travelingtom

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 don’t 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 didn’t 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 year’s time. Nice location, but that’s about the only compliment you can expect from us at this time!