The hotel is beautiful. The rooms are large and well appointed.
I see that someone who reviewed did not like the room service in a paper bag. I ordered room service breakfast. It was delivered by a nice young man and it was in a brown paper bag. The young man was over the moon because I tipped him (he apparently was not used to that). The breakfast sandwich was delicious as were the fried potatoes in the brown box inside the brown paper bag. And the potatoes were crispy. I was pleased.

Because people had complained about the bar and the restaurant, I did not go to either.

Great location for the Civic Theater and restaurants.

I was in Des Moines for four nights. The renaissance was well located for my meetings- room was quiet, good bedding, and a nice bar/restaurant for dinner and terrific breakfast buffet. Staff were exceptionally friendly. My only complaint is an overly complicated room air conditioning system that was either on or off or hot or cold.