Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort, Cancun [Master Thread]

The Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort SVO will be taking its place in 2008.

It appears to be a timeshare resort. Will it participate in the SPG program? Will it be bookable as a hotel?

Earlier this month I saw the worksite for the new Westin timeshare is moving along quickly. From what I saw they have made a lot of progress if they were just tearing down the sheraton a couple of months ago.

Anyone been there yet? Its bookable but only with limited participation? Will i get points for the stay? Nights? Will they honor my SPG Platinum status?

Dear members,

My colleagues at the property(Director of Revenue Management) has written back to me with some helpful answers.

Q. Will members earn any Starpoints for stays based on RACK, COR, BAR1 and AAA?
A. Yes
Q. Will the stays be credited? Any in-hotel benefits such as upgrades?
A. Stays will be credited, upgrades are only available to platinum members and base upon availability
Q. How about redemption of free nights and SPG50?
A. No

Hope this helps.

[email protected]

All in all a nice stay. Wife and I traded in SVN options to stay. I received points for room charges, and my gold bonus. Nice layout, although crazy color scheme. Will be really nice when all construction is done.

What was the room rate? I'm gonna stay with 30% discount rate, will it earn points and stay? THX

In late November/early December I booked three rooms for two nights at the Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort in late December for myself and family (two reservations both in my name). I booked the rooms on SPG.com and Rate Plan Description was listed on the website as “Best Available Rate”. Based on Starwood Lurker II post above I expected to get Starpoints for the room and wasn't sure about other expenses charged to the room. When I checked-in I asked again about Starpoints and was told that I will get them.

The total amount was well over 30,000 pesos. When the points didn't show up, I faxed the folios to SPG (the web site showed Westin Lagunamar, but the amount was too high so it told me to fax). About two days later my account showed credit based on $1911 (3822 points for Westin Lagunamar, followed by 1911 points "SPG ELITE 50% BONUS".

Yesterday the points were removed (the entries are gone, not a negative transaction) and I received the following email
I replied with an email pointing out that when I booked the rate it didn't say that the is not eligible for points, my stay didn't involve any Vacation Ownership deal, exchange or spacial rate, it was "Best Available Rate". I also referred to and linked Thyetus Lee's post above.

The response I got is:
Per this email above "Limited Participation" is the same as no Participation ("they do not participate in Starwood Preferred Guest").

So who is right, SPG.com & Starwood Lurker II or the two Specialists?

Is there any way to escalate this?
Is the right approach to call the Platinum desk?

I would start by sending your SPG account number to Starwood Lurker II, so he can look into this further. Then, if the information provided to him by the DORM for this hotel was incorrect, he can amend his posting upthread and see about getting your stay posted as a gesture of goodwill.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

William is right. Drop me a note with details of your previous stay and account and I will write to the property for assistance.

[email protected]

Thanks, I just send an email to Starwood Lurker II with my version of the story and the correspondence I had with SPG.

While I'm not happy about not getting the points (hopefully this will change). I have to give Starwood credit for caring about customer satisfaction. Not only both Starwood Lurker and Starwood Lurker II offered an avenue for follow-up, but I also got an email from the E-Communications Department. After the second e-mail I filled out a quick survey (the link was in the email) and indicated that I was dissatisfied with the response. I never expected anyone to contact me as a result of this, getting a non-form letter response after less than 24 hours shows me that people in Starwood really due care (even it this particular issue doesn't get resolved).

There are a lot of things I like about the SPG program.

But I am not so much disappointed as angered that Starwood allows hotels to carry a Starwood brand while not honoring their SPG obligations.

Why is this tolerated? Why is the Lanesborough allowed to call itself a St Regis?* How can a property call itself a Westin, even an SVO Westin, sell room at a Best Available Rate at spg.com, and then hide behind a disclaimer and say that it doesn't fully participate in SPG?

It's not good enough. It's brings Starwood and Starwood Preferred Guest into disrepute.

* Obviously the Lanesborough is different: it doesn't have "butlers" who never do any work and it doesn't have "concierges" who charge an undisclosed mark-up for performing services which are done for nothing by concierges at other luxury hotels.

Sagy, thanks for sharing your recent problem. I was planning on staying a few nights there (also on BAR) next month. No Starpoints could change my mind. Please let us know what becomes of this.

How was your actual stay? I'd be very interested to know...

Overall not bad.

It is a new building in a good location with clean rooms. The infinity pool is great (especially if you have kids). Most of the staff was nice and attentive. The timeshare people left us alone after we said that we are not interested.

The hotel has a "business center" with 6-8 PCs which is opened 24 hours a day and any guest can access for free the same is true for the workout room. There is also a small convenience store which can be useful.

We stayed at Studio rooms (3 rooms three people in each). Each room has a kitchen, we only took advantage of the refrigerator. I don't think that is enough room to have a dinner in the Studio room (unless you are alone), but this can be useful for snacks or breakfast. The room has a Queen bed and a pullout sofa (I think it is also a Queen). We had no problems with two adults and a child in each room, I think that anymore would be pushing it unless you only use the room for sleeping.

On the downside, food service at both the restaurant (for dinner) and at the pool side (for lunch) was extremely slow (even by local standards). We were the only ones at the restaurant (maybe we should have gotten the message), we had two waiters around us all the time but the food took forever to arrive. The meals at both the restaurant and pool side were more expensive than anywhere else we eat in Cancun. My advice, if you need something quick to eat, would be to go across the street - you will get better food, faster and you will pay less.

I'm probably in the minority, but other than the location, I liked the Westin Resort & Spa better.

Thanks Sagy, good to know.

I was thinking of combining 3 nights there with a 5-night award stay at the Le Méridien just for a change of scenery and to check it out, Lagunamar being new and all. But if it didn't impress you favorably compared to the Westin, perhaps I should stick to the Le Méridien for the whole week.