sbtinme

Just had a three night stay here for a meeting. Hadn't been here in two years or so and I don't see any real information out there for this property for quite some time.

Here are a few of my thoughts about this hotel quickly:

- This place will never seem like a Westin to me. It seems more like a suburban shopping mall that might've been built in 1974. Think massive quantities of poured concrete making up the walls of the cavernous lobby flanked by a soaring wall of plants (made to look like a jungle, sort of) with a loud waterfall. (See what I mean about being like a mall from the 70s?!?)

There is lots of woodwork in the lobby area, but it all looks very dated to me and very 1970s. A far cry from the cool look Westin works hard to achieve for their brand. One evening sitting in the lobby with colleagues, we were enjoying cocktails for a few hours but we all felt very warm the entire time.

Front desk staff, on this visit, was characterized by lots of new hires and agents who had trouble with the most simple of requests. They were all pleasant enough and, ultimately, helpful -- just not the definition of polished efficiency.

I was surprised to see that the rooms have still not been renovated to what I would call an acceptable standard. They've had the Heavenly Bed, of course, for many many years. BUT, the room carpeting continues to be a bizarre medium blue (hello?!?!?) and the soft chairs in the room are a wide cordouroy light blue (hello?!?!?), which is about as un-Westinlike as I can fathom. Window treatments are still the old kind that we all knew well in the 1980s.

This hotel has an unusual room ventilation system -- there are not individual room units, but rather a master system whereby the guest can adjust room temperature to his/her liking, but the airflow is very low and runs out of a room long slot that hovers near the ceiling. This is important to know for a few reasons. One would be that, if a guest were chilly upon arriving in the room, it would take a considerable time for the room's ambient temperature to reach the bed level. Seriously. As it was, I needed to cool my room down from the 72.5degrees I found it in when I arrived and it took perhaps 2 full hours to get the room to 69. Dang. But, the most important thing about this ventiliation system is that it provides absolutely NO WHITE NOISE since there is no fan unit for each room. That means if you count on that little fan noise to block out hallway noise, slamming doors, etc, you will be sorely disappointed here. The ventiliation system is virtually silent. Some might love that, I hate it. I slept very poorly the first night since I could hear water running in the walls and the elevators going up and down. (Nevermind the ice machines down the hall. UGH!)

The bathrooms are also unique. They have a domed ceiling which is essentially impossible to describe here, so I won't attempt to. The wallpaper is an odd, foil paper that looks, again, very 1970s. Silver foil wallpaper with triangular red accents doesn't seem very Westin to me at all. These bathrooms have NO ventilation system whatsoever, so if you don't want the mirror to fog, leave the door open....... Housekeeping did NOT replinish any of the room toiletries on the second day, despite the shampoo's being nearly gone and the lotion completely gone. That's maddening to me.

Breakfast in the downstairs restaurant was okay. I waited for four or five minutes to be seated, yet there was no hostess and I was about to get really frustrated when a hotel employee walked up and asked if I had been helped. I told him no and he immediately led me to a table and presented me with a menu. As I was sitting down, I looked up to note that his name tag listed him as "Manager." I asked if he were the GM of the hotel perchance and he replied that he was. I was quite impressed that the GM had taken it upon himself to see that I was accomodated as a matter of his regular rounds. We spoke for 2 or 3 minutes and I learned that he takes 1-2 hours a day to simply walk his property and work the public areas. Very nice and very impressive. All too often, I never see a GM anywhere -- even at hotels where I stay a LOT. I thanked him for his attention.

In sum, however, I have to say this is a Westin that falls at the bottom of the Westin heap. It's somewhat comfortable, but quite dated, in my opinion. It shows a fair amount of its 1970s vintage and without significant cost, I don't know how you can change that. The room's softgoods are simply out of date and I don't know how they've been allowed to keep such a dreadful room look and conform to Westin's brand standards. One hopes that a substantial rooms renovation is around the corner.

In all, I'd say a C+.