Traffic noise is definitely a problem for the west-facing side of this property, literally adjacent to and adjoining the Dallas tollway. Since the property is a narrow rectangular shape, running north to south, this means half the rooms of this entire property face this tollway. Ouch.
The tollway is so darned busy, all hours of the night these days, so my hunch is that it was not as busy when they laid out this hotel in this orientation and sound was simply not the issue it is today.
I recently stayed on the tollway side, 12th floor, and though the noise is obvious and chronic and can be a major problem to light sleepers, my family and I were ok with it. Don't prefer to get a room on that side by any means, but its acceptable, at least on the 12th floor. My guess is lower floors experience worse noise and higher floors are more removed from the problem.
I can say after numerous stayes going back several years, I *never* feel like my PLAT status has much impact there. The caveat is many of my stays are during the busy holiday season, and typically I'm checking in late, like 8PM or later, so logically the PLATs that arrived before me get the upgrades. (to counter that, though, I've always thougt upgrades were assigned and pre-blocked in the AM if not the night shift before, and if this were so, then I should hit an upgrade every now and again - has never happened).
BECAUSE OF THESE CAVEATS I can't ever get a sense of whether front desk is playing games and "hording" the suites, or is playing the spg loyalty game fairly.
Still, a bone, like a corner room, would be nice every now and again.
Bottom line - my family and I like this property because of 1) location, 2) location, and 3) location (proximity to the Galleria mall). Someday I may call PLAT concierge and play the game of "is a suite available for pay here", but usually don't fool with it.
As for heavenly shower and such - IMO, this property should be in for a fairly major room upgrade in a year or two. I have never heard such a rumor, but several of the bath tubs/showers I've seen in last year are in need of caulking, and presumably they could retro-fit heavenly showers if/when they did a room refurb. They are rolling out highspeed access literally last few weeks, room by room as they had access to empty rooms, so that will fix one of the two major negatives I've always felt about this property (no indoor pool, and no high-speed access). I still can visualize an incredible "holidome" affair over that outdoor pool. SO much potential for this massive outdoor deck/outdoor pool (though tiny), so little utilized, but I understand business downcycles of the depth and breadth we've experience do not invite and induce major upgrade and capital investments. May the future bring us some of this at this Westin Galleria.
FWIW, apparently the Galleria Mall, per se, exchanged hands between investors, and I believe the hotel itself did also. Maybe these new owners will consider a retro/refurb. Lurker, any idea on this ?
[This message has been edited by ILUVCITIBANK (edited Dec 12, 2003).]