Starwood Preferred Guest - Western Hilton Head

I am planning a trip first week of June , was looking for some recent opinions an review of this property.

I currently have 2 rooms booked with points on the club floor. What room type do you recommend ? Additionally, what is the chance of an upgrade to a suite for a Gold ?

Thanks FTers

Bump :eek:

I stayed there last weekend (Apr 2-4). We didn't try to upgrade (maybe we should have?

It's a pretty nice property among the southern ilk, i.e. no marble in the rooms/common areas but very clean, spacious, pretty nice decorations.

The hotel is shaped like the bottom half of a hexagon, so even if you get a beach-facing room, there is some chance you will be looking more at the inner part of the hexagon (i.e. pool, outdoor restaurant) than the ocean.

The weekend we were there the hotel did not seem full (I think it was going to fill up on Sunday for Easter week guests), and there were JUST enough pool seats to fit you and have some extra space for personal comfort, but I wonder what it would be like if hotel were full. The outdoor jacuzzi isn't particularly warm, but everyone used it because 70 degrees isn't hot enough to use the pool when it's windy as it was last weekend.

The beach has hard-packed sand (good for riding bikes) and a fairly thin sliver of real sand for playing around. You have to pay for a canopy (not clear if the business was affiliated with the Westin) but you can reserve it in advance at the hotel. The beach stretches for quite a while westward and into a forest area eastward.

The golf and tennis facilities are part of the local plantation clubs and are a 5-10 min walk away. You have to pay to use the tennis facilities, which are fine. They make a list of the top 50 tennis clubs in America. I don't golf but the golf course and facilities seemed well-kept.

Service from a people standpoint was very good, respectful and attentive. We had some problems with our brunch order and they fixed it right away.

Internet is only $10.45. I thought the rooms if they weren't super modern were what I would have expected from a resort hotel in terms of cleanliness and decor. The minibar has those sensors that charge you if you take the item off the stand.

There isn't much else around. You have to hop in a car to get to anything else interesting. The hotel is about a mile off the main William Hilton Parkway. Lots of condos around the hotel.

What would weather be like around Christmas? Notice the hotel posts very attractive rates (around $100) during that time. Wonder if it's because the weather will be quite awful? Please help. Thanks!

. . ...........

Thank you, scruffy, that was very helpful. :)

I spent a week at the Westin Hilton Head for a conference and really enjoyed the hotel. Its a nice place, well kept up, and I got a great suite upgrade. I would definately go back.
The only strange thing was I had no cell phone reception at the hotel. I think it was a problem for most of the people at the conference.

We stayed here a couple of times over the past several years (tho the last time was probably 2-3 years ago).....

If its still open the hotel restaurant, I think its called the "Carolina Cafe" or some such thing,,,,has a GREAT seafood buffet. We were searching the Island for a real good one, and all the locals told us to go to the Westin....

It was well worth it....

Have fun!

Thanks to all for your wonderful insights!

I will be staying at the Westin in Hilton Head Island in July. Does the property have a club level or lounge? Any experiences from platinum members who have stayed at the property before?

Thanks.

Are there any updated reports on this property?

IAD777 - How were you treated as platinum?

Susan

I'll just add that as Gold we were upgraded to an ocean view room. Because it was at the end of the hall, it really did face the beach and the ocean directly. The buffet was quite good, but we didn't eat in their more expensive restaurant. You have a choice of eating on the terrace outside or inside.

We visited several other resort properties, including the Hilton and the Marriott, and I would definitely say the Westin was the nicest. It's correct, however, that it is located at the north end of the island and a little bit remote from much of the rest of what Hilton Head has to offer, but not more than 15 minutes at most to anywhere else.

The drive from the Savannah airport was about 45 minutes. If you drive into Savannah (well worth it if you haven't been there, IMO), it's about an hour.

Just returned from a New Year's weekend stay at the Westin.

Mrs. Junkie and I were looking for a quiet weekend getaway and we got exactly that. Any staff members that we encountered were friendly and polite. The room was clean and the location was excellent. If you want a room that directly faces the ocean (there aren't too many of these at the hotel) you need to reserve an 'Ocean FRONT' room, rather than 'Ocean VIEW'. Our reserved Ocean Front room overlooked a pristine, nearly empty, beach. If you ever buy a relaxation CD with the sound of the perfect wave breaking on the shore, it was probably recorded from here :)

As far as services, since this was off-season we didn't expect much. They still charge a resort fee of $10, which is not included in the room rate. Essentially, this offsets what they would have charged for self-parking anywhere else. The in-room broadband connection (wired Ethernet) worked fine (we went for the $16.00/day Ethernet and unlimited telephone package).

Cell phone signal (Verizon) was about 75% reliable in the immediate area of the hotel.

To answer the weather question, it was about 40 F at night and 70 in the daytime.

I had one problem, about which (for some reason) the staff didn't seem too concerned. Our "Heavenly Bed", with the "Heavenly Comforter" also included a "Heavenly Pair of Sweat Socks". We really tried to convince ourselves that the socks were trapped in the duvet cover during the last laundry cycle. The other option (the socks were left over from the previous guest and the bedsheets were never washed) left a less than "Heavenly" image in our minds. Given the fact that it was a complete pair of socks, the latter unfortunately seems more likely.

I now have an additional ritual when I arrive in a hotel room: remove the blanket and top sheet from the bed completely and shake them out. I will no longer just slide into bed as if it's a human-sized envelope.