In recent years my go-to SPG property in London has been the Le Meridien. I’ve always been treated very well at that hotel and have never seen the inside of a standard room. One of my four nights on a trip last week showed no availability, so I looked at The Westbury Mayfair, a relatively new Luxury Collection hotel. It looked like a nice, remodeled property in a great location. Based on the few comments to-date here on FT, I was hesitant, but experiences are few so I gave it a go.
I won’t be going back.
Room
I think we had the smallest room I’ve had at any SPG property in the world since earning Platinum 14 or so years ago. It was really tight. Very small closet with no drawer space to unpack anything. All the cabinet space that existed in the room was consumed by the mini bar and refrigerator.
When I checked in, it was very quiet and I asked the front desk agent if it was a busy time. She said no, it wasn’t, that it was nice to have a bit of a breather. (I verified pretty wide availability online.) She acknowledged my Lifetime Platinum status by welcoming me as such and naming a couple of the benefits. I made a comment along the lines of, “I hope you have nice room for us, as we’ll be here on holiday for several days and would make good use of it. “
She handled that comment very specifically, saying that my room has been pre-selected by the rooms management and was prepared for me – and quickly moved to another topic. The translation was clear: We have assigned you your room – you will like it.
That was either going to be good – or bad.
It was bad. But I was clear it was not a subject for discussion – and I’m just not a person to go to battle over it. I almost never have to.
It was the basic Signature Room, low floor, facing the rear of the hotel with a view over the dumpsters and into the windows of the building behind.
Breakfast
We ate in the restaurant only one day. The meal was fine, but service was slow and disorganized. Our order was taken pretty quickly and the food arrived on the slow side for a half-empty restaurant. We requested two standard things of the server delivering the food; neither were delivered. No service person ever came by the table. We had to flag down a manager to get a check to sign so we could depart.
The next day we skipped it entirely, then tried room service. The first day it was delivered on a cart – thankfully – as there was nowhere else to put the food. We sat on the edge of the bed and the cart made a table. The next day it was brought on a tray. The desk space was consumed so the tray had to sit on the bed – and we stood next to it.
Other Fun Stuff
- The small bathroom was equipped with LED spotlights. They blinked and flickered constantly. It was very annoying. I pointed it out to the housekeeper on the first day. Nothing was done.
- On Saturday night, after midnight, we were awakened by a fire alarm. It repeated many times, with a loud voice announcing that we must evacuate the hotel immediately. Not my first rodeo with hotel false alarms, so we looked out in the hall and saw nothing and gave it a couple minutes while we dressed to head out. The alarm and automated voice notification continued. So we went down the stairs to the lobby, which was packing in with guests.
The staff had no idea what was going on. They did not believe it was a fire, but they said they didn’t know and the fire department was not called. I only know this because one man was arguing with a manager about the fact their alarm system is continuing to go off and they have no clue what is happening – so officials should be called. Eventually, the lobby was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people. A few minutes later the alarm had stopped and someone yelled that it was a false alarm, you can return to your rooms.
Lovely. Hopefully that process is under review with management. There was no acknowledgement, apology or gesture of any kind, then or the next morning.
All-in-all
It was an underwhelming experience in too many ways for this level of hotel. The property itself has the potential to be quite nice, but the small rooms are
really, really small.
Training is clearly lacking, from the restaurant, room service, housekeeping, front desk and night management. Though they do seem to have trained people quite thoroughly on the rooms that SPG elite guests will and will not be assigned. Interesting priorities.
It certainly appears that room-wise, you will get what you pay for at this hotel and nothing more. In this regard, SPG status was worth nothing. That's unusual in my experience -- but maybe the days of SPG influencing properties to honor the promises of the program are so numbered that they can just do what they wish. I hope not.
Proceed with caution.