christianj

Back from my stay at the US Grant!

As projected...no dice with a suite upgrade for me! (Horrible ..meaning virtually no Plat. suite upgrades over the last two years is one of the main reasons I have moved and will continue to move a large portion of my business away from *W.) Got the standard line that there were no suites available. I was told that if a suite became available for a portion of my stay they would give me a call to move but that also never happend either!

Did get a "deluxe" king room (_43) which was overall very nice. I think they did a great job with the remodel and I would rank the interior of the hotels and the rooms among some of the best I have seen at *W. My biggest problem with the hotel was the street noise due to the horrible old windows! Thankfully I travel with earplugs because I would have had a very hard time sleeping if I didn't have those. No problems with hallway noise as others have reported since my room was at the end of the hallway overlooking Broadway.

Summation..solve the window issue and this place could be one of the best properties *W has.

Elena

Wondering if they might upgrade me from exec suite to luxury suite? Do they generally upgrade a category if you are already paying for a speciality suite?

I did book on Starwood- that's where the promotion was listed.

To answer my own question I was not upgraded. An annoying factor is that the booking names of the rooms/suites on the site are different than the names the hotel uses. They tried to give me the junior suite when I had booked the Executive Suite. They told me they have never heard of such a thing. I believe the junior suite corresponds to the Legacy suite. I asked if they could look it up which they could not (or wouldn't). I was tired and didn't feel like waiting around so I just accepted the junior suite.

Furthermore there was a billing mistake. I had booked a prepaid rate and offered a different credit card for incidentals. When I checked my bill they charged everything to the card I used for incidentals instead of the card I prepaid with. This has happened at other properties as well. When I called the accounting department about this they were helpful, rectified the situation, and asked if they could make it up to me. I suggested some Starpoints and a few days later I had an extra 2500 points in my SPG account. Good service from accounting although this shouldn;t have happened in the first place.

I found the check-in staff to be very arrogant and un-service minded. I would rather stay at The Ivy or Keating next time unless I need a Starwood in which case I'll head back to the W.

aslsigner

Can someone elaborate on this? I'm checking in tomorrow and would like to know if I should pack gear for a free weight workout or just a cardio day.
The SPG website and the Grant specific websites were pretty useless. Search given no specifics about the gym either.

Thanks for the help

bayoullb

Just returned from an anniversary stay in February. It is truly a breathtaking hotel. We were upgraded to a small suite but found the living area furnishings a bit cramped. We dined at the restaurant and that was a great experience. Although beautiful and elegant, I probably won't stay there again. We changed to the Westin Horton plaza after one night to an upgraded spacious and relaxed suite.

CarNut

Don't know if it's too late, but the gym is a small room in the basement. Don't expect anything beyond some cardio and small weights.

aslsigner

Thanks for the thoughts, CarNut.

So I just checked out of the hotel this morning. While I wasn't impressed with the size (I've had Plat upgrades where the bathroom was bigger), I was impressed by the amount of elliptical machines (6 total) and free weights (up to 75 pounds) that the gym was sporting.
They only had two benches which would normally be bad but there was no one else there at 5:30 am. They also had 2 treadmills, one recumbent bike, and a nautilus-type machine with cables for pull downs and flies. All of the cardio had their own personal TV.

I hate rooms with only fluorescent light and like Carnut said, it's in the basement. To get to the room, you gotta go down some stairs and down a pretty windy hall or down stairs near the front of the hotel -- not very convenient from the room elevators.

I'd give it a 7 of 10.

damon88

We've made it a tradition now to stay at the Grant on one of our opera nights-- It's a pleasure to walk the few steps from the SD Opera back to the hotel- and makes it a much more relaxing evening.


We had a great stay-- we were upgraded to a legacy suite and finally had a chance to try the Grant Grill (though only appetizers-- the Kobe sliders and
calamari were excellent)

And good news for future guests-- it looks as if they are finally going to upgrade Horton Plaza.

From today's SD Biz Journal:

Sources in local government circles report the long-awaited redo of Westfield’s near quarter-century-old Horton Plaza is expected to begin this fall, most likely in November.

Those same sources say the first piece of the mall targeted for a makeover is the entrance next to the Balboa Theatre on Fifth Avenue and around homeless haven, the urban park fronting Broadway across from The US Grant Hotel. Westfield apparently wants to provide stores on the sidewalk level to give visitors a more urban street-shopping experience.

This will be a major improvement for the area and a boon for the hotel.

wedgette

I just booked the US Grant for 1 night for mid September. With AAA, I got the rate of $289. That's for 2 adults, standard King room with breakfast? Is this a good rate? On alot of other sites...expedia, travelocity...it was over $350 so thought this was good. Hope I didn't get hosed~

xj47

xj47's US Grant Secret: This hotel has a GREAT SPG50 rate. Give em a call... you'll be shocked.

ckg1999

As a *wood plat, what kind of upgrade should I expect here? Last time I stayed, I was Gold and was upgraded to a "Deluxe" room. Thanks!

rogerck

Just stayed at the Grant for the 2nd weekend in a row. Still like the hotel a lot. Didn't get upgraded either time (I'm Gold so I don't ever really expect a whole lot)

One thing: the surrounding area seems seedier to me than a couple of years ago with all the homeless folks and oddballs running around late at night. Granted last weekend was the 4th, so probably not surprising to see more belligerent people out and about.

AZ Travels the World

I had a very nice stay at the US Grant this past weekend.

This is a beautiful hotel -- one of the most striking and luxurious of any Starwood property I've ever stayed at. It should be the model for the Luxury Collection.

Platinum upgraded to a Signature Suite, which was quite spacious -- two queen beds with a flat panel TV, living space with a large flat panel TV and dining space. It was a large open room, but separated by half-walls. The shower was absolutely enormous. One could have a party in there, if they were so inclined.

The furnishings were nice and linens as nice as anywhere I've been. Mattresses and sheets were top-notch. One annoying issue with the beds: They have sheets and then very heavy duvet covers on top of them. It was an all-or-nothing proposition. For Southern California, the duvets were way too heavy, unless you set the a/c on 50-degrees, but the sheet by itself was not enough. (I sound a little too much like Goldilocks here.) They look great and feel terrific (for a few minutes) -- but should be shipped to Minneapolis and replaced with something suitable for San Diego.

Upon arrival at about 3:30 PM, our room was not quite ready, so we waited in the lobby. I was told they had a number of late check-outs. I witnessed several of them come streaming through the lobby between 3:45 and 4:00 PM. (Damn those elite members taking advantage of 4 PM checkout! ) We were given our keys at about 4:00. Got to the room and it wasn't ready. Covers had been taken off the sofa for washing and there was some problem with the mini bar that was requiring it to be swapped out. The hotel staff was on top of it all, but clearly not yet ready for us. We dropped our bags and left for a walk -- not a big deal.

Well, the hotel thought otherwise. After returning to the hotel in the evening, there was a voice message from the front desk, apologizing for the state of the room and offering a generous number of Starpoints and free breakfasts for the two nights of our stay. The situation was extraordinarily well handled, especially when you consider we didn't say a word to anyone.

Our party had two rooms for this stay. The second was a Landmark Suite. It had to be the smallest "suite" I've ever seen. It was two rooms, a living room (more like a small sitting room, really) that wouldn't even accommodate a full-size sofa, so there was a love seat and another chair. That was connected to a bedroom that was so small there wasn't enough space for side tables on both sides of the king bed. It was very luxurious and comfortable -- but really small. I felt they were stretching the definition to consider the room a suite. For my money, a two-room "suite" that is less square footage than most standard rooms anywhere else, isn't much of a suite.

Valet parking (at $30 per night) was very good. We had a number of ins and outs and the car was always promptly delivered to the front door.

In my experience, this is the nicest Starwood property in San Diego. We very much enjoyed our stay and will definitely return.

DivMiler

Thanks for the report, AZ. I'll be there next week (Thurs, Fri, Sat night) and am looking forward to it. I haven't stayed there before, but I like what I've read about it!

aslsigner

When I was here a few months ago, I called down to have the valet bring my car. As an aside, I mentioned that I don't really need the car but my cell phone was in the cup holder. The valet offered to bring it to my room. They were at my door before I had a chance to sit back down on the couch!
Prompt indeed!

AZ Travels the World

Your story is consistent with my experience of the hotel. Nice, isn't it?