Preface: Never been to GUM. Have a friend with family on island so that made the trip easier. Used EK points to fly on Continental Micronesia in BusinessFirst from NRT. Will return into NGO.

Status: Platinum.

Rate: I started off booked at the Hilton paying- $110. Then the Hyatt using Faster Free Night. Then used 5,000 points on reduced Platinum award. The rate showing for the basic room before I left the US was $305. The question would be. Is this place three times better than the Hilton? Not. Impossible. Three times worse. Probable.

Transportation: My friends picked me up from GUM. I am back to the airport today so I called down yesterday to see about the price. $30 one-way on the Hotel shuttle. I'll take my risk with the cab fare. Now that is a rip-off for a shuttle.

Parking: We self parked twice. That was free. Just make a hard left down into the parking structure.

Check-in: Here is where the joke begins. Actually it begins before then. I faxed this place three times but it would never transmit. I called the Hotel twice but could not understand the clerks English. I e-mailed twice before I got a reply.

I do not intentionally try and use the Starwood check-in area. I have never felt a need. That station was busy. So I get this new guy who finally finds my paperwork. Like five items clipped together. He has no idea. I am asking about the facility and he is just lost. He has to go back twice and ask the agent at the Starwood sign questions. She did not even try and come over to help. He starts to talk about the Royal Club Lounge pointer downwards. I thought it was on the top so I keep pointing upwards. He finally gets it. I had to fill out my own amenity paperwork and ask for details of the Royal Club in English and not Japanese. Fortunately or not my room was already pre-given so after the whole thing I just decided to stick with whatever they gave me. The Hotel wants to charge me $65 plus plus. I explained they already took my points. He want back to the agent and came back saying they will work it out. I have budgeted time to check-out this morning. What else? Surely there was more.

Perks: Room upgrade to ocean front and amenity.

Lounge: The Lounge is located on 21. It is an ok size with pretty standard stuff. It is towards the rear of the building so a marginal view. It looked like they had two computer terminals. When we went up the first time some employee who did not even acknowlege we were there was on one of the terminals. When we went up the second time a "concierge" stopped using asking for a room number having to log-in first. Now that was acceptable. What was unacceptable was me standing there while some other employee had his butt in the chair sitting down just chatting away on the phone. BTW that phone was not there earlier. They must take it away when the Lounge is not tended. We walked and went to the bar on 4.

Room: Joke. Upon entering the unit said the temp was 27 c. Well that is the highest it registers. 22 c looks to be the lowest. The room was hot and humid. It looked nice then the wind started. You could have played an entire show tune with the wind whistling between the sliding doors. I had to call down once and appear in person once to get them fixed. BTW. There is a huge project going on facing towards the Nikko. It is just starting.

You enter onto carpet. To the right I have a connector door. More about that later. This is followed by a desk, lamp, two chairs, small table and slider to balconey. This is followed by the entertainment area with a tv and frig. You have a place for luggage then the bathroom. Next comes the king size bed and closet. That completes the room.

This morning I awoke to a woman talking loudly from the next room. Next comes her husband who has been out drinking. They start at it. I thought is was going to come to blows and was thinking about calling down about the noise. This being GUM I knew there was a high chance he was military. Sure enough he starts talking about having to call his commander. I know this would not be good to call down as I was on a jury trial several years ago along the same lines. They thank goodness finally left. Now there phone is just ringing and ringing. The noise inside and outside seems to go on and on.

Bathroom: The bathroom is a small affair. The shower is worse. You have a single basin, deep soaking tub and shower. The floor is marble. The shower door would not close so I had to keep pulling it back in. I cut my elbow on the shower door handle. It has Westin shower heads but the bottom on has mold growing on it. A huge problem here. I tried to point that one towards the wall. The blinds are missing a turning "stick" so I had to get into the tub to close them. Rust is evident in many places plus those black spots we don't wanna know about. Standard amenities.

Internet: I was told internet was $16 per night. I tried to ask about what a night meant such as 24 hour period. The didn't know. After connecting nothing asked me for a confirmation so maybe it is free. Kinda like how my room was "free". The agent did ask me to sign some paper but he could not explain it so I did not sign. The speed is actually ok.

Gym: Did not make it there.

Spa: They have a Mandara Spa. Did not make it there either.

Eating venues: Joke. We tried to eat here but the places must be marginal. They were empty we would later find out. They are supposed to have a night buffet but that was not going yesterday evening. The Italian place is supposed to be ok. We ate at Outback. I know it sounds bad but that place was packed. To the walls packed. You know it is packed when they have a basket of pagers.

We came back looking for a bar. Something Edge. After wandering around on 4 we found it. Went to sit down and no person came. We finally went over the the Japanese restaurant and they called someone to come tend the bar. A joke.

Local markets: Lots of things outside these doors. Could not believe the number of strip clubs and massage spots. Amazing. The Outback was kitty corner cross the street from the Hotel.

Local area: I was into GUM at 3:35 PM. We got to the Hotel checked-in then headed out. We were at the restaurant by 6:30 PM. That was an entire tour by car with multiple stops.

Nagatives: Could there be more? Have not checked out yet.

Closing: That is a good way to put it. Closing. The Hotel needs help. I did get a nice room with views. Would not return to this property.