lcpteck

We are proud to announce that The Riviera Palm Springs, a Tribute Portfolio Resort (California) is now part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. The hotel is accepting reservations as of today, October 20, 2015, for future dates on or after November 3, 2015. Please note that since this is a new activation, we will not expect availability on the web until later today.

SPG Category 4.

Best regards,

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

lcpteck

Rates seems to be only available from November 13th onwards. No opening offer yet.

Keyser

booked here for a night in december for $89....it sucks that they have a $35 resort fees though....

chenalex

It's been one day, and they're already sold out for Coachella weekend...

Bravada04

$35.00 / night resort fees! When is this nonsense going to end. Pretty soon the resort fees will be meeting the nightly rate. Ridiculous.

lcpteck

Resort fee details posted to wikipost.

Resort Fee

A resort fee of 35 USD plus tax per room per night includes the following benefits:

• Wireless High Speed Internet Access
• Local phone calls
• Newspaper
• One yoga class
• Fitness center access
• Bicycle rental
• Self-parking

sfozrhfco

I was able to book November 8th a day before this announcement was made using our SET rate. Still have not been able to book 6-8 November using points. Hope they load those rates soon. They had the rates in earlier in the week but blocked booking. Now they only start on 13 November.

The resort fee with no real benefits is annoying but the Parker Meridien charges the same fee plus double the points which is why I only stayed there once. Category 4 on a busy weekend when rates are high makes it a little more bearable to redeem free nights.

---

Rates are now entered starting on the 3rd of November. Your24 links not working yet...but got my reservation for 2 weeks from today.

sjordan93436

I just booked Friday Nov 13 to Sunday. I got my fingers crossed. How bad can it be? I then go onward to the Mission Hills villas.

jdrtravel

I've stayed at this property a couple of times. In case others have not, a few thoughts:

Pros:
- It is truly a mid-century gem and they have done a great job bringing it back to it's glory.
-Fabulous pool
-The food is decent
-close (but not super close) to central PS

Cons:
-The service is really terrible (or at least it was a year ago)
-Chronic A/C problems
-This hotel can be a major party scene, and not in a cute way

I really hope that joining SPG will give it a second chance. They did the remodel and opened in the height of the recession, and so they were forced to give a lot of discounts, etc. My sense is that they never really recovered from that. You can see that the intention was really to create a high end luxury experience, but when I have been there the clientele never really materialized (think instead people looking for a cheap deal).

christianj

As someone that vacations in PS yearly for for several years now (we actually just got back from 10 days in the area), I think the hotel was smart in joining up with SPG. Anyone that has been to PS over the last several years has seen the redevelopment that has been going on there and the Riviera was part of that redevelopment. With at least two high profile hotel openings still to come within the next 2 years (a Kimpton Palomar and a Hyatt Andaz) I think it is wise for the hotel to open itself up to a larger booking pool with an SPG membership before these two large scale properties open. So far the Parker was the only SPG option close to PS (unless you considered the Westin in Rancho Mirage as an option). The Parker's Category 6 classification was ridiculous so now the Riviera at a Category 4 will be a nice option....I personally think we will see the Parker move back down to a Category 5 once they see a drop off in award bookings with the Riviera coming on board.

jdrtravel

Agreed. One of the issues with Palm Springs is that there are so many great vacation homes that can be rented privately and offer much better value IMO. For a luxury brand hotel to succeed it needs to really step it up with service--which is the thing a private house does not come with. And service in Palm Springs is generally sub-par.

sfozrhfco

Just returned from a long weekend at the property. The hotel itself is nice. There are still a lot of training issues that need to be ironed out relating to the switch over to Starwood. The Wifi is barely usable but I was told the whole system is being torn out and replaced with a new modern system. It will take about 6 weeks to get the new system up and running. In the meantime, plan to use cell data if you have to use the internet extensively--especially if you are in a room at the ends of the buildings. Near the lobby the Wifi is not too bad.

I am still not sure what the platinum breakfast amenity is supposed to be. Was told somebody would call me the first night to let me know what it was but never did get a call. A couple of the front desk people were very nice and helpful but at other times, nobody was at the front desk and the concierge desk was also unstaffed.

Breakfast at the restaurant was good. Service again was spotty. Not horrible by any means but not very attentive either with some people waiting quite a long time to have their orders taken.

The rooms are a decent size and nicely decorated. The furniture is actually not bad but it will apparently be replaced soon and a new bar will be built near the pool.

There is a lot of potential for this place. It could be really nice but they do need to step up the training and have somebody with authority on call to deal with problems that may come up. I will give them them benefit of the doubt as this was the first week of using the Starwood system. Hopefully things will improve as time goes by. If they do then it could be a great option--and at half the points of the Parker Meridien.

bocastephen

Just booked this property for late Dec as a jump-off point for Joshua Tree NP, so we are only looking at sleeping here and having breakfast, but having said that, a few questions:

1. is this hotel providing free breakfast to Platinum members?
2. how is the noise level, especially at night? I read something upthread about party scene and that is definitely not something we are interested in - want total silence at night
3. what is the alternative amenity provided to Platinum members or will they waive that ridiculous resort fee?

sfozrhfco

Stayed there right when it converted and they didn't really know what they were doing so can't answer 1. I was given a $ credit that only really covered the 1st of three nights but they were just figuring out the Starwood system and had not yet received the breakfast vouchers. Will be staying again in two weeks so can let you know.

First night I stayed it was quite loud across from building 7 as there was a wedding or something but it ended quite early and the rest of the stay was very quiet. It is more quiet in buildings 1 & 2...anything on that side of the property is better as the event space is directly opposite building 7.

They didn't charge the resort fee for either the paid nights or free nights I used. We will see if that continues when I stay in mid-December.

bocastephen

Thank you! I will be there at the end of December so your upcoming experience will be very helpful and I will request my room far from the event space.