Starwood Lurker

Would appreciate the removal of Lauren's information. That's a Flyertalk TOS violation.

I spoke to the DORM at this property today and he confirmed that their policy is exactly as wolfson292 reports it. He also confirms that they do not waive the resort charge.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

UA-NYC

Thanks William, couldn't remember if that was okay or not - deleted.

WRT the amenity - I know we don't have to like it, and it doesn't have to be generous (and I know your personal opinion on the offer doesn't matter ) - but how do we go about protesting this? 100 points is basically the hotel giving the middle finger to Plats.

Starwood Lurker

Thanks.

AFAIK, there is no protesting that can be done other than to let the resort itself know what you think.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

AZ Travels the World

Occupy Avon, anyone?

Sawasdee

I agree that 100 points per night is, in fact, insulting. I don't think we need to protest anything as we all have choices of hotel. This resort fee stupidity alone makes me think of leaving Starwood and saying hello to my good friend Hyatt.

William.. Thank you for your effort talking to the hotel today.

TTT103

The Comfort Inn - Beaver Creek has a $5.75 resort fee that includes the same amenities as the Westin, but also free breakfast and free parking.

Sawasdee

LOL No, thanks. I will see how my stay goes this weekend. Usually I stay at the Park Hyatt, which is always a top notch - closer to slopes, unbelievable full breakfast, 100% upgrade during busy ski season. ^^

wolfson292

The willingness of Starwood Corporate to allow hotels to go on like this makes me rethink my decision of which hotel to use going forward next year, especially considering that almost all of them would comp me status for the first year. While I understand they are limited in what they can do to non corporate owned locations, something like this is just poorly implemented. Starwood should really get ahead of the problem, and offer a reasonable quantity of points to Platinum members to make up for these hotels if they wish to keep their business.

Quasiconvexity

When we stayed here in July, we were informed that the alternate amenity was 100 points per stay. This is a beautiful hotel - too bad they are beyond in this aspect.

Sawasdee

We just completed a two-night stay at the Westin Riverfront in Avon, CO this past weekend. As a SPG platinum, I found some mixed opinions, mostly negative, about this hotel and their staffs.

The Good:
- The layout of king studio suite is good. It is equipped with a mini kitchen and a comfortable Heavenly bed. More on the room under the Bad.
- Fitness center, swimming pool, and hot tubs are well kept and beautifully located.
- Car and ski valet staffs are friendly and prompt to services.

The Bad
- We checked in pretty late around 8 pm. I was told by the hotel that the property was completely sold out and no suite was available for upgrade. Then I pulled out my iphone and found exactly 10 suites available for revenue and show the results to the front desk, who later went back to talk to his manager if an upgrade can be had. 10 minutes later, he came back and confirmed to upgrade us to a studio suite. This kind of incident happened to me so many times at all various Starwood properties and made me sick of this chain.

- The hotel is pet-friendly. We accidentally dropped our pillow on the carpet and we found a good amount of fur carried over to the pillow. Fur was also found on the soup tray, sofa, and sofa bed. We do not mind staying in a pet-friendly property, but they need to pay every attention in cleaning the room in details. We had to call up the house keeper for a late night clean up. Fur then was gone. We figured that the room did not even get vacuumed before our arrival!

- Treatments to SPG platinum members are extremely poor. No recognition at the check-in. Every guest including Platinum’s is charged with daily $20 resort fee, which includes most benefits that Platinum members would have received anyway. Alternative amenity is 100 points per night (approx. ONE dollar a day). I called to request a late check-out and was told flat out “No” (again, they are “fully booked”). The standard check-out was given at 11 am.

I did not want to raise all the concerns with the manager on duty while I was there and simply just wanted my stay to end. My wife could not resist and went to talk to the hotel. The hotel manager apologized and waived us resort fee, parking fee, extended check-out to 2 pm, and gave extra 8,000 points. They are all nice gestures, but would not change my opinions about this property.

TTT103

I'm sorry that your stay did not meet expectations. We have stayed at a number of Beaver Creek hotels over the years and really enjoy the Osprey, which is located adjacent to the Strawberry lift. You literally walk out the door and the valet's hand you your skis about ten feet from the lift.

The Ritz Carlton is also quite nice, but very self contained. The Hyatt is OK--great location, but too large for my taste. The Pines Lodge is also nice, but snow coverage is necessary if you want to ski in/out of this resort.

We currently have reservations at the Westin over Easter, the Comfort Inn in March, and the Lodge at Vail in February. No reservations for January yet, but may give the Arabelle at Vail a try if their rates dip a bit. $900 a night is a bit steep for me. I just can't justify spending that much, even if you factor in the $125 a night for the Comfort Inn we are paying in March, and average the two.

UA-NYC

It really sucks, but I'm guessing there are many resort properties that do "Platinum math" like this - instead of being generous and waiving the resort fee / giving an extra 500 points to all Plats, they do nothing or the bare minimum and then compensate well for the 1 in 10 Plat guests that actually call them out for their BS service.

wonghenhen

We left this hotel with bad taste. Yes we did go during the busy season. But the level of service is unacceptable. As others have said, no platinum treatment whatsoever. Yet we have to pay resort fee for no extra perks. Even the other clientele and guests there seemed rude and full of attitude. The front desk doesn't execute. I called them 3 times from room about incorrect bill and they said it's fixed but the day of checkout still wasn't fixed. We were given a basic room no upgrade and it was on first floor. Though we paid extra for the kitchenette. Other guests were Smoking pot and gave me bad headache. They couldnt move us because hotel was full. Only got 3000 points for it. Yet they didn't even put it in the system and had to chase after it another few times. I am so sick and tired of babysitting these people to get things done correctly. If it wasn't for the location, I will never go back.

Btw Had no late checkout only 11am. after all the Trouble and complaints. Obviously they don't care

wolfson292

We had a moderately OK stay, checking out this morning.

As we pulled up we were told that they had no self parking, which turned out to be a lie. They do have self parking, its just supposedly $50 a day but I need to run down if this is true or not.

They won't let you borrow a cart so you have to use the valet and tip them.

Cima was horrible for lunch. The lobster bisque soup and no lobster in it, and the kids chicken noodle soup tasted like nothing a kid would want. After sending back the soup, I actually had to argue with the waitress to get a second spoon for my soup. She kept insisting I use my kids used spoon, and even picked it up off my daughters plate and put it onto mine. We were one of only 3 people there at the time, so I can't excuse such poor service and attitude.

As a platinum we were given the Studio Suite I had reserved, but it was on the second floor with no view, which is not normal for a platinum guest. As others have seen they offer 100 points a night to make up for the $20 fee for WiFi. I'll be disputing this after the fact with the hotel.

They also refused to give me a late checkout until noon which is a first for Starwood. This was even after they confirmed no one was booked into my room the next day.

Upon checkin after a 4:00 AM EST wake up, the concierge called us at 7:55PM to try and solicit us for a time share sales tour. Since they woke all three of us up, I gave the lady quite an earful.

Toilet paper was never once refilled during our stay, and our dish soap was taken on the second day and not returned.

I only cashed in 12,500 * 4 (5 night stay) so I'm not that unhappy, but don't see how these people got a Conde Nast award.

wolfson292

Jeffery Burrell, Director of Operations, followed up with me after my stay and said that SPG had specifically approved the 100 point offer as alternate compensation for Platinum guests. This does not seem to agree with what Starwood Corporate has posted in this thread, so who knows what the real story is.

In any case the hotel did waive the entire Resort Fee and Valet Fee since the Valet only policy had been fraudulently stated by the Valet staff. They do indeed have self parking, its just "secret" so that locals don't use it.