Originally Posted by
dmodemd
Really? Not my experience at Fairmont Dallas at least. Gold rooms are smaller than the typical Fairmont Kings they give me. It is more recently renovated which is nice, but I also need to be in a different tower which requires a walk through the lobby to get down to the fitness center far away.
I have gotten lounge service just as good or better for free at Hyatts, Hiltons, and Marriotts. Rarely a mob scene.
I don't have a lot of experience with Fairmont Gold stays in the USA, so perhaps it's a poorer product there? I don't know. The only properties where I have stayed on Fairmont Gold are:
- Chateau Whistler
- Chateau Lake Louise
- Banff Springs
- Royal York Toronto
- Chateau Laurier Ottawa
- Tremblant
- Queen Elizabeth Montreal
- Chateau Frontenac Quebec City
- Copley Plaza Boston
Of those properties, the only time I recall the hotel selling Gold lounge access for an additional fee, but maintaining the non-Gold room, was in Boston. I didn't like the idea, since it can obviously lead to more people in the lounge.
In Whistler, Tremblant and Queen Elizabeth, I've only ever stayed on the Gold floor, so I can't compare to other non-Gold rooms. Sometimes the Gold rooms are smaller, but they have always been finished nicer. I'm often OK with the smaller room, since I have the lounge available as an additional space. But beyond the room itself, Fairmont Gold tries to offer a completely separate hotel. You arrive at the hotel, and go straight to the Gold lounge to check-in. Same thing with check-out. Same thing with concierge services. There's very little in the way of hotel services, even pre-arrival, where you need to deal with other areas of the hotel.
I'll admit that I found the lounge rather large and crowded in both Ottawa and Banff (and choose not to stay on the Gold floor at Banff anymore as a result, since it's not the sanctuary that it can be at other properties), and would like to see them scale back Gold access further, not open it up more. In other places, it's a very intimate setting, and more people crowding the place would feel noisy and busy. In Tremblant, which has less than 20 Gold rooms on the floor, we're often the only ones in the lounge, and most of the time, there's no more than 3 to 5 other couples there at once, even at breakfast when it is most busy. It's hard to beat the service levels in that sort of setting. I think I've mentioned this example before, that the staff there, which are the same year-after-year, even remember how we take our coffees from earlier visits, and have them ready for us as soon as we walk in the lounge for breakfast. Even on arrival at the hotel, instead of having to say, "Hi, I'm Mr. X checking in", we step off the elevator on the Gold floor, and the staff in the lounge already know us and greet us with a friendly hug, and take us to our room. It's harder to get to know the people as well in a larger space.