Concierge.com's insider take:

When the Vail Plaza Hotel & Club reopened as the Sebastian in January 2011, the hotel's best feature remained the same: its location at the gateway to Vail Village. Not much else has changed, either. There are still 107 plush but neat-as-a-pin rooms (including seven suites) and 36 private residences. And you can still avoid schlepping a single piece of gear, thanks to valets for, well, everything. The subtle transformation did add more treatment rooms and services at the renamed Bloom Spa; more options for caffeine and carbs at the new Market café; and, supposedly, the largest Scotch collection in the Colorado Rockies at the new Frost bar. At the in-house fine-dining restaurant, Block 16, chef Sergio Howland (who hails from sister property Esperanza in Los Cabos, among other resorts) marries Maine lobster with braised veal cheeks; for dessert, he studs brownies with pine nuts. Given the soaring entryway and 8,000-foot conference center, it's hard to think of this place as "boutique," though, as the new management does.—Sarah Tuff