Starwood Lurker

The policy is that if they have a resort charge that includes free HSIA, they must provide an additional item to offset it.

If you are asking what exactly it is at this moment in time, that will require some additional research.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

estnet

This hotel simply doesn't want to follow the rules. They DO know that they are to give an alternative amenity but just pretend they don't know anything about it.
I had someone from Starwood email me the policy which I the showed to one of their managers who after much anguish offered a paltry amenity. This wasn't very long ago and I think until the hotel suffers from lying about "not knowing" they will continue to try to pretend they "don't know". I was told at the time that this would be taken care of so that future guests wouldn't have the same issue. Clearly NOT.
I shouldn't have to educate management about a policy that has been in effect for years.

I will never return to this hotel. IMHO it is one of the most poorly managed hotels I have ever been too. The lowest level staff are the most knowledgeable and customer oriented (bellman, waiters) and the managers are hopeless. the crowning blow for me was when a manager who knew of MANY service failures -(the first day I had to wait in the room for over 4 hours for various engineers, etc to come to fix issues, much of the time having to call repeatedly when a promised service person didn't show up) on my last day - when dealing with another problem that should never have happened said "I hope we have exceeded your expectations". her utter disregard of the serious and multiple issues just left me speechless!
I would have left after the first day but their cancellation policy would have made this an expensive proposition and they wouldn't waive it.

baxterboy12

I'm surprising my extended family of 11 with a 7 night stay here in July 2015. I found 11 Avios seats together so I'm feeling lucky. I am Gold this year but need 3 more stays to re-qualify for '15. I have 3 standard rooms booked on points, 12K off season, 5th night free. With 6 adults and 5 kids it will be pretty tight with only 3 rooms that are 380 square feet each. Based on this thread, it looks like they are pretty stingy on upgrades.

Go for Gold questions:
For the veterans of this property, are the upgraded rooms more square footage? Or just a higher floor with a better view?
What else might Gold grant me besides a small welcome gift?
Would the Gold status apply to all 3 rooms booked in my name? Probably not but I suppose we
If you were in my shoes, would you mattress run $67ish/night x 3 nights this year to achieve Gold?

And 2 miscellaneous questions:
Is self-parking free?
Do you recommend a rental car for a 7 night stay here?

Flews

I don't think Gold will get you much at this property. Rooms are all pretty well same size. Parking was free last time I was there. Car rental is pricey, depends on your needs, I guess. I just walk - lots of nice restaunts in the area - or jump on the bus along Seven Mile Beach, which goes into town.

Cheers,

worldtravel123

I am here now as a plat. Upon check-in I asked about the resort fee including wifi, and the fact I already get it as a plat benefit. They acknowledged that people have asked about this before, but would not provide a substitute amenity, nor a reduction in the resort fee. Their rationale was that the resort fee includes other benefits and not just wifi.

In my mind, part of the resort fee (whether it be $3 or 50 cents or whatever $ amt) is still being paid toward the cost of the wifi. A reduction in price or alternate amenity would have been a nice gesture IMO. The thing that bugs me is the inconsistency I see from reading this thread. I am not sure why this isn't being handled consistently.

Honestly aside from this everything is great so far. I'll post a review when I return home.

Starwood Lurker IV

Hi worldtravel123,

Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this. Could you please send us a PM with your reservation details for us to follow up with this matter?

[email protected]

Chua Chie Ling | Social Media Specialist
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd

worldtravel123

We were here on an award stay as a Platinum member. Here are my thoughts/impressions of the stay.

Overall it was a fantastic beach vacation. The property is well maintained and the beach/water is quite lovely. The sand is white and the water a rich turquoise.

Transportation: We took a ~25USD cab from the airpot to hotel and received the same rate going back by showing our slip of paper they handed us. There isn't much (food or space) at the airport and I think 1.5hrs arrival is plenty esp. if you are not in the height of high season, or not traveling at a busy time.

Check-in: they were friendly and it went smooth. I asked about the wifi being included in the $35USD resort fee that I already get as a plat member. The front desk person said that there would be no substitute since ALL these other things are included in the resort fee. I accepted it at this point but something didn't sit right given I saw the SPG employee respond on this thread that it is policy to substitute for something. Because I like things to be consistently enforced, I decided to write on this thread (see above). SPG responded and I ended up with a $20 resort credit. I truly appreciated the customer service and quick response in this situation. I hope the hotel can consistently offer this in the future. If it wasn't a policy I wouldn't have bothered replying, but when I see a SPG employee say the policy is XXX and the hotel says they can't offer any sub b/c you get all this other stuff, something isn't right.

Room: It was clean and nicely appointed. The hotel as a whole has a beach decor vibe. It is not new and modern (which would seem out of place) nor is it old and shabby. Shampoo and conditioner and body wash were provided. There was also a rain shower head. We booked an island view room and were upgraded to one with an ocean view. I am not sure what they called it but I would consider it a partial ocean view vs. full on frontal. It was nice regardless. I thought the beds were comfortable.

Beach: the beach (seven mile beach) was kept clean. There were quite a few people out but the beach is large enough so that everyone has their own space. Overall it seemed the hotel wasn't sold out - we were there right at the start of high season it sounded like (so perhaps the beach could be more packed in the heart of high season). The beach is private. I only say 1 hawker - twice - but they were silent, just walked down the beach with a sign. They will setup chairs wherever you want, including in front of the 'stationary' front row (where the umbrellas stay in the sand overnight). Just be aware if you like a front row view as you won't keep that if you are further back. The water is super clear and you will see some fish in the water - they never bother you. I did walk down to the Ritz - they had more chairs more uniformly laid out, so to me it seemed more packed/dense. I definitely thought the Westin had the better stretch because of this (I didn't count the chairs but just a visual impression). I thought the beach service was fine. If you want drink after drink I could see it being slow. Also, you could see the cruise ships docked/tendered in port from the beach which was kind of fun I thought.

Food: we just stayed on property the whole time for meals and had enough variety. Prices were resort prices but were not unreasonable to me. We ate at their two finer restaurants for dinner - the Beach House and Ferdinand's. I LOVED my meal at the Beach House - a great kale salad and this AMAZING passion fruit mousse. Ferdinand's was good as well. To me the Beach House was more 'foodie' than Ferdinand's. I chose breakfast as my plat amenity - we ate the buffet at Ferdinand's - a $21 value I believe. It was a good spread. There is station where you can get omelettes (or eggs cooked how you want) and waffles. We ate lunches at the pool place - Tortuga's. There is also a coffee shop in the lobby.

Amenities: I didn't actually use the exercise room as I chose to jog outside but it looked nice and they have cold water in it. The have maps with a 3mi and 5mi jogging route which I liked. I did the 3mi at sunset and it was lovely. You do have to cross 2 main roads to get to it. The 1st (outside the resort) has a cross walk, and the second I just waited for a gap to cross. You walk around the golf course then.
The pool is very large - it is split into 2 halves (you can go under a brige to get between the two halves. 1 half has a swim up bar which appeared to be shaded most of the day (which was a nice sun break).
You get 2 Dasani's with the resort fee everyday. The tap water is free flowing at the beach and in the restaurants, so the 2 bottles were enough.
There are some shops in the hotel too, else there is a mini mart and liquor store across the street. They sold Crunchie bars - bonus!

Other: I did get mosquito bites and of course I didn't bring bug spray (I never seem to need it in places I bring it to) so I bought some there at the gift store. There is a resort calendar with events, take a look (including bonfire with marshmallow roasting one night).
I did go diving with Deep Blue Divers b/c I wanted a small group. I went on 2 dives - the Oro Verde Wall and the Oro Verde Wreck. It was fabulous diving. Some of my favorites out of 20+ dives. Red Sail Sports is right on the property but I didn't see them advertising a capacity cap on the boats which is why I opted for Deep Blue Divers.

Improvements I would suggest:
Handling multiple reservation numbers. We had 4 that were linked according to the rep I spoke with on the phone. The 1st 3 nights were separate numbers and the last 2 nights on another number. The maids kept asking if we were checking out the 1st 3 days and then I explained the situation. It would be great to communicate this to the housekeeping folks (front desk/housekeeping communication).
There was also some green choice confusion. We ended up getting our certs but they came at odd times and not consistently at all. The 1st couple days I had to ask for water bottle refills (the Dasani water). None of this was a deal breaker but I would assume if the numbers had been linked properly, this could have been avoided? Maybe not (as I cannot claim to know how this works exactly) but just something to think about.
My biggest gripe was the wifi - it randomly cut in/out - at least a couple times a day if not more. Just a slight annoyance and one I would think could be fixed.

Again, no place is perfect. I think the Westin can improve a couple things (handling multiple reservation numbers, water refills, wifi, alt plat amenity) - minor really. But overall it was a great trip and the key components (room, service, beach) were fabulous and perfect for a relaxing/lazy vaycay. I hope to be back.

NYC2TLV

Does anyone know what plug type to expect in the rooms at this property? UK or US?

tmm1012

The hotel has standard US plugs.

InHouseGuy

checked in here today. Without asking, was given one $10 dining credit voucher per day as the alternate plat amenity. I guess try got the message from Starwood on this.

Nice plat recognition at check-in. Given an upgraded ocean view balcony room on a points reservation, during Christmas week where the place is fairly packed. FOH manager went out of her way to explain the breakfast amenity and show me where to go for this and that. Quite pleased so far.

Flews

If you get a chance, either by cab or car, try to get out to see some of the residential Christmas displays, several of which are the best I've ever seen. Also, the Christmas Day brunch at the Ritz....

Cheers,

ihdihd

Just returned for a vacation here. I think the two reviews above do a nice job of covering the property. If you were expecting something akin to a St Regis monarch Beach, don't. The staff is not as well trained, and the property not as well kept. That said, once you do that first adjustment, the rest is smooth sailing.

A few notes to add to worldtravel123's great review:

• The resort fee was actually $45 per room per night - not sure if this is temporary during the high season or a permanent adjustment
• They now give a $10 voucher to use at hotel restaurants per night to defray the reduced platinum amenity/resort charge. This is only given for one room, regardless of total number of rooms booked/resort fees paid nightly.
• The internet service is terrible, not even good enough for email as it keeps dropping in and out. Best bet is to not do email, and use the business center once or twice.
• Towels run out quite often. It wasn't the end of the world as they often stocked up quickly, but this would be a laughable at a St. Regis or even next door at the Ritz.
• Connecting rooms are charged an additional $150 USD per night. We were not charged this because we actually downgraded quite substantially to get connecting rooms, but YMMV. I hadn't seen this anywhere else before.
• The beach is the nicest one I've seen at any SPG property yet. Nicer than Aruba, Thailand, Hawaii at the very least. It is extremely calm waters, soft sand, a wide stretch that even during busy christmas week, was still not THAT busy, and shallow enough for kids to play in.
• The pool is not very friendly to young toddlers. The shallowest part is 3.5 feet, and there is no kiddie pool of any kind, which made chasing after the 1 year old toddler quite a pain by comparison to hotels like STR monarch beach that have enclosed kiddie pools.
• The platinum amenity breakfast applied to a full breakfast for 2 adults, which was nice. This was something like $60 worth, so very much appreciated. However, they charge half that for children as they are not free.
• Staff is friendly but not very well trained. The front desk ladies seem like seasonal staff, and the ones who checked us in insisted that the hotel didn't have an SPG kids pass (kept telling me instead about the kids club). This cost us a few hundred $ more in buying kids food a la carte all week. Again not the end of the world, but would have been nice not to be condescended to when trying to educate them about their own hotel's amenities.
• The concierge is pretty useless except for making reservations at places you've already researched. The red sail lady next to the concierge (name sounds like a US 1 cent coin) wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, every morning...
• If you're not planning on staying on property the entire stay, then rent a car. For 6 days of moderate travel, we paid about $300USD. It seemed that every trip for family of 4 was around $25CI ($30USD). On the flip side, the taxis are typically minivans or large vans, so carrying around the stroller was no issue at all.
• Red sail sports on the property has every water sport imaginable, and they were quite professional. That said, I got the sense that they were not the most affordable, nor the most intimate (large groups). I would recommend Captain Marvin (right across the street), and a dive shop right under the cracked conch restaurant on the water, where you can dive right into the water without a boat ride needed.
• Don't bother at all with the kids club. We tried it for one day at the kids insistence (they love the kids clubs at westins) and they were looking for us after 2 hours. It's a small room (like 10 ft x 10 ft), poorly lit, with some basic craft activities. I was told they do field trips, but we didn't trust enough to let our young kids go.

We were told ahead of time that the property doesn't give upgrades, so we had to book 2 basic rooms and that was what we received. Between two rooms of points, resort fees, and extra charges for kids breakfasts, the total was 128K points and around $650 ($450 for resort charges and $200 for extra kids breakfasts).

The rest of the meals on property were reasonably priced (avg $65 per adult, $30 per child) including drinks.

This hotel is not cheap if you are coming during high season (as we did). The best rate during our stay was something like $450/nt/room, so while it was a good point redemption value (about 4.5 cents/point), it didn't really feel that way. The Ritz next door was well over $1,000 per night. I imagine one can do better with tour operators, with enough lead time, but we were booking a few weeks in advance.

Compared to most St. Regis properties where any room we receive is large enough to accommodate the family, I would typically pay 80K-120K points plus around $200. Breakfasts for the kids have never been an issue at St. Regis and have always been included when the platinum breakfast was selected.

I will return to Cayman, and likely to the Westin. The family really enjoyed the trip and I would recommend it to anyone considering it, but compared to a no-brainer like the Diplomat's cash and points rates and instant suites (may they rest in peace), expect to burn a large hole in your SPG account to make this trip happen.

AlxStevens

I think this review covers things very well, but I would disagree with the upgrade note as we received an upgrade to an Ocean View balcony from a basic points reservation (as did a poster just a few messages back). May be less likely with multiple rooms.

ihdihd

I should have clarified to be fair to the property that the upgrade likelihood was limited by the time we were there (Christmas) and the fact that they were fully booked.

That said, I still don't believe you can use SNA at this property at any time during the year, for example. I certainly didn't have the option to even try.

spellbound2

We'll be here for 5 nights and the Marriott for 5 nights. Really looking forward to it. Can you bike around the island?