I've stayed in the Westin Crown Center nearly every week since the first of the year. Your experiences are absolutely par for the course. Management at this hotel does not care. I'll comment on some of your points and then add my own.

i am spg gold member, and took 3 friends to kc for the weekend for a concert on saturday night. we arrived friday at 5pm, and the check-in line was long. i headed to the prefered guest check-in area (no line), and proceeded to wait 15 minutes while the regular line was tended to without anyone acknowledging my presence. i was okay with that, however, thinking the others may have been waiting a very long time.

I'm Platinum, and was long before I started staying at the Westin Crown Center. The SPG (and Hallmark) line is rarely staffed. Some of the front desk employees make a point of serving customers that come to the line ahead of the regular line, but others don't. I often resort to waving my arms and shouting.l

arriving back that evening, the room temp was still 74 degrees so i called down to the front desk again. they said they would send engineering up immediately. an hour later (and it is now 2am mind you) i called down and said never mind for tonight, we were going to bed.


That's about the best the air conditioning can do here when it's warm. (I don't know what it'll be like when it's truly hot). When the nights were cool this winter and spring, I used to leave my "patio" door open. Now, with the thermostat set at 65, the temperature hangs around 72. (It's fairly cool out tonight).

i asked to speak to the manager on duty. he was unavailable but a message was left for him to call me (we were in the room for another hour before leaving and never received a call). i went to get ice from the ice machine for some pre-show drinks, but the ice machine wasnt functioning. i called down to ask what floor i would find an ice machine that was working, and was told none of them were working and that ice would be sent up right away. after waiting 30 minutes, i went down to the bar and filled the ice bucket myself.

I had an incident last week that made me wish to speak to the hotel manager. (I'll describe it later). I called the front desk and asked to speak to the hotel manager. The clerk asked if I wished to speak to the hotel manager (not sure of the right title) or the manager-on-duty. I replied "the hotel manager." The clerk said that he wasn't available but that she would leave a message to have him call me "tomorrow." I left my name and cell phone number. I then asked to speak to the "manager-on-duty." The clerk informed me that he had been called away on a "medical emergency" but that she would give him my contact number. After a week, I haven't heard from either of them. I've had two previous incidents since January where I've asked to speak to a hotel manager, and I didn't have my calls returned then either.

Another person here commented on the ice machine. Most of the time, my ice bucket is filled as part of the evening turn-down service. When I checked in last night, the turn-down service hadn't happened yet (the maid came by at 9:30 p.m.) so I headed to the ice machine to fill my own bucket. (No big deal, I know how to use an ice machine!) As always, there was a sign on the ice machine (17th floor) apoligizing for the condition of "the area" and stating that the area would soon be renovated. The signs have been there since my first stay the second week of January. The ice machine didn't work. I took the elevator to the 16th floor, read the same sign, and the ice machine didn't work there either. I took the elevator to the 18th floor...voila, the ice machine worked!

If anyone's still reading, I'll keep droning on about this place...

My negotiated rate includes free health club access and free high-speed Internet. I have yet to receive a statement under my door where I haven't been charged for one or the other, or both. I *always* have to go to the desk to check out, even when I get the letter attached to the statement saying that the "hotel is experiencing an unusual number of guests checking out this morning, and that I should use some other method to check out".) I have tried complaining quietly, complaining loudly, and not complaining at all. It doesn't matter, the problem never gets resolved. Sometimes the clerks apoligize; many times they don't. And, once someone has noticed that I'm standing in the SPG line trying to check out, it has taken from five to fifteen minutes for the clerk to get the statement right.

The health club at this hotel is fantastic, but one of the staff at the health club is a person who should not be "customer facing." I've had several incidents with him since January. The most recent was last week. I required assistance from the health club staff to use part of the facility. No one was at the counter. There was no sign indicating "be right back", or a time. There is not a telephone available (nor a phone number) to call in case assistance is needed. I do not know the name of this staff person because he does not wear a name tag. (Other people that work in the health club are excellent, and do wear name tags).

After waiting for 15 minutes, I picked up the business card (on the counter) for Jennifer, the health club manager and called her (long distance) on my cell phone. The phone behind the (unoccupied) counter rang. I hung up and dialed the front desk, explaining that no one was staffing the health club. The front desk expressed surprise at this and suggested I try again. I did, but let the phone ring longer this time. I could hear a pause as the number was forwarded, then a person answered with a simple "hello"...no identification of who he was, or what area of the hotel he worked. I asked if someone was staffing the health club. He indicated that we was, and that he would be there in ten minutes or so.

My "friend" arrived (within 10 minutes) and greeted me by saying "hah, it wasn't even ten minutes." Being somewhat taken aback by his attitude (I was expecting an "I'm sorry") I told him that I had been standing at the counter since 6:30. (It was now 6:55). He went off...saying, among many other things, that he "had a right to take a break." I told him I agreed with him on this point, but that hotel management should make sure his position is covered while he's on break. His reply was "that's why I carry my cellphone" and held it up for me to see. (Trying to avoid a useless argument, I didn't point out that guests have no way of knowing that they should call his cell phone, or have a way of doing so unless they happened to bring their own cell phones to the health club).

I won't go into more details except to say that "my friend" was definitely not "guest friendly." Still, I can forgive an occasional bad apple. But, not having a hotel manager return my call after this incident is inexcusable. I intend to write the CEO of Starwood in hopes that maybe someone at Corporate will do something about this hotel.

I'm on a roll, so I'll keep going. :-)

This hotel *never* upgrades Platinums to a mini suite. In fact, the week that the hotel was doing work on the SPG floors, I was downgraded to a non-SPG room instead of being placed in a suite.

You have to walk through a haze of smoke to get morning coffee and a pastry. The coffee area is in the bar, and the bar is a smoking area. The bar is also located just below the stairs that come from the Crown Center shopping mall, and the smoke wafts up the stairs. Your first impression of the hotel, if you enter from the mall, is that of a smoky bar.

If you self park, make certain you have your checkout receipt with you when you leave the parking garage. Most of the time there is no problem. On two occasions, though, I've had to pull the receipt out of my luggage in the trunk to prove to the parking garage attendant that I had paid for parking as part of my hotel bill.

The rooms are not up to Westin standards. The heavenly bed is wonderful...no problem there. But, the wallpaper, carpet, and bathrooms in many of the rooms are tattered...this hotel is in serious need of a renovation. The hotel shower is a single head that says "Heavenly Shower'" on it, but this must have been an early beta version of the heavenly shower. It's not what I've seen in other Westins.

The bell and door staff is wonderful. They're great guys, always greet me by name, and are efficient. Jennifer in the health club is great.

Enough already!