hk_whAAle

Hi.

I did a search and did not see any recent threads on the Westin St. Louis Downtown. I have trip planned there this weekend and was wondering if anyone has any recent thoughts or tips on the hotel. How are the rooms? Any luck with getting upgraded to a "Preferred Room"? What is the parking situation like?

Thanks in advance for the scouting report.

ep_jr

I stayed there about a month after it opened and was highly impressed. I got a plat upgrade to a jr. suite that was absolutely fantastic. Very cool, modern furnishings. I didn't have a car, but remember there being valet parking (don't know the cost). The hotel has a nice gym and is located right by a subway stop that runs straight to downtown.

Interestingly enough, I checked out on a Thursday morning, thinking I would catch a PM flight. Later in the day I had to push back my flight to Friday. I checked back into the hotel and asked if they could upgrade me to the Presidential Suite. They obliged!! It was amazing. Probably 2200 sf. Had georgeous furnishings, bathrooms, a sleek frosted glass dining room table for 20 and a brand new pool table. I had a blast!

sully242

I just stayed last week. It is a nice property. The club floor is suppose to open this week. Try to get on it if you don't get the "Presidential"

DLSIZE

Just thought since this came up I would post my experience from this past Friday/Saturday. I was leaving late from STL on Sat so requested late checkout. I was at Ameristar St Charles playing poker and got to room about 5am before I hit the sack. Around 1pm, I wake up to find two housekeepers staring at me in my room! Nice shock to wake up to. One was the head housekeeper who has a special key to disengage the swing lock. Needless to say I got the room for free. Beware or lurkers at the Westin....no pun intended on William :-) Otherwise, hotel was nice. I like the furnishings.

NickyD

Just a few questions for anybody who might know about the Westin St. Louis.

1) In the description of the room I booked, it says "Deluxe Rm Approx.16X35 W/Impressive High Ceilings And Spacio Us Sitting Area. Contemporary Decor W/Separate Shower/Bath", are all the rooms like this? Or did I just book into a specific floor?

2) If this is a deluxe room, what are their luxury rooms/suites like?

3) I believe there is an Executive Club here, are the rooms on the Club floor any nicer?

4) How are the hotel restaurants? I'm trying to find the best places to feed my 2 yr old son... Right now, he's mostly only eating McDonald's Cheeseburgers and French Fries. :P

Thanks for any information you can give.

Nick.

tfjim

The room you booked is the standard room, and they are impressive. Quite large. This is not a specific floor.

I don't know specifics about suites, but they apparently are in a separate building which opened recently. I don't know anyone that's been in the new section yet. When I stayed at the Westin last year they indicated that Starwood plat, etc. would be upgraded to this area when it opened.

There is only one restaurant in the hotel and it is not great. Service is lacking. There are a few fast food restaurants (Wendys and TGI Fridays) about 3 blocks away at Kiener Plaza.

NickyD

Had two rooms at the Westin St. Louis this weekend. (Had some troubles with reservations, but I've hashed that to death.) One room was a Deluxe room on the 7th (top) floor, King Size bed, nice sized sitting area with a full-sized couch (might pull out into a bed), very modern furnishings. [The other room we had was with 2 queens, they had a chair and Ottoman and very little sitting room comparatively.]

The view I had of the seven story parking garage next door was offset by the taller buildings of downtown St. Louis behind it. The room itself was beautiful and spacious, though a little too brown for my tastes. (The hotel is sortof of different shades of brown...made it feel kindof dreary on the cloudy days.) The bathrooms in this hotel were amazing though, more like a W than other Westin's I've been in. Big Roman Tub, seperate glass screened Shower, lots of space. I very much enjoyed the room...never saw a suite, but there was plantey of space for my wife and I, and a crib for our 2 yr old. He even had plantey of space to run and play...the 12 foot cieling made it difficult to get one of his helium balloons down though.

I had lunch in the Clark Street Grill twice and breakfast once. A smaller establishment, the service was wonderful and the food was decent.

This is not the most family friendly hotel. There isn't a lot for kids to do in or around the hotel. He did get a great Westin Kid's Club hat.

The Valets and Front Desk clerks were helpful and earnest though they didn't seem to be the most knowledgable people about SPG or even the city of St. Louis. Given that it was a holiday weekend though, the hotel staff was very light. No Concierge at the concierge desk, the Desk Clerk doubled as a Valet, never saw the hotel manager at all...

I'd rate this hotel about an 8 out of 10. I'll probably stay here again, though next time I'll probably try the Sheraton at Kiel Center just to see if it might be more family friendly.

Oh, and Valet parking is $15/day, supposedly self parking is $12/day, but it seems if you don't tell them that you parked the car in their lot, they can't tell and won't charge you. (Accorrding to a cousin who wasn't charged for parking at all.)

Other than my problem with reservations, the only fiasco was that one cousin had a dress sent out to be pressed on Friday Night, she was assured it would go out Saturday morning and be ready in time for Mass on Sunday. Sunday Morning they found that the dress had never been sent out; they were comped breakfast as an apology. This marks the second time that dry cleaning in St. Louis has failed for me. :P I'm never trying to send clothes out in St. Louis ever again.

holland

I always redeem my free weekends & nights for travel with family. More often than not I'm upgraded into a room with a single bed (with my original request of 2 beds not available) or somesuch. This past weekend my family (wife, two 3.5 yr old daughters, 9 mo old son) spent the weekend at the W in St. Louis.

At checkin, I was a bit confused when the front desk person asked, "Do you have parking with us?" I responded, "I'm not sure -- I need to park my car somewhere if that's what you mean?" and she asked if I wanted self park ($12/day) or valet ($15/day). Since self parking was so close, I took that and got the keys to the room (two queen beds; no suites available for the next 2 weeks). I also asked about access to the club level and was told "It's on the 4th floor."

When I got to the room, I was very impressed. It was a corner room on the top floor and while overlooking a parking lot wasn't the best view, it was a very spacious room with two queen "Heavenly" beds and a very large marble bathroom. I phoned down to the front desk to ask that a crib be brought up and was told it would be.

We had to leave for a wedding, so on the way past the front desk, I spoke with the same person who checked me in to ask for some paper or plastic cups so the kids wouldn't shatter the nice ones they put in the marble bathroom. She stepped into the office and returned a moment later saying, "She's putting them in your crib..." and I said they could go ahead and put the crib & cups in our room as we were leaving for the afteronon. This was approximately 2pm.

We got back to the hotel at 8:30pm with a very tired baby and to my surprise found no crib. A call to the front desk found there were no more cribs available and I informed them that they'd better deliver one pronto as I'd been told at 2pm one was on it's way to our room, and I had a child ready to sleep. At 9:45 a crib was delivered to the room which they'd aparantly gotten from the Marriot next door. I appreciated the work of the person at the desk during the evening shift to get the problem resolved, and thanked her.

The next morning we couldn't find a club on the 4th floor so we stopped at the front desk. Another person was working on Saturday morning, and gave us directions (through the tressle/skywalk to the other building, etc) and said the girl who checked us in should have explained that. "Nope, she just said it was on the 4th floor." Back up to 4 we went and found the club, but my room key failed to open the door. We knocked and the concierge let us in and asked what room we were in. He was puzzled we didn't have a separate key for the club since our room was on another floor of the other building (but checked our account and made us a key on the spot, aparantly verifying that we were allowed to use the club). I told him I wasn't really surprised; the girl who checked us in didn't seem to have much of a clue. We got several recommendations for entertainment with the kids and went on our way.

The rest of our stay was very uneventful; great family entertainment recommendations from both the club and lobby concierges, great local restaurant recommendations, etc. We REALLY enjoyed the heavenly beds and the spacious rooms, along with the snacks in the club. When I checked out, I had an "under the door in the middle of the night" receipt for $55/night with 0 starpoints earned. I stopped at the desk to settle the incidentals (parking) and was told it was a zero dollar bill, and they couldn't print a receipt showing that. I'm guessing they took care of the parking either because the girl who checked us in didn't get it entered right, or because of the fiasco with the crib as a goodwill gesture.

Since I don't have a receipt to verify I'm not being charged for the stay, I'm going to watch my statement closely. Otherwise, it was a very nice stay in a very nice hotel; I'd love to see the suites someday on the stadium side of the hotel. With the exception of the initial front desk contact, every member of the staff was very customer focused and made our stay enjoyable. I would definitly go back (and hope they've trained that particular front desk person better).

Gregmo24

This could have been the worst Starwood experience I’ve ever had. As a Starwood Platinum member with 145 nights stayed this year, I was slapped in the face with the reality that I should be lucky that the Westin in St. Louis is letting me stay in their hotel!! As a Starwood member I was looking for a property that was within close proximity of my client site. With the rate already $35 more per night more than our preferred 4 star Marriott property I still chose to stay at the Westin.

When I visited club lounge on the welcome desk they were distributing the club rules; and printed in black & white it stated the club hours, specifically breakfast hours Monday – Friday 6:00 am – 8:30 am. So Friday morning when I get up to go eat breakfast much to my surprise they have the same stale cookies that were out from the night before. So when I go downstairs to check out, I ask why there was no breakfast, and the front desk clerk gets her manager. Apparently this is when I should have considered myself lucky for staying in their hotel. When I asked her about the situation she claimed that due to low occupancy the club lounge was closed. That’s when I replied but your published club rules don’t say anything about low occupancy, it says Monday – Friday. That is when she says, “I don’t have to do this, but I will go ahead and give you a voucher for breakfast in the restaurant.”

With that comment in mind I cancelled my reservation for next week, and will take that phrase with me when I’m booking the remainder of my stays through June.

Westin of St. Louis I’m sorry for the inconvenience of staying in your hotel through Friday. I guess I will take my $575 a week to the Renaissance Grand where they actually serve breakfast in their club lounge every morning, and I’ll get to save $160!!

Thanks!!
Gregory Jackson
Disgruntled Platinum SPG

Richard_SVO_SPG_Platinum

Greg...wow, sounds like a pretty arrogant manager. Why not contact the hotel's business transient sales mgr. Tell them you are interested in an engagement lodging rate discount for an extended stay...less than the Marriott which would include vouchers for breakfast and guaranteed executive suite upgrade (free internet, etc.). You may be able to work out a much better deal for your company and yourself and still stay loyal to Starwood and remain Platinum in 2007.

wth

I totally share your frustration with the service and attitude you received at this property. It was completely uncalled for and actually never should have had to go to a manager in the first place. The desk agent should have been aware of the issue and been in a position to address it.

That said, if this was the "worst Starwood experience" you've ever had, you are doing rather well, IMHO. If this is even your worst Westin esxperience, you are ahead of most of us.

high_flyer

Agreed. Inconvienence, yes. Snotty. Sounds like it.

I could actually probably use a few less breakfasts anyway...

Too much "free" food in my life is causing me problems...

edinmhd

Had a similar issue there last week. Checked in Sunday Night (past midnight). The front desk clerk did not give me a Club key (which they generally do). When I asked about it, she told me the club was closed the next morning. When I asked if there were alternate arrangements for Platinum members for breakfast, I received a curt "no". This was surprising... at the Westport Plaza, the lounge has been closed before, and I always am warned, and offered a complementary breakfast coupon.

It's a bit disappointing, to be sure. I have had a terrific time generally at the property. Great rooms, good food in the bar/restaurant, and great personnel in the lounge. Also, the free Wine&liquor, and first class workout facility cannot be beat. Guess the occasional disappointment is to be expected.

(One last bone of contention- had some coworkers to the bar after the U2 concert last week at around 11:15pm, looking for food.... the bar would not serve us food, and told us to call room service. We declined.)

tcbatl

Just a quick note to SPG members about the Westin in downtown STL.

Visited here over the holiday (Christmas day). Beautiful hotel, impeccably clean, got upgraded to a Westin Workout Room with a treadmill, balance ball, etc in the room - (what other hotels in the Westin family have these?) - had dinner in the Clark Street Grill downstairs that evening and it was great!

Over the Christmas holiday I stayed in the Westport plaza Sheraton (horrible), the downtown Sheraton (fair to middlin'), and the Westin downtown.

Unbelievably friendly staff, absolutely wonderful food, and a special holiday menu that was really great. Can't say enough good things about the experience.

Thanks,
tcbatl

jemctag

Agreed. Westin STL downtown is one of the best in the chain for furnishings, decor, bathrooms (yes, bathrooms- I renovated mine after staying there), service and food. Excellent club lounge with free beer, wine and spirits!