jpdx

jpdx

Here's a partial answer to my question. We picked the Westin, and had a very mixed stay.

We were upgraded to a junior suite, and upon arrival, had a fairly good first impression. The room is is nicely furnished and looks reasonably modern and upscale. I briefly sat down on the bed to plug in my phone charger, and the mattress almost collapsed under me. I laid down and immediately realized that the mattress isn't just not heavenly, it's worn out and saggy. I immediately called for a different room, and we were assigned another junior suite, a few doors down. The mattress was better, but we still slept poorly, and my SO woke up with hip pain. The terrible mattress situation has been mentioned on TA, so I assume management is well aware.

At check-in we were offered an option of breakfast (in lieu of 1000 points). I asked if there was a club lounge, and the FD staff told us that P/T/A can choose from a selection of soft drinks at the bar all day, plus there's a cocktail hour from 6pm to 7pm with drinks and snacks. We stopped by for cocktail hour, and there were three super friendly and skilled staff manning the bar. There's a decent selection of beers/wine, plus one daily Bonvoy cocktail. It contained gin (which I can't stomach), and the bartender happily mixed a vodka-based alternative. One of the waiters inquired about our food preferences and allergies, and based on that, the chef whipped up a couple of delicious appetizers -- a parmesan soup, prawn on fennel and risotto. Strangely, nobody else showed up for cocktail hour. Breakfast in the main restaurant was ok -- two notches below Elephant Weimar, but in line with Westin Dresden and LM Stuttgart.

Overall, I'd rank the club benefit and bar staff 10/10, breakfast 6/10, room 8/10 (even though the hotel was dead and there must have been lots of larger suites available), and mattress 0/10. Obviously, the latter is the most important factor in choosing a hotel, so despite its strengths in other areas and ridiculously low price, we won't be returning to the Westin.

Flying Lawyer

Had a recent stay at the Westin Leipzig and was pleasantly surprised once again. Was upgraded to a junior suite, for 40 EUR they upgraded us further to one of their full suites. In the past, this upgrade came for free but I always oul not understand why they did it with my cheap 80 EUR all in corporate rate. Given that, no complains. They offer free soft drinks and coffees from 1100 until late in their lobby bar, a really high quality evening snack after 1730 and free alcohol from 1800 to 1900 and described in post #77 . I like the breakfast because it has a local Saxonian touch, Bar staff is great and super friendly, the hotel can be a bit of a zoo because it is the homebase for several bus tour operators. After these people were gone at 700 in the morning, it was a pleasent place.

demue

Had a 4 night stay in early Nov. No more status at Marriott so pleasantly surprised that we got an upgrade to a Jr. Suite on a lowish corporate rate (not as good as Flying Lawyer's). Hotel was packed though due to some concert and a soccer match.

Overall quite happy with the room other than the mattress as jpdx mentioned as well. For us it wasn't worn out, but very firm. I have had some firm mattresses in Japan for example, and this one was similar. Didn't make for the greatest sleep.

I mentioned on check out that this mattress doesn't feel like a Heavenly Bed and they said that it is one, but that they chose a firmer version and next time I should call them and they would add a matress topper to make it more comfortable, good to know.

Also not sure why this hotel never offers rates with breakfasts when trying to book via website / app. It will have to be added when checking in so in the end we skipped it entirely and ate outside instead. YMMV.

MrSnoot78

Does anyone know if they are still offering free drinks for Platinums and above?

Thank you.

Andie007

https://www.dw.com/en/put-your-star-...tel/a-59415284

Quite sad to see and very disappointing by the hotel management. Antisemitism should never be tolerated - but the Westin Leipzig always seems to be good for bad news (there are other posts in a German forum that lifetime platinum members are being asked not coming back because of high demands in regard to upgrading etc).

https://www.vielfliegertreff.de/foru...6#post-3470320

FlyerTalker78341

Attempt at a summary of this shocking antisemitic event:

​​​​​​There was a long line at reception due to a failure of the front desk's computer system. German musician and TV show host Gil Ofarim was in line, wearing a necklace with a Star of David.

He noticed he was not served when it was his turn. Allegedly, another guest waiting in line shouted: "Put away your Star!" A bit later, Ofarim questioned the receptionist why he kept pulling guests behind him in the queue up front. The receptionist told him that he would have to remove his Star of David if he wanted to receive service.

Visibly very shaken and shocked, Ofarim made a video for his Instagram which went viral. His management eventually found another hotel for him.

As if this crass antisemitism was not disturbing enough, the Westin Leipzig's first response felt inappropriate as well. In their initial statement, they said:

"Unser Ziel ist es, alle unsere Gäste und Mitarbeiter zu integrieren, zu respektieren und zu unterstützen, unabhängig davon, welcher Religion sie angehören."

My translation: It is our goal to integrate, respect, and supporting all our guests and employees, irrespective of their faith.

The tone feels off to me. Ofarim is German, 39 years old, born in Munich. His family lived in Germany and Europe his entire life. Why would you need to "integrate" him? You might ask for integration of an asylum-seeker who recently arrived after fleeing from a war in his native country, but not of someone who is a well-known German celebrity.

I am avoiding this property from now on. It seems they have put the front desk agent responsible on administrative leave, but in my view, many questions remain.

GUWonder

The GM of the hotel has been at the hotel since 2005?

Andie007

The German forum is posting that the GM is now suspended. Anyhow, there have been other quite strange stories around the hotel and the general management (Plats have asked for room upgrades and the hotel was complaining about the behavior of those guests).

I agree with ryanp. Westin Leipzig is now off my list. And I would also expect a proactive communictions by Marriott to (esp.) German frequent traveller about that - but knowing Marriott I know it will not happen.

Overall very shocking and absolutely not tolerable.

sobore

Thanks for the summary and translation. Very disturbing story.

oliver2002

Well, the previous incidents posted on VFT are minor compared to this. Those related to plats on BRG pushing the limits.

Forstbetrieb

As far as I can see there are only two persons suspended and the GM is not one of them...

tom tulpe

The receptionist is pressing charges against Ofarim for slander (a misdemeanor in Germany).

JayeJ

The Steigenberger in Leipzig is quite nice as an alternative.

FlyerTalker78341

Yup. I follow this on German periodical Spiegel Online and there are a few further developments.

- The hotel states they are investigating. Through their Twitter, they have given a general statement to which I referred to earlier. Apparently, they have also posted a picture of Westin employees holding Israeli and Muslim flags (containing the Star of David and the half-moon symbol, respectively).
- Germany's Central Council of Jews considered the pictorial response unfitting. Specifically, they wondered why the hotel cannot think of something better than that.
- Two employees are on administrative leave until the issue has been resolved. The GM isn't one of them, though.
- One of the employees allegedly involved has sued Ofarim for slander. He has also lodged a criminal complaint against unknown individuals threatening him on social media.
- Ofarim gave an interview to the Spiegel. He says he is surprised he has to defend himself in the media. He reiterated he waited a total of 50 min in the check-in line while again and again, the receptionist helped others out of order which initially were in line behind him. He also reiterated that he was told "pack your star" twice, once by an unknown shouting from a corner and once by a front-desk agent (again, which refused to help unless he put the star away).
- As far as we know, Ofarim has not filed a complaint against the hotel and/or the employees at this time.

Finally, in a somewhat separate development, a Swiss manager in the music industry says he has been verbally abused by a Westin Leipzig employee. He called someone up to his room because it was unclean. The employee who responsed to the call allegedly attacked him with homophobic remarks not worth repeating. The manager told a German TV station he took up the issue with Marriott corporate. He claims they were not able to resolve the issue but informed him instead he had violated house rules and would be permanently banned from entering the hotel.