DrCordell

2015 Update:

Thought I'd update this thread with my recent experience spending 45 nights at the Westin Palo Alto. TLDR: Perfectly satisfactory property, with OK service. No club lounge or breakfast offered. Don't expect any upgrades or acknowledgement if you're a Plat.

Parking: $14 to self-park in lots are almost always over 100% full with people parking in "invented" spots along various curbs. There is also a very high percentage of "compact only" spots which inevitably result in people with SUVs double-parking and taking two spots.

Service: Perfectly fine, but not memorable in any way. I don't expect the world, but it was a bit surprising nobody seemed to recognize me after spending 5 nights a week at the property for two months straight. Coming off a stint at the Le Meridien SF, where they knew me by name and gave me my favorite Studio Suite unsolicited, it was a bit of a letdown.

Upgrades: I'm SPG Plat100, so I received an "SPG Preferred" level room every week, but no suite upgrades. The hotel seems to be fairly booked every single week, but it was a bit surprising that I didn't receive a single Plat upgrade over the course of my entire stay.

Amenities: No club lounge, and no breakfast offered. I usually eat at the office in the morning anyway, so not a big deal to me. However, if I were paying out of pocket for the rates they charge at this property, I would be disappointed. The SPG Preferred rooms are quite nice, with lovely marble tiling and separate Westin Heavenly stall showers. Not brand new, but the rooms appear to have been refreshed relatively recently.

kath00

Hello,

Bumping this thread because I tried to get a room at either Sheraton or Westin for September and found NONE for SPG points. I called SPG and they said these hotels "rarely participate" in the SPG points program. HUH? I had her look for ANY dates with points from Sept through December and she found NONE. How is this allowed? I thought all hotels participated in SPG. Any help would be much appreciated because I am SO SO disappointed.

sfozrhfco

It is more a function of availability. Starting in September, it can be difficult to find any reasonably priced hotel in that area. There are just not enough rooms compared to the demand. There are a ton of IT conferences in the fall plus the regular IT crowd. The hotels also sell many rooms to Stanford for their events and games given their close proximity to campus.

They tend to reduce prices a few days before if they have unsold rooms. That is when you are likely to see awards open up as room blocks are released close in when the event sponsor returns rooms back to the hotels.

Starwood Lurker

Have you checked online at spg.com? Both hotels look wide open in September to me.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

Football Fan

The Sheraton Palo Alto seems like management and staff simply don't care anymore. During the day, waiters ignore you around the pool, are rude and unfriendly. Tonight, two false fire alarms (one at 11 p.m., one at midnight). The night staff doesn't care. No explanations, no apologies, no drinks offered - nothing. They seem clueless and disinterested.

Score8

This could be related to how busy they are and that they will be at capacity (at least for a while) regardless of how they behave towards guests (or charge them, apparently). I have found the front desk to be continually nice, though. As a Plat guest, I have found my rooms to be more underwhelming in terms of upgrades lately. We had to adjust our travel policy to have Palo Alto at the top of our expense limits for hotel. Even with that, I can't always stay at the Sheraton, nevermind the Westin. Unless you go independent, there are not really great choices in the area, where you don't have to compromise location.

However, as per the OP, I would almost always choose the Westin. The rooms are much nicer and the Sheraton has totally crappy/loud hvac units in the room. The benefit of the Sheraton would be free/less expensive breakfast as well as other meals (not that you can't walk over from the Westin). Also, a Club lounge exists at the Sheraton, though I haven't gone there in my last 10 stays.

gabo02

I beg to differ. I have always had great service at The Sheraton. I'm not a fan of The Westin. Might be just me but if an alarm is pulled by accident I'm happy with not only me but everyone else being safe. I could careless about getting a free drink at midnight 🙄

Football Fan

So you were there? I was. So were about 100 people in the lobby who were all annoyed not so much about the false alarms, but more about the completely passive reaction by the staff, who were just standing there, not saying anything to the guests, just shrugging. Complete lack of communication. Not only that, but by the second false alarm, many people clearly just stayed in the room. The complete inaction by the hotel staff certainly did not make "everyone else safe" - had the second alarm been a real one, the people who decided to stay in the room, (correctly) assuming that it was yet another false alarm, would certainly not have been safe.

On the plus side, breakfast is pretty good, with fresh berries and a friendly omelette guy and staff. And the pool is a definite positive.

flockavelliFT

Does anyone have info regarding 1) green choice program participation 2) platinum breakfast benefit at the Westin Palo Alto?

I need to stay in the area for a couple nights this month and more in the future and would like to return to the same property.
It's a business trip and I'd rather have a good experience with plenty of SPG points than save a few bucks which I will get reimbursed for.