lewende

Was the hotel fully booked?

slidergirl

Yes, the WAPC WAS fully booked for the weekend. At one point, the tape chart was showing only 3 rooms unbooked - all basic Kings or Queens. Lots of families in for Spring Break, taking up the lions' share of the suites. It will be like this until Easter. All the hotels in the area are in the same boat. Whether or not you got an upgrade vs your friends was most likely dependent on the order that management was using to do the room blocks. The WAPC is usually very good at doing upgrades, so no one was deliberately denied one.

taylorc418

It was - and really, not getting a suite was fine. We were on the slopes from 8a-5p, then would hit the hot tub, and then head out to dinner. We really spent minimal time in the room, and it was fine. For being booked, the gondola and yurt were never crowded and we had no problems with anything the entire stay.

spgplat21

No upgrade as a gold. Booked a room on points and received what has to be one of worst rooms in the place. It's on the 4th floor(basically the bottom floor with how the hotel is set up) looking out towards the highway and the road leading up to the hotel. There are plenty of deluxe rooms, & suites (wasn't expecting a suite but a deluxe would have been nice) available for my entire stay, but when I inquired I was told they were sold out. I was exhausted from skiing so I didn't want to argue. I didn't mind not getting the upgrade, but just tell me that you don't upgrade golds instead of the back and forth lies.

Otherwise the hotel is pretty nice. The ski-in/ski-out isn't super convenient compared to a hotel actually on the mountain, but the service has been pretty solid and the restaurant has a nice breakfast menu. I would reccomend this place if you can get the right price, but to me the Hyatt, St. Regis, and Stein Erickson were all much more convenient for skiing and their standard rooms are also larger.

slidergirl

The 4th floor is not the bottom floor. The are rooms on the 3rd floor. The hotel is built into a hillside - there are even some rooms on the 5th floor that are "road" level. Unless you were underneath the kitchen, you did not get the worst room in the hotel. Did you try to book a queen room or a king room? Queens are next to impossible to upgrade due to the types of rooms they have there. You would have to be willing to accept a sofabed to get above the standard queen, so they are less likely to get an upgrade. If I were assigning upgrades, I would be hesitant to do that upgrade blindly - I sure wouldn't want to sleep on a sofabed for a week if I was paying that kind of money. If you want a decent shot of an upgrade to a suite, ask for the Deluxe King. If you don't get the upgrade, you still have a nice room. I've heard that this is a Diamond-heavy hotel, too, so you might be a lower guy on the upgrade totem pole there. This hotel is actually pretty good at doing as many upgrades as they can - there have been several days this year where they had a 100% upgrade rating (yes, Hilton keeps track of this). There may be more reasons why you didn't get an upgrade. Try going back tomorrow morning and politely ask if there is any possibility for a better room. Don't push or be assertive - maybe it's me, but I find that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

On a related note, I find it more than a little insulting that people on this site believe right off the bat that all Front Desk staffs are lying to you if you don't get your "entitled" upgrade. Like it's been said, we might not like it, but Hilton set the parameters and hotels have some latitude in how they implement the upgrades. That doesn't mean that the lowly FDA is lying through his teeth to deliberately deny you anything.

BLazarus22

I stayed at the WAPC over the past weekend (3/8-3/11)

I booked a two queen room on certificates. The day before arrival I called the hotel, emailed the concierge, and made sure they knew how badly I wanted an upgrade. They offered me a king deluxe. Then I tried again. Low and behold I ended up with a 1BR suite. The hotel was absolutely full for the weekend so whatever they did was, in my opinion, above and beyond. Room was gorgeous and the pullout sofa oh so comfortable. Full kitchen is to die for. It isn't worth $700/night in my opinion but then again I don't make 250k a year.

They do try hard.

spgplat21

I'm well aware of how the hotel is set up, I am staying here afterall. And the 4th floor is the bottom floor where my room is. Does it matter if it's the 4th, 3rd, or 5th floor. Point being, is that it is the bottom floor right on the road. I can look out from my balcony onto the driveway and there is not a room below.

And I wasn't trying to be overly negative to the hotel. Overall my stay has been good, and it does seem like they make an effort to upgrade. I was just stating that this has not been my experience.

The only reason I said they were lying was because of what was said to me on the next morning of my stay when I inquired again about an upgrade. When I asked the next morning if there was any possibility of an upgrade on my last two nights, I was told they did have some upgraded room types, but she just wanted to confirm or something before giving it to me. So I said no problem, and that I was just about to leave for skiing, but just to call and let me know and then I could move my stuff over after skiing. When she called back later that afternoon, she said oh we did have an upgraded room, but it didn't have two beds so it wouldn't work well for 4 adults. To this, I responded, great there are only two of us so that's not a big deal at all. After being on hold for a few minutes, she came back and said oh actually it wasn't an upgraded room, it's the same room type you're in, it just has one king bed. So this did leave me to believe that I was being misled in some way. Are there other possible reasons for this, sure, but given the availability of king deluxes and suites on the website I still feel I was being misled.

Sorry for the story, but just wanted to explain that there was a better reason to my assertion than just being told no we're all sold out of upgraded room types.

ps9a

Maybe she didn't like your FT handle?

slidergirl

Nah. Hey, I have better status with SPG than Hilton. I stay at more *woods than Hiltons. I'm a W kind of girl... In fact, my next stay is gonna be at a Westin :-)

spgplat21

Ha ha, I should have known it wasn't a good idea to wear my Starwood gear during check in.

Also, I checked out the spa today and it was amazing. It's definitely worth a visit for anyone staying here in the future. The facilities are first class all the way and I regret not spending more time there. The workout equipment looked like it hadn't even been used, and the showers in the men's locker room were the nicest I've ever seen. The particular one I used had adjustable lights, music, and 14 or so shower heads coming at me from every direction. Had I known about it sooner I would have showered there everyday.

I also used the outdoor hot tubs and they were great. They were super crowded from 4:00pm until 7:00pm so get down there early if you want to have a spot or wait until later because they really emptied out around 7:30pm.

fungirl

We stayed for 2 nights on points on Wed & Thu 3/7 and 3/8. As a gold we got what we booked (King) with no upgrade. Mid-week, the hotel didn't seem to be really occupied (I've seen no more than 5 people in 3 days in the hallways, incl 3 housekeepers) but got the farthest room from the front desk. Boy, was this a track!

The morning-to-early afternoon front desk shift was worked by a pair of agents - Caroline and Sandeep. For a young lady working at a luxury hotel, Caroline seems to be lacking basic customer service skills. She was more of a robot working off the script, afraid to utter an extra word. I mean - I don't need a chit-chat but the extent of our conversation at the check in was "here are your keys - the elevator is on your right around the corner". Seriously? For the hotel that is offering $120 30-minute massages at its Golden Door spa, it would be adviseable for a front desk to at least quickly describe the hotel, amenities and point out that the spa is available for ABC in the XYZ hours. Similarly, when my SO asked later about a stated Hilton Gold benefit at Waldorf Astorias of "welcome beverage", her response was "what do you want?" Maybe it is one "untrained" apple but WAPC will unfortunately never have the second chance to make the first impression.

On the other hand, the ski valet guys were fun, the shuttle drivers were warm and courteous and the Canyons gondola out the door was very convenient (for us). The small cafe in the nook and cranny has a strange setup where it does not look like they carry any products besides basic muffins. Everything, including a simple $6 bagel, require a wait where the staff ducks into another room leaving the counter unattended for 5-7 minutes at a time. Standing and waiting with just one more customer present, I just wondered what a a logistical nightmare it must be when you have a morning lineup of any usual size to speak of.

All-in-all, it is a nice property and most of our interactions were pleasing. It just seemed to have a few negatives here and there that added up to the want of a truer luxury hotel.

slidergirl

Remember, from the HHonors Gold bennies page:

"Benefits subject to availability and change at each hotel."

Being in Utah, the WAPC may choose not to offer the beverage. I think the state liquor laws would prohibit complementary alcohol.

fungirl

Who said it had to be alcohol? A glass of chilled apple juice would work.

slidergirl

No one said it had to be alcohol. I think most assume that it means that. I didn't mean to rile you.

ma91pmh

Just curious, do they provide transfer/shuttle service to/from Park City and/or Deer Valley from this resort?