CanuckFlyHigh

I agree. Thats why I am staying out of this thread. It completely depends on preferences and your experiences at certain hotels.

carolinaaaflyer

Agreed. Depends on your preferences.

My personal favorite is Chateau Frontenac in Quebec - I don't know of another city hotel that dominates the landscape like that one. But I haven't tried them all. Yet.

seanthepilot

The Waterfront, the Chateau Lake Louise, Fairmont Seattle, & Fairmont Singapore are all quite exceptional.

I think the tone in this thread is distastefull, but i chose to participate anyways. To insinuate that one isn't qualified to post regarding exceptional hotels because Platinum service & rooms ae out of reach of other guests is absurd. Just my opinion.

Symmetre

Having stayed at a number of Fairmont properties, my personal favourite remains the Banff Springs. There are high points and low points to every hotel, of course, but I just find the Banff Springs feels right. It is difficult to explain, but unmistakable whenever I'm there. It does not have the largest rooms or the most luxurious appointments, but it's one of those things where it's more than the sum of its parts. Not sure if that makes much sense, but that's the best I can articulate it.

Having said that, I feel the Algonquin is a remarkable hotel. Sit in the restaurant verandah for afternoon tea, watch gentlemen smoking fine cigars on the lawn, and you can't help but feel like you've slipped back in time and become .... Hercule Poirot! The Chateau Lake Louise definitely has its charms, and the Empress ..... has small, dated rooms and a crappy HVAC system .... but it's still the Empress and that in itself mitigates a lot of sins. Besides, its restaurant is exceptional.

The Chateau Laurier, Chateau Frontenac, Royal York and Savoy are all wonderful hotels, but to borrow words from a previous poster, not (in my humble opinion) destinations unto themselves in the same way as the Algonquin, the Chateau Lake Louise or the Banff Springs.

My two cents .....

point bonita lighthouse

Thanks seanthepilot and Symmetre, that is the type of helpful tone and input I would like to maintain in this thread.

There is of course a lot of personal subjectivity in distinguishing the real jewels among Fairmont properties nevertheless I know of no one who would prefer to stay at the Fairmont Newport Beach over Banff Springs. For those interested in trying to help others assess the truly extraordinary hotels we would greatly appreciate your input.

Ancien Maestro

To clarify, I think Seanthepilot, you misread the threads.. I'm merely stating that industry professionals who pay a low rate at hotels are going to have reviews that are from a non-retail perspective. tcook052 is a seasoned travel expert professional, and a flyertalk evangelist.. as you are a professional pilot.. should already know the obvious.

For example.. you value Fairmont Seattle, but tcook052 probably doesn't have as high of a review.. Factors? Price paid, room quality, status, fpc benefits.. all play in how you rate the hotel.

Ancien Maestro

Haven't been to Newport Beach but I suspect that this hotel is conveniently located near Disneyland, and their target market being in the region is around $100 per night rooms. This would actually translate to a consideration by our family to actually stay there as well if we are attending Disneyland, although I would agree that its' not one of the iconic properties we would be used to.

tcook052

I doubt STP misread anything but won't say more as I promised point bonita lighthouse I'd be friendly.

anti_ice

For the record, I stayed at the Fairmont Seattle and I believe stayed in perhaps the exact same room as tcook. An executive suite with a french door centered with curtain rather than glass and quite dated furniture.

IMO, I would expect any patron at any hotel should expect the same service and treatment as anyone else.

Ancien Maestro

I don't think tcook052 was in a suite, but you'll have to confirm that with him. I know he was paying travel agent's rate.

IMO.. while it would be ideal to receive and expect the same service i.e. upgrades, benefits.. even a regular patron and a regular FPCer would receive a world of difference in service.. i.e. free phone calls, preferences such as foam or feather pillows, exercise room access for free, access to Fairmont Fit program for a charge, etc... Elite FPCer.. guaranteed upgrades, amenities, note from hotel manager, free Fairmont Fit program, etc.. For effect, I could further breakdown the differences upon request..

tcook052

Do you read what others write?

Jasper2009

I think this discussion is quite pointless. IMO everyone in this forum understands the different benefits associated with different rates, itīs not like TAs get rooms for free, TA rates are cheaper than the (publically available) BAR rate.

GRGD rates are usually 40%-60% cheaper than BAR, and as we all know have one major caveat: rooms canīt be upgraded using Premier/Plat upgrade certs: one reason why I donīt book this rate

FAF rates donīt earn miles and canīt be combined with Virtuoso/Amex amenities etc.

I could go on, but I think you get my point. Choosing a particular rate always comes with particular T&C, and booking a cheaper rate often comes with more restrictions. Are all these cheap rates bad? no. They cater to a certain target group. Itīs always good to compare different rates, but Iīm quite confident tcook052 has done the math for his stays.

The rate paid does not necessarily translate into worse/better treatment.
There were a few complaints in the past about people booking the NFAF rate getting worse rooms, can I validate their story? No. Is this my experience over the years? Definitely not.

Iīve spent 40+ nights at various Fairmont hotels over the last year (booking various rates), and I canīt see any pattern how treatment/price paid correlate in any way, and to be quite frank, I think hotels have more important things to do than having discussions like "Mr. X only paid $99/night, shall we give him the old, crappy room overlooking the parking lot even though occupancy is at 10%?" Sure the rate paid may play a role every now and then, but there are many different factors like status, number of nights at that hotel, number of nights at all Fairmojnt hotels, being connected with the GM/other staff, not being an unpleasent/obnoxious guest etc.

Ancien Maestro

I don't read every post in this forum, nor necessarily every post on this thread.. or if I did I don't have a picture perfect memory. I do remember that there was a problem with your sofa bed or something.. and there were other adults in the room you were sharing with.

Ancien Maestro

Some points I would agree with, and others I have a different experience. I've noticed that being on Friends and Family rates, there has been say less upgrades at the Hawaii property at check-in.. this compared to the other rates I've paid over the years.

My personal concierge has also stated that the Friends and Family rate has been controversial amongst the Fairmont front staffers, and there has been debate over whether FPC should be able to upgrade using certificates or not. That is why access to Friends and Family rates have been tightened. There is certainly a bit of attitude going around with the friends and family rate amongst the front staffers that I've come in contact with.. but the worst comes when you book with a third party.. which I unknowingly did when I booked a Fairmont Moments package. That is the ultimate in shut you down service.. "Call the third party to take care of all your problems," and "we know that's a Fairmont website promising you these things, but that's not our problem."

What you book, where you book from, and the rate you book certainly has implications for what service you receive.. could be good, could be bad.

Jasper2009

There have been a few such reports, but fortunately Iīve had nothing but excellent service over the years, regardless of whether I had booked the FAF rate or any other rate. Some hotels even gave me some extra benefits as an employee friend (e.g. 20% discount on F&B)

IMO the "attitude" comes from the fact that the FAF rate was available to the public for quite a while and it probably was hard to distinguish the "real employee friends" from other people using the NFAF code.

I agree that the rate booked may result in a different level of service, but IMO itīs pretty much impossible to say whether itīs good or bad, it very much depends on the employee handling the booking and the hotel, e.g.

TA rate: treat the guest worse because he paid a lower rate or treat him better because he influences the decision of other customers?

FAF rates: treat the guest worse because he paid a lower rate and may not even personally know an employee or treat him better because heīs a friend of a long-time, valued Fairmont colleague?

What Iīm basically saying is that itīs not worth it to spend too much time thinking about worse/better treatment as a consequence of booking a particular rate.

The only rates I tend to avoid for various reasons are GRGD and third party bookings (expedia, travelzoo etc.)