Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 19,450
Quote:
Originally Posted by PTahCha
Stay away from this property. They don't care what status you have. Even as a platinum, you get the Run of the House - which may be an Even More Cozy room with 2 twin beds.
Don't they even honor confirmed bedding types for elites? OTOH, going from a Cozy Queen to any room with a king bed would probably be a good thing.
When I was there in May I had an upgrade to a great Suite with an outdoor sitting area, cant remember which level this suite was classed as but had a great time at the hotel. staff were friendly as well!
I have always struggled to find a NYC SPG property I liked but got this on a great rate and risked it and got lucky I guess!
Exactly,
very solid property, always received suite upgrades.
To the OP, one should not underestimate that quite some people with barely 25 stays demand the world when going to the big cities....
It goes without saying that most properties threat long-standing, truly loyal Platinums better than a 4 Points Platinum with 25 stays on $ 60 rates...
I seldomly hear complaints from those guys..., so ymmv
very solid property, always received suite upgrades.
To the OP, one should not underestimate that quite some people with barely 25 stays demand the world when going to the big cities....
It goes without saying that most properties threat long-standing, truly loyal Platinums better than a 4 Points Platinum with 25 stays on $ 60 rates...
I seldomly hear complaints from those guys..., so ymmv
Yes, ymmv.
First of all, I am in your former camp, not the latter. So accoding to your criteria, I must be less demanding and more deserving (not that I agree with you on this point, but I'll accept your argument to support my second point...)
Second, as indicated in previous posts, my disappointment is not necessarily just about lack of suite upgrades. It also has to do with the quality of the property, stay experience and service. For all these reasons I have stopped staying at the W Lexington.
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 19,450
Quote:
Originally Posted by FD1971
Exactly,
very solid property, always received suite upgrades.
To the OP, one should not underestimate that quite some people with barely 25 stays demand the world when going to the big cities....
It goes without saying that most properties threat long-standing, truly loyal Platinums better than a 4 Points Platinum with 25 stays on $ 60 rates...
I seldomly hear complaints from those guys..., so ymmv
I haven't believed it, but Starwood has supposedly been saying since February 1 that a Plat is a Plat is a Plat and that there aren't really four tiers.
To the extent that the hotel preassigns upgraded rooms, they will follow some ordering based on the suggested list from SPG and their own ranking of those who have previously stayed at the property. Beyond this, if an upgraded room or standard suite is available when a Plat checks in, the T&C seem to say that it should be given to the person.
Of course some rogue hotels and rogue agents might not want to do this, but if the property participates in SPG, it is not their choice to make to decide not to follow the published rules of the program as referenced in the hotel's contract. Some hotel groups enforce this more vigorously than others; for example, AmEx seems to come down hard when they hear of hotels denying FHR benefits to cardholders who have booked FHR rates through AmEx.
Stayed here for two nights in April, and got pretty bad service. I had read the reviews in advance, and arranged to pay SPG points to upgrade the rooms, so that part wasn't an issue (my wife and I are both gold).
The issue was the crappy front desk service. I've stayed in a good 3 dozen NYC-area hotels over the years, ranging from 2 to 5 stars, including most of the big names, and most of the SPG properties. Walking in, not being greeted, and standing in line while 4 different front desk attendants either type on their computers with no customer in front of them, talk on the phone, or chat with each other... not good.
After about 3 or 4 minutes, I finally walked up to one and told them I'd like to check my party in (we had reserved two rooms). The clerk didn't even look up, and said "I'll be with you in a minute". To their credit, someone else looked up and said "I can help you, sir", but I'd been standing there for several minutes without a word said to me, luggage in hand, clearly waiting to check in.
Add to that nowhere near enough casual seating near the bar, and the stupid Acura shuttles that are never available. For a total bill of $1500 or so (and that's not including our bar bill), I was less than impressed.
I will say the front desk manager I spoke to in advance of the stay (and set up the instant award upgrade with) was very friendly and that part went off without a hitch. And checkout was non-eventful. But check-in was a disaster.
Stayed here for two nights in April, and got pretty bad service. I had read the reviews in advance, and arranged to pay SPG points to upgrade the rooms, so that part wasn't an issue (my wife and I are both gold).
The issue was the crappy front desk service. I've stayed in a good 3 dozen NYC-area hotels over the years, ranging from 2 to 5 stars, including most of the big names, and most of the SPG properties. Walking in, not being greeted, and standing in line while 4 different front desk attendants either type on their computers with no customer in front of them, talk on the phone, or chat with each other... not good.
After about 3 or 4 minutes, I finally walked up to one and told them I'd like to check my party in (we had reserved two rooms). The clerk didn't even look up, and said "I'll be with you in a minute". To their credit, someone else looked up and said "I can help you, sir", but I'd been standing there for several minutes without a word said to me, luggage in hand, clearly waiting to check in.
Add to that nowhere near enough casual seating near the bar, and the stupid Acura shuttles that are never available. For a total bill of $1500 or so (and that's not including our bar bill), I was less than impressed.
I will say the front desk manager I spoke to in advance of the stay (and set up the instant award upgrade with) was very friendly and that part went off without a hitch. And checkout was non-eventful. But check-in was a disaster.
Wow,
we are really talking abouut terrible, terrible issues here
A 3 minute wait to check in, not enough seating during high demand periods in a hotel in New York and no Acura available.
Well an update
booked a cozy
I arrived at 6pm and was given a spectacular room( seems to be 2 class UG)
well its not spectacular but it is 20 sqm instead of the terrible 15 sqm,
so I think gold worked for me.
FWIW, we would've gotten upgraded to a suite but arrived at 10:00 am and really needed to get into our room, so we ended up taking the basic room we booked on C+P (instead of waiting until the early afternoon).
Just got back from a weekend stay at W New York Lexington. Despite the hit and miss reviews; I decided to throw caution to the wind for a great Z3H Labor Day rate.
I booked a Spectacular Room, and I received no SPG plat upgrade. There was no funny business going on; the website showed the hotel fully booked.
Anyway the room itself was fine, but the A/C broke on our last night there. Fortunately they were able to send an engineer up to repair it within 10 minutes.
I've certainly stayed at better SPG properties, but I don't think this place is as bad as people seem to make it out. The staff itself was welcoming and helpful, and for the most part I had a very positive stay. I guess it's definitely a YMMV situation.
My love/hate relationship with this hotel continues. Booked spectulaur room with king bed and that's what I got. Fine no problems there. However the room is one of those that are on the inner corridor and the view is of a brick wall and garbage pile and construction material.
Just stayed at this hotel. Last stayed here as a Plat more than 5 years ago. It's much nicer now as it's been refurbished. The room was small (no upgrade, but I'm only Gold now), but comfortable, and everything worked. What ruined my stay was the heating, which suddenly started clanking in the wee hours of the morning. The sound was reminiscent of a tablespoon banging against a radiator every 5 to 10 seconds.
I provided feedback to the hotel at the front desk and via email when they sent me a "sorry to see you go" message, as well as via the SPG survey. Ended up with 7,000 starpoints as compensation, which was a nice gesture. Other than this, I would say it is a perfectly satisfactory hotel.
I agree with a couple of the previous posters. My experience wasn't as bad as some other people have reported, but I definitely would not like to go back for the facilities and the small (Spectacular) room and the service was erratic at best.
No disasters, but a few slip-ups which is 1-2 too many.
Good follow-up from someone at the property after I noted some issues on the survey, but I'll still only go back if I have no other reasonable alternative.
