This is going to be a story - but if you were dying to hear my take on the renovated rooms at the Westin Harbour Castle, read on. Effectively, my take is that the renovations are the right direction for the property, this is still a great hotel, but renovations are going to be going on for a long time.
As it appears to me, renovations have hit the elevators in both towers (though, they seem ongoing and not incredibly smooth). Room and corridor renovations only seem to be occurring in the South Tower (the one I would consider older due to the repairs that occurred many years back in the North Tower flooding) - interestingly, they seem to only be renovating the east side of each floor in the South Tower first - I checked several floors, and they were like mine - blue modern hallways on one side and old Westin Harbour Castle on the other side. At least on the 5th floor, the east side was totally walled-off, and I could hear construction. I heard zero construction on the 29th floor.
Now, the journey to get a renovated room (what I now know is what the hotel calls their Premium room) was not as easy as expected. I had booked a base room on points and had seen a Junior Suite upgrade several days in advance. I checked the evening before arrival and say only 3 room types free - Deluxe and then maybe Superior? On the morning of arrival, my room type had changed down to Studio Suite. I decided to chat the hotel and ask if any renovated rooms were available. I had a rather unhelpful back and forth that I could use SNAs (I couldn’t on the day of check-in) and that any upgrades to renovated rooms would be paid. Honestly, at this point, I was very confused since this property upgraded me to a specialty suite the last time, and I was asking for a renovated standard room. I escalated to my Ambassdor, who spoke with the Rooms Controller and assigned me a renovated Premium King for free. I then received a phone call from the Manager On Duty, and we had a good discussion. I won’t go into too many details, but the policy right now is that renovated rooms aren’t included in the free upgrade pool. I’m not sure if I agree with this, but I appreciated that the call was not defensive and they reiterated their appreciation for me as a guest.
All that being said, I arrived and was easily assigned a renovated room - so let’s get into it.
This was my first time in a standard sized room here - they’re effective, but the bathrooms are small. However, the bathroom in my specialty suite last year was small, too, so don’t expect large bathrooms. The design is pleasant and fresh - it does not feel at all like an old hotel. It feels like a new Westin - that’s impressive in my opinion.
The most striking aspect is the bed - Westin is bringing back brown blankets - talk about a full circle moment. The bedding actually makes sense - you can use just the blanket or bring up the thick and plush duvet. The mattress is very plush, as are the pillows. This is a great bed.
Shower pressure is fine - it’s a Westin - they want it to be calm, but the shower stall is nicer compared to the shower-tub combination previously.
TVs are updated with Internet TV OS as they were pre-renovation. The lounger couch is comfortable. The desk is usable.
The welcome gift was amazing - such good macarons, the best dark chocolate salted caramel and white chocolate passion fruit truffles, and a tasty raspberry chocolate cake dome.
Elite welcome gift breakfast is still the tasty buffet at Mizzen. The staff is the same - super quick at bringing coffee and juice, made a point of sitting me near the buffet so I could be close, and brought me new forks after taking my dirty dishes before I could ask. I loved Dan Bell’s Wall of Fame with all of the photos of guests he’s collected - the omelet he made was very good. Pancakes are great and soft. Bacon is great.
Service at the front desk is friendly and personable with lots of personal questions. 4 PM late checkout was offered proactively.
This won’t be the last time I’m at the Westin.
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