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Westin Key West (resort) [Master Thread]

Westin Key West (resort) [Master Thread]

Old Jun 14, 2008, 4:15 pm
  #46  
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 933
Westin Key West: Anyone stay there?

Greetings.

Looking at the Westin in Key West for next April. Has anyone stayed there recently? If so, impressions? Reading other travel sites the hotel go "so so" reviews.

Last edited by SanDiego1K; Jun 15, 2008 at 12:38 am Reason: Merged without edit into master thread
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Old Oct 14, 2008, 3:35 pm
  #47  
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Is there a fee for parking?

Is there a resort fee?

Is internet complimentary?
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Old Oct 14, 2008, 3:46 pm
  #48  
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Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
Is there a fee for parking?
US$20; valet only for the time being with in/out privileges.

Is there a resort fee?
Nope. Not at this resort, but there is one at Sunset Key.

Is internet complimentary?
Yes, complimentary in all guest rooms.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]
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Old Jan 31, 2009, 8:54 am
  #49  
 
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Does anyone know if they offer connecting room in this hotel? Also any idea when the offer rates are likely to come out for mid July?
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Old Jan 31, 2009, 10:55 am
  #50  
 
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Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
Is there a fee for parking?

Is there a resort fee?

Is internet complimentary?
Hi SanDiego1K good to hear from you again.

I found this site to be useful regarding the renovation thats happening there
http://keywest.destinations.starwood...novationLP_SEC

The westin marketing manager is active on the tripadvisor forum for key west and she's very helpful. I'll be there myself in early june, let me know how it goes.
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Old Feb 11, 2009, 9:54 am
  #51  
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Liverpool, UK
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Originally Posted by ziggystardust
Does anyone know if they offer connecting room in this hotel? Also any idea when the offer rates are likely to come out for mid July?
I've e-mailed the hotel who have told be they have a few connecting room but they have not been very helpful with information regarding special rates in the summer, tbh I found them as much use as a chocolate teapot and might move my business to the Ocean Key Resort who have offered me a good rate.
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Old Feb 23, 2009, 6:53 pm
  #52  
 
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Award Room for Fantasy Fest

Not sure if anyone cares, but award rooms are available for Halloween Weekend this year - as Fantasy Fest, that wild adult costume party, returns to its original time of the 10 days leading up to 10/31. Not a bad redemption rate either, 12k points per night - prepaid rooms are going for $459.

Now where did I leave my sequined thong...
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Old Jun 8, 2009, 5:24 pm
  #53  
 
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Any updates on his place? I will be there June 29th for 5 days and was looking for updates on the construction and perhaps some room recommendations for a SPG Plat?

Thanks!

Jim
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Old Jun 19, 2009, 3:14 pm
  #54  
 
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Any new updates ???

Greetings: Any new infomation on this location? I was thinking of using two of my "Free weekend " nights in Aug. ?

Thanks.................
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Old Jul 1, 2009, 5:33 pm
  #55  
 
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Here right now, got upgraded to a 1 bed suite with ocean view. Wouldn't quite call it ocean front, but it is probably defined as such. Parking is $22 (including tax). Free Internet is actually pretty fast (1mb/1mb) for in room wireless. I cant see any remodeling going on and didn't hear anything. We are on the 4Th (top) floor which has the Starwood preferred floor - sign on the wall when you get off. Great location and glad we dropped off the car. The golf cart rentals are a rip off. $75/day. When I asked why they were so high, I was told because they cost $18k each. I then asked why then if my 40k rental car cost half as much, I just got a blank stare. The muni bus is $2 each way anywhere on the island, but you can get a 7 day pass for only $8. Taxi from the airport is $8pp flat rate.

Jim

Last edited by CandymanJim; Jul 1, 2009 at 5:40 pm
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Old Jul 11, 2009, 10:48 am
  #56  
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stayed here for 1 night using a free weekend night....good stay, was upgraded to a one bedroom suite....free internet was also a great touch....however, i did have a problem when requesting for a late checkout....was there to attend an afternoon wedding so i asked for a 4pm checkout....i was informed that resorts do not offer late checkout....spoke with the manager & he was able to give me a 2pm checkout, which i guess was better than noon....
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Old Aug 19, 2009, 2:33 pm
  #57  
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 11
Thumbs down Westin Key West 5 Star Hotel with 1 Star Hotel Treatment

One of the worst experiences we have ever had the misfortune of having! The room up-grade was a room downgrade in our book. They gave us a limited view and two queen beds instead of one king size for a couple! We are not Lucy and Ricki Ricardo, we dont sleep in separate beds! We like to sleep together and spread out in comfort! We have stayed here before and have had a room up-grade which was truly a room up-grade. The last time, we had a room with a limited view it was very nice with a king sized bed! Being a Starwood Member, we anticipated some sort of special treatment which seemed to be the case last time we stayed. This time, the staff, or lack of, was less than helpful when trying to accommodate our needs. Since our stay here two years ago, we have seen a decline in the hotel overall. We picked to come back to the Westin Key West because of our past experience. Due to our hectic life schedule, we only had a few days to get a way and decided to come down for a visit from NJ thinking it would be as pleasant or better. We were wrong on this one. We used a tremendous amount of our Starwood Points for a five star hotel and got one star treatment! As a Starwood Guest, we are usually assured a late checkout time such as 4 pm. We anticipated this and scheduled our flight and itinerary accordingly. This was not the case and, as a result, our mini vacation fell short of all expectations. At best, we were told we could use the facility for the day, give our bags to the bell hop where he would securely store them for us and we could change and shower in the gym. It was not exactly what we wanted to do but tried to make the best of it and go to the pool. The pool did not have an attendant picking up towels, moving chairs, making sure unused chairs were available, etc. There were people smoking while in the pool, flicking their ashes in the water and on the concrete around the pool. They were also extinguishing their cigarettes in the pool and on the concrete around the pool. Perhaps if there was an attendant, this would not happen. Since we did not have a late checkout, we needed to shower and change in the gym facility. The shower/bathroom facility was disgusting! It smelled of urine and looked as if it had not been cleaned in days, maybe weeks. There was fresh soap and towels, but that was about the only thing fresh in there. There was blood on the shower curtain, old soap bars and razors lying around. The door to the bathroom didnt even lock! I now have a rash on my foot which I am hoping will go away being treated topically. Finally, on a departing note, we were stuck in the parking garage for over 20 minutes because of automated machines not working properly and a parking attendant being less then cooperative in letting us out to the point of where I had to go to the front desk and get a manager just to get the gate open and correct the parking attendant. We were late getting to the airport, thereby having to rush again and bringing the stress levels right back to beyond where they started in the first place! For all of this, I should have stayed home! What a decline in your facility in just two years time. Nice location, but thats about the only compliment you can expect from us at this time!
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Old Aug 19, 2009, 5:05 pm
  #58  
 
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Tom--welcome to Flyertalk.

I can see your frustrations with the Westin, but there are a few questions here:

1. When you received the room with two Queens did you ask the manager to change you back out to a King? What room type was originally booked?
2. You say that you are a "Starwood Guest"--what does that mean? Why do you think that should give you upgrades, perks, late check out, etc.? You need to have Gold or Platinum status to receive any perks.
3. As a resort property, they do not offer 4pm checkouts, so I don't see where you can complain here.
4. I've never used the Gym facility there, but what you say sounds horrible? What did the manager say? Did you talk to him about it?

I've stayed there many times and it is always a wonderful, relaxing time with the staff taking very good care of us. As a Platinum, I have been upgraded every time as well.
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Old Aug 20, 2009, 2:30 am
  #59  
 
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I'll add my welcome to travelingtom as well.

We stayed at this property earlier this month and had pretty similar experiences to those that Tom mentioned. I'm a Plat member and was pretty surprised at how badly they got the minor things wrong.

Just to set the scene, we queued at check-in and one of the agents was dealing with a walk-in from the street. He was quoting the guy a price for a suite for the night. The price corresponded with the price I had seen on SPG.com that morning. The other agent then called over and said I can do you a better deal than that for a suite and wrote something down. He then asked how many suites they had available for the next two nights as some other members of his group might want one and was told they had plenty. He was then escorted by the other agent to see a room.

We then checked in and I handed over my credit card and Plat card to the agent. He went through the usual welcomes and gave us a room key etc and returned the credit card and membership card. At that point I asked about the Platinum Amenity and he apologised for missing this first time round in the reservation and the via the card I gave to him. He then said that he had a great seaview room for us as a Platinum member.

We head to the room and it is a large, but unrenovated room with a partial sea view. Not great, but if that is the best they have, that is the best they have. Then we discover that the bed linen is actually used linen, with the bed being re-made. There was also some dirty underwear behind the bathroom door and the soap and shampoo was open and used. The room had been vacated, but clearly hadn't been fully cleaned and set up for a new guest.

Back down at reception we tell the check-in agent of the room problem and he apologises and tells us that he has a better room available for us - a renovated seaview room with a balcony. I enquire why we weren't offered this 10 minutes ago and he shrugs. I ask if this is the best available room for a Platinum upgrade and he says that it is. So off we go to the room and it is a bit smaller, but much nicer and we start unpacking. I then head off to one of the shops to get a few drinks and snacks and bump into the walk-in guy from check-in. I ask him if he got sorted and was happy to confirm that he got a great deal for him and a couple of buddies. He said that they got suites sorted for the price of a standard room in exchange for slipping a few $ the way of the agent in question. (Just to note, that is what he stated, not what I saw) He also said they had quite a few suites left and he suggested that I should 'try the same trick' with the agent.

At this point, I wasn't too delighted so I thought I would take it up with the duty manager. I asked the concierge team if they could ask the duty manager to give me a call in my room as I didn't want to have a discussion in the lobby about some concerns I had with regards to upgrades and the way they were being distributed. Five minutes later I got a call, but it was from the check-in agent who sounded in a bit of a panic. Apparently he had just realised that he had a suite available and he wanted to make sure that we were moved to it. (Quite uncanny timing don't you think?) He came over personally to move us to the suite and to apologise for the earlier room problem. We still asked to speak with the duty manager as we wanted to give some feedback and he was very keen that we gave the feedback through him, which we declined to do.

A little while later we got a call from the duty manager who was very apologetic again for the moves. I asked about the rooms and Plat recognition and he told me that they upgraded Plats to the best available views that they had. I countered that I realise that rooms aren't always available and that Plats are only entitled up to standard suites (where available) and I enquired if our room was a standard suite, which he didn't seem to know. He also offered us a couple of breakfast coupons for the inconvenience which he was going to drop off himself. These came 20 minutes later, but they were dropped off by a member of the valet parking staff. It did make me wonder if the person on the phone really was the duty manager after all...

The rest of the stay was ok, but nothing special. Breakfast service was very slow, with staff standing around and chatting, but not serving guests. The pool area was unstaffed and they had a large pile of dirty towels and no clean ones when we went to the pool, so we headed back to the room. It was just a number of small things like this that left a poor impression, so I could understand the comments by Tom.

It may be that the hotel seems even more below par as we also stayed at the Westin Diplomat and Diplomat Resort on the same vacation. Two properties that know how to deal with SPG members and maintained a pretty strong standard of service during our stays there.

Overall the shenanigans at check-in left a pretty bad taste about the property. The service experienced after that didn't do anything to change our perception. I certainly don't think I could recommend the property to others, although I hope our experience was an isolated one.
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Old Aug 22, 2009, 9:08 am
  #60  
 
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We stayed at this Westin during the first week of January this year and were somewhat underwhelmed by the quality. We had just come from a nice 6 night stay at the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale (a very nice hotel BTW) and were looking forward to a relaxing stay in Key West.

The hotel was extremely slow, so check-in was not an issue and we were upgraded to what I'm assuming was their best suite (Ernest Hemingway Suite). This was a very nice room with 4 balconies, but the furnishings were terrible and the room was in general pretty beat up.

The whole hotel seemed pretty run down and the staff mirrored the property.

On to the hotel itself. This hotel is not a resort. It is a horseshoe shaped hotel built around a rather small pool at the edge of a marina. Most of the time a giant cruise ship sits between any rooms view and the ocean. We actually had to walk a decent way down the docks to watch the sunset most nights we were there. In addition, if you want something relaxing during the day there are cruise ship pax everywhere.

If you are looking for a typical relaxing beach/ocean type stay in Florida this is not the place for you.

We did not go over to Sunset Key for the day, so I can't speak to that.

We have been to a lot of ocean/beach places and this is not one we will ever return to...YMMV.
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