The Omni is GREAT

I came into Richmond with my mother who had business meetings at the Omni, so naturally we (are currently) staying here as well! It's a lovely hotel our room is a corner room with windows covering 2 of the 4 walls....the bathroom is very large and the meeting rooms are nice....as for the previous remark about the business center, if you have a laptop they have DSL plugups AND wireless net in the rooms(for free), the power stays on no surges. They also have a hotel van that will take you anywhere within 5 miles of the hotel, that will definatly get you to Cary street which is full of of about 100 eclectic stores (semi-pricey) but well worth the visit. This will also get you to Virginia Commonwealth Univ. if you're here for college visits... also if you're flying not driving well there's not a $17 fee!! ....and just for the humorous side of my review...my mother does forensic science so I did a "black light test" on our room...it passed with flying colors...NOTHING strange!! The staff is excellent.

More than a little overrated

Looks like I'll have to spoil the good reviews. Here's the good I found during a 2-night stay with my girlfriend....EXCELLENT downtown location. This place is within walking distance to just about everything in the Shockhoe Slip/downtown Richmond area. Beautiful lobby, friendly staff, friendly bell service.

Now the bad...

The rooms are VERY small. I paid for a "club room" on the "club floor" , as I was told these are the slightly larger rooms of the hotel. If this is the case, I would probably shudder and crawl out the door of a standard room at this hotel. The club room we had could barely hold the king-sized bed and coffee table/loveseat. Although we were on the 18th floor, the view stunk. I had requested a James River view weeks in advance (and as an Omni Select member, too) and instead got to stare at a lovely parking garage and back alley the whole time.

Several times during our stay our room lost all power. This would happen for a minute at a time, the front desk would apologize, the power would come back on. Business center had only one computer and it was never working due to the "power surges"...oh, and you also have to pay about 3 bucks just to log onto the internet, followed by a minute-by-minute fee. Parking at the hotel also costs 17 bucks per night.

Last straw was the lock malfunction on our room door. Three times we had to trek back down to the lobby to get new keys. During one 20 minute ordeal, we had to wait as housekeeping, a manager and then finally security struggled to unlock our room door, again due to "power surges in the security computer" or something. It took a guy manually opening the door with a key to open it. No apologies were given, nothing was comped whatsoever. Just a shrug from the security guy warning us not to leave anything too valuable in the rooms. Ummm... ok, terrific.

We checked out a day early due to this (we had booked for 3 nights, left after 2), and headed home.

A gorgeous, charming city....we plan to come back, but to a different hotel!

Nice Hotel in a Nice City

I stayed at the Omni for 2 days over the holidays. The hotel is really lovely and the staff was very nice. The hotel is well located but he area seems a bit desolate at night. This was the first time I was in Richmond and I was surprised by how nice and interesting the city is. I walked all over and enjoyed different parts of the city. I was dissappointed that the Art Museum was closed (on a Tuesday.....which was rather strange) because I heard that they have a fine collection. All in all I enjoyed my stay in Richmond and at the Omni.

Great Staff & Comfy Room

This was a pleasant experience, from the moment we walked in and were warmly greeted by the desk clerk. Check-in was fast, and the room was spacious and had a nice pillow-top king bed, which felt great after coming back from a concert at Alley Katz. While riding the elevator down on our way to check-out, a staff member asked how our stay was. Hint: We parked in a garage right across the street -- $3 for the night. Nice accomodations, convenient location, + great staff puts this hotel at the top.

Enjoyed Stay

I stayed here on my wedding night and got a great room I believe on the 17th floor. We were very impressed with the hotel and really enjoyed our brief stay at the Omni. By the way--we got a great deal for our room through Priceline. So do some research before you pay full price.

Great experience, but sticker shock!!

We stayed at Omni to attend a wedding. The service was wonderful, as were the banquet facilities and the indoor pool. We had a lovely room, but it did have the smell of lingering smoke even though it was a non-smoking room. Our bathroom, although not modern, was luxurious with a TV. The staff was helpful with directions and much of downtown and the canal restaurants were within walking distance. The breakfast buffet was one of the best we've ever tried. The only cons were a $10 a night overcharge from the price listed on the OMNI website for "fees" and the $17 parking charge a night, which was also not noticed anywhere. We would stay there again, but would ask beforehand about any hidden costs

Very nice hotel

We stayed at the Omni for our wedding night in September 2001. They knew we had just gotten married and provided us with a room on a private floor (you need a special key to access it through the elevator). They also had champagne, strawberries, and some dessert goodies waiting for us in our room. The service was excellent. We enjoyed our stay!

Absolutely loved our stay!

Discovered the Omni while walking through downtown Richmond. We were thrilled to find such a lovely, welcoming hotel! Had made reservations for the previous night at a local hotel that turned out to be a nightmare. Omni was clean, beautiful, and right in the middle of the best places to visit. Must say that the staff was fabulous! Extremely polite, and went out of their way to make sure we were cared for. Never worried about a thing... Helpful directions were offered whenever we needed them. One very polite valet made sure we had $5.00 discount tickets to dinner. Cannot say enough about the beautiful room on 17th floor. Exceptionally clean, fresh, lovely. Only problem: low water pressure, but we were more than willing to deal with that in order to stay there. Would go again anytime!

Very Nice!

This is likely the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. It isn't cheap, but is well worth the upscale rates. There are no negatives. Highly recommend!

Richmond Omni - Better than average

The Richmond Omni, located in Downtown Richmond, is a very nice hotel -

probably not the 4 Star claimed in Priceline.com, but very nice. The

staff is wonderfully helpful, and the food was very good. The pool was

quite nice as well.My complaints center around smoking, and batroom

fixtures. We stayed on what was billed as a "Non Smoking" floor, the

8th floor, Room 809 specifically. There was a distinct, but low level

odor of cigarettes that was noticable every time you entered the room.

I did not notice it in the hall, and it did not seem to cling to my

clothes, but I did notice it. We were traveling with a 6 and a 3 year

old, and it bothered me to have them around it, but they never noticed

it. As for the bathroom fixtures, they were in somewhat shoddy

condition. To me they didn't look too clean - the rest of the bathroom

was spotless - and one faucet top to the handle was missing while the

other faucet handle would spin if you turned the water off to hard.It

just seemed like things were getting a bit worn out and needed to be

replaced.The location is wonderful though, right at the top of Sockhoe

Slip, near the old canal walk, and a short drive to Maymount. Speaking

of Maymount, the Omni staff was so nice, they actually got into their

own car to lead us over to Maymount so we wouldn't get lost. Way above

the call of duty in my mind.I'd give it 3.5 stars.