stephem

I wound up having to dig a bit harder than usual to try to find something at this property for a week in February when I think everyone in Seattle takes their kids up here due to school break.

With my family in tow I need a 1 bedroom for sure, so tried a bunch of approaches and was getting sticker shock. I was getting rates of somewhere around US$650 per night for just the base level junior suite when just searching best available rate.

I finally spotted something on the hotel's offers page called "Ready Set Ski" that looked promising, which included 2 adult lift tickets. This offer code SKE said it would yield "Stay 5 nights, ski 4 days, save 25% off all room types" Holy great deal! After punching in this offer code, I hunted and pecked around for dates and got 5 nights in a 1 bedroom suite for about US$525 per night.

It pays to really look at these offers, unless you use the calendar to see what specific days it's available, you may miss a good deal.

EkekoBWI

Bit the bullet and used 32k points. Looking forward to it.

morerainplease

Anyone have thoughts vs. Hilton for a summer stay (3 nights) with family (kids under 10)? I can stay at either on points. I've already booked both and the Hilton room looks pretty big (>1000 ft2 and a balcony). I've also applied upgrades to the Westin reservation but don't know what I might get. And I'm not sure how the SPG Plat breakfast amenity would be applied to family. I have till a couple days before the stay to cancel one of the reservations. Thanks.

Land-of-Miles

Personally I prefer the Hilton, the kitchen in the Westin rooms are better but the Hilton room is much more spacious (if you get the fireplace junior suite type that is comparable with the Westin).

hilmar

+1 to that. The rooms (even the 1 bd "suites") at the Westin are small and cramped. Hilton is much roomier, I'd pick that for sure.

stephem

We just finished a stay here this week, it was really crowded between US President's Day holiday and an influx of people from Vancouver looking for snow (since their local resorts are all close sue to lack of snow).

I noticed on check in a form from the previous guest that indicated a $100 per night charge for upgrade from jr suite to 1 bedroom. I'd never heard of this before but it's apparently very common and according to a colleague you can get the deal in advance by calling (he even did it with a 5 night points reward, that seems like a good deal).

We were in a 1 bedroom, decent sized for us as a family. I'm convinced most of the rooms have crummy views, we were up higher this time but still just a view of another building. All told, this did the trick for us... two TVs was key for letting my kids watch cartoons for a while to wind down in the evening.

For the three day weekend, they set up a temporary Plat lounge in one of the conference rooms. It worked great for getting my kids a quick bite and then off to ski school, with my wife and I then grabbing something more substantial in the restaurant. Plat breakfast is free cont breakfast and a $9 upcharge to get anything from the hot station too. That's a good deal.

The place really has a good location if you have kids in ski school, we were able to grab skis and a bite to eat at 8 and have them comfortably enrolled by 8:25am. Great for pick up too. It is also nice to have skis at valet in the morning, a hundred feet to the gondola and then the valet pick up 20 feet from where you click out of skis at the end of the day.

Lastly, this place is really good for kids. They had all kinds of activities, from a craft table that my kids loved, to games, to movie nights. Overall, I thought they did great and gave us several windows of time to go spend alone having a glass of wine or shopping.

Bottom line, it wasn't cheap due to the holiday pricing, but it worked really well for the family and if the snow holds up until April we'll probably head back again for their Spring break.

flyupnorth

Hi all

Seeking some assistance please. I'm trying to book a night on points at this resort next month, but although the website is selling the basic room, there are no free nights available. That's fine, I called. But SPG customer services say that the 'no blackout' promise doesn't apply here because it is classed as a resort. I don't see the 'no blackout' distinction between hotels and resorts in the t&c. Can anyone help?

Starwood Lurker

My apologies, but can you send me the dates you are looking for via Private Message here at Flyertalk?

TIA

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

stephem

Just a heads up that the lift ticket inclusive package is back again this year and it's a really good deal for early and late season, especially combined with the USD exchange rate. With some snow falling in the mountains around Seattle this weekend, we decided to look into Thanksgiving at Whistler and I found a US$320 per night for the 1 bedroom including 2 lift tickets. Found a similar rate for our kids Spring Break in April. It's about $40 more per night than the Residents Rate that we otherwise use, so really a great deal to get the lift tickets too.

craigthemif

With the CAD at 75 cents, it makes less and less sense to spend points here though...

Also, don't forget that Edge card buyers get a free lift pass for early season use. (in case you're planning a main season return visit)

https://edge.shop.whistlerblackcomb....sses/EdgeCards

flyerbjorn

Looking at random dates in January, I see that suites include "free ski valet", but the regular rooms don't. Did something change? Would a platinum suite upgrade get you free ski valet?

The ski valet charge is the only thing I don't like about this hotel. Everything else is fabulous and it's my favourite Starwood worldwide.

Land-of-Miles

Depends when you go I had an email yesterday inviting me to pay for an upgrade yesterday on my stay over the festive period. Further email exchanges basically implied that I had a zero chance of my SNAs clearing or an in resort upgrade.

The ski valet is bundled with all suites though now it seems.

If you get an upgrade you receive all benefits of the room type you are upgraded too under Starwood T&C's. In this case since the ski valet is a feature of the room you should get it if upgraded.

I suspect this property over sells the studio suites then pushes paid upgrades to improve incremental revenue but not sure whether to take the risk given the incremental saving is only CAD 82 per night.

stephem

We had a good stay over Thanksgiving last week/weekend, in the end I found a sale rate (the "Biggest Sale of the Year!" rate) that combined with Edge cards for lift tickets (that my wife and I decided to buy anyway) wound up being a really good deal at US$255 for a one bedroom including all taxes.

Ski valet is free now in the one bedroom, which is nice, considering we often rent from the shop in the hotel and it seems totally unfair to have to pay them to store the skis too. I suspect that if you are upgraded you will get that benefit too. We had listed 4 (2 adults and 2 children) when making the reservation and when we checked in they gave us 2 of the platinum breakfast cards for each day, which was nice. Not sure that is something they will always do.
We did get an "upgraded view" room, boy was that a let down. There really aren't any good views at this room, I'd always advise to ask for the biggest room, as there is a big range in sizes of the one bedrooms, and our improved view meant one of the smallest one bedrooms I've seen in here.

Land-of-Miles

Agree apart from some of the deluxe suites all views seem pretty awful.

Upgrades to suites (even the loft suites) come with the ski valet bundled free.

teeceedee

I have a 5 night stay booked here on points from Feb 7th to the 12th. Sorry for the newbie question, whats a ski valet?

I've only ever booked AirBNB when snowboarding, so I'm not sure what kind of amenities to expect from a hotel.