Carfield,

I spend one to two weeks a month in Orlando on business. My company has corporate apartments, but last time the apartments were full and (like you) I wanted to maintain status and earn HHonors points, so I stayed at a Hilton in Suburban Orlando (Altamonte Springs).

It's kind of a drive to the attractions area, but the hotel and staff are decent.

The handling of a fire at 11:50pm was a little out of control, but that's another story.

There is free parking and I was upgraded to a club level room based on my status.

While the Hilton was decent, there is a brand new Westin in downtown Orlando. It opened on Thursday, see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/002258.html

No HHonors points, but it's much nicer than the Hilton. The staff is spectacular. If you can cultivate some sort of Starwood status, I believe you will have good luck with an upgrade.

I checked in, the room had two queens so I called the front desk to ask if they had anything with a king.

The front desk said they did, and asked if I would like to be upgraded to a club level room. I graciously accepted, but then was told that no king rooms were available on the club level.

I was given the option of a club level room with two queens or a suite on my existing floor. I am enjoying my brand new suite, they said it's never been slept in before.

I had to move the cordless phone to the unswitched outlet and the lamp to the switched, but the hotel is great and the staff is super accommodating.

Valet is $12 per night, there's a garage across the street for hourly parking. It comes to $15 for five or more hours. It can be more expensive to self park overnight, but I asked the security guard about my situation. The security guard said that if you leave before the cashier arrives at 7:30am, to just insert the ticket on your way out and you've got free parking. Seems to be working well so far.

Here's the site for more information about the hotel: http://www.grandbohemianhotel.com/

The hotel site won't let you book anything with less than three days notice. Westin.com doesn't seem to impose this restriction. More information can be had at at http://www.westin.com/main.taf?sec=a...stid=2k1_apr19

-Robert

p.s.

I enjoy your trip reports and your postings on the Alaska board.

edited to fix bolding in quote

[This message has been edited by rwinn (edited 04-23-2001).]