MrClean06

Wife and I live in SF and decided to burn a FWN at the St. Regis. Went to check in at 3:30 on Sat. and was told that there were no suites avaialble for an upgrade, but that they had upgraded me to a Grand Deluxe Park View. Checked online later and suites were available, but it wasn't worth the hassle to move at this point. Informed the FDR that we would be checking out a 4:00 PM on Sunday, she told me "the best that she could do was 2:00 PM", I politely informed her that 4:00 PM check out was a guaranteed benefit and that we would be checking out then. She frowned and said ok. Do these people think that we don't know the benefits of the program when we have worked within said program to gain status, or do they thinmk we are just idiots?

Room: Definetely already showing signs of wear. Master switches for bedside lamps broken on both sides of bed. After messing around with them, I finally got them turned on so that they could be controlled with the LCD system. DVD player broken, actually I am not surprised by this. It is a Zenith that one can buy for about 20 bucks anywhere. One of the blinds was torn. Shower handle falling of the wall, making it difficult to control the temp. Street noise was pretty noticable, which lead me to believe that they skimped on the windows. SF is a pretty provincial town and shuts down very early, yet I heard alot of traffic throughout the night. As I lay there, I wondered, am I in NYC?

Pool: Went to take a pre-dinner swim at 7:30 PM. No towels at the pool. I asked the woman at the reception area of the spa if she would have some sent up. Swam for 30-45 minutes and still no towels. Walked and dripped all the way back up to the 17th floor. If you are going to have a pool, please maintain it.

Restaurant: Trying to do our FWN as inexpensive as possible, we made a reservation at Vitrine on the 4th floor via opentable for brunch as we had a $50.00 dining cheque to burn. The food was mediocre at best. Bacon burnt, hard, and cold, french toast under cooked, potatoes must have been cooked several hours earlier and it took 10 minutes and 3 requests to get tabasco for my wife's eggs, that were actually fine. When we received the check, I told the server that I was going to use a dining cheque and that I would like the balance charged to my room. She informed me that they don't accept them because they had no way to deposit them. I informed her like the FDR that they were in violation of a policy, that I understood that it was not her fault and that I would like to speak to the manager. What seemed like 10 minutes later a manager arrived, I told her that we would be paying with the dining cheque, that it was one of the reasons we were eating there, and the violation of policy thing. She said that they don't take them, but that she would be comping our meal. Thanks for the comp, but I would rather not have to deal with all of the bulls&%#.

All in all, the St. Regis is not a Cat. 6 hotel, nor is it sucessfully competing with the Four Seasons across the street or the LM in the financial district. I feel as if I wasted a FWN, I thought that I would be having a luxurious experience at a "luxury" hotel in which the rooms were not beaten up, the FDRs didn't frown and the staff understood their loyalty program and recognized guests who were loyal to the Starwood brand

kevino

You should be happy you didn't pay $400+ for the room.

rdchen

MrClean06, was your room on the 18 th floor?

MrClean06

No, why? Were you there this past weekend? Whatever may have happened on the 18th, stays on the 18th floor. To quote Sergeant Schultz, "I know nothing" and I had no part of it .

MaximusDamon

This is the same BS they pulled on me. Seems from reading more here they pull this with everyone...Sorry Mr. Platinum, we don't have any suites available even though they show available on our website.

So, I'm curious...when you got to your room and called Plat Concierge, did they manage to find you an Astor Suite or not?

Seems like we're all trying at check-in then rolling over and giving in and taking the basic rooms. Last time I was there I had a low floor room that looked at a wall...it had to be the most basic room possible. I tried hard at check-in and they insisted it was the ONLY room they had for me (using FWN).

I'm trying again next weekend, so any advice from others here would be useful.

boifromtroy

i checked in, and was given a Deluxe room on the 16th Floor, no problems, as a lowly Gold... Being nice seems to help sometimes!

rdchen

Yes I was there on Sat, I asked because I was originally promised a park-view on the 18th floor, but had to give up due to prolonged housekeeping delay.

ps9a

Sounds like a bad stay... Sorry about that. To give you an idea of the rarity of finding zero towels in the pool, I've swam there at least 200 separate times since Mar 2008-- think I can safely say I've spent more time there than any resident or hotel guest, unless they swim at very strange hours-- and I've never encountered a situation where there were no towels. I'm fact, I don't think I've ever been there and seen less than 5 towels available. I'm a huge fan of this pool.... Especially since it gets so little use. I encounter another guest in there during my swims about once every 5 times, and more often than not, there is no visible sign that anyone else has been swimming recently. In case this happens again, as long as you're going to walk to the spa receptionist to complain, you might as well just walk into the spa and grab as many towels as you like... I've never encountered the spa area with a shortage of towels either.

As for vitrine, I've never eaten a meal there, but why burn the opentable check when you could be earning an extra 3 starpoints per dollar on your bill?

Just my thoughts,
ps9a

thomasro3

I have both the Metropolitan Suite & adjoining room booked at the St. Regis and the Extreme Wow & adjoining room at the W. Can anyone compare one to the other. We are coming for Whiskeyfest 2009 in October 16. We will have up to 4 rooms booked and need 1 room big enough to entertain. 4 couples possible 2 young kids/nanny. Pro's and cons for St. Regis vs W or even the Palace Hotel?

Event is at the Marriot about 2blocks away. THanks in advance for your input.

AZ Travels the World

I can't comment on the W, but the Metro Suite at the St. Regis would be excellent for four couples -- just the right size. Intimate, but not too crowded. If the kids and nanny wanted to hang in the separated bedroom portion of the suite, it is set up well to accommodate that.

Sounds like a great party. How about 5 couples?

aCavalierInCoach

Staying here on a saturday on a FWNA - plenty of suites appear available. Anyone have best tips on making sure I don't get screwed out of an upgrade, should the suites still be for sale on day of check-in? thanks.

peteropny

Just checked in for 3-night stay - Fri-Mon - Astor Suites were available all day online - front desk claimed there is a computer issue and that none were really available and Astor Suite bookings are being upgraded to Metropolitan Suites.

Called Plat line while standing right there at the desk. Plat line said that Astor Suites are bookable and called the hotel (same front desk person) and got the same story.

They gave me a room on a relatively low floor 11th that must be one of the smallest rooms on the floor 1110.

This hotel goes on my avoid list and to think that I was considering staying here in the future on revenue stays :td What a load of BS saying that the computer doesn't show correct availability - this is not a new property.

Starwood properties overpromise and underdeliver - makes me that much more loyal to Hyatt where they consistently overdeliver on their promises.

doodiedan

By reading the recent comments I'm starting to get depressed that I've got 3 nights reserved at this hotel coming up in a couple weekends for the wife's birthday. Just checked LM and it doesn't look like there's any award availability left for my weekend...

peteropny

Some updates - on Sat morning I spoke with the MOD and she moved me to 1402 (one of the corner rooms overlooking the Moscone Center) - if the desk clerk at check-in had put me in one of those rooms (which showed available in all categories) the night before, I would have been somewhat disappointed but not livid about the situation. Never got a Platinum Amenity of any type on any day.

MikeBOS

You missed nothing with the amenity. It's a more-nicely-packaged version of a Nestle's Crunch bar, sometimes with nuts instead of rice. Either way much worse than just about any amenity choice at a "normal" Starwood. I'm not sure why they even bother with it, it's embarassingly bad.