the club lounge for dinner.
  Having Diamond status also meant that I got access to the club lounge which came in handy in the evenings.
  I might’ve received an upgraded room when checking in, but I didn’t ask for one and they didn’t mention giving one.
• Would I stay again? Definitely. I’d probably look at all my other options too as 46,000 Hilton points per night isn’t cheap, but I enjoyed the stay and would love to have a chance to go back and use their rock climbing walls as it’s been a couple of decades since I last did that.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Location – A great location downtown
• Club lounge – Breakfast isn’t provided there, but the evening hors d’oeurves were sufficient for me
• Pet-friendliness – Truffles enjoyed the attention she got from the front desk employees, having a dog park only a block away and the goody bag she received.

Cons

• Bedroom seating – It would’ve been nice to have a couch in the room. It didn’t end up being an issue for this stay as my wife only arrived on the final night, but there was plenty of space for one in the room.

Image Gallery

Bedroom

Bathroom

Club Lounge

Café Whitney

Rock Climbing

Amenities

Pets

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