Arrived on Sun. night for a three night cash & points stay. I'd read some of the posts on this board, and was thinking the service level might have changed recently. At check-in, I was upgraded to a 'Balcony Deluxe Room, New City/park View'. When I requested a room with an old-city view, I was told that "there are none available, we're fully booked" (this seems to be the default lie at this property, from experience). For my platinum amenity I opted for the local gift, which I was told was a set of Ahava products. I got to my room, and out of curiousity, checked SPG.com, and found at-least nine 'Balcony Deluxe Room,
Old City View' rooms available for that evening! A short while later, a small bottle of liquid soap arrived as my plat. amenity.
The next morning(yesterday), I asked at the front desk for my amenity to be sent up to the room, explained that I had no use for the liquid soap, and was told it would be sent up shortly (it never did arrive). I also asked again about the 'old city view' and was again told there were none available (I checked again on SPG, and found at-least seven such rooms showing available for each of the next few days). I asked if the front desk manager (Rama) was in, and was told she was 'busy'. I later called her line directly, and left a message asking her to call me back with my room #, but she never did. This was the first time I'd ever left a message for a manager and not gotten a callback, so this morning I tried again, only to have the phone ring endlessly until I gave up.
The property is much the same, though I do see some cosmetic renovations continuing. In short, for a cash & points stay, this is the absolute cheapest deal around - but it's cheap for a reason.