Starwood Lurker

Just as an FYI, the resort advises that this daily resort credit can be used on anything that can be charged back to the room with the exception of the room rental charges themselves.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

stevekoe

Thank you, William.

Your help is, as always, invaluable. I am looking forward to my stay at the Kierland. I have always enjoyed this property in the past.

Starwood Lurker

If I remember correctly, the "Explorer" package was a Starwood Vacation Ownership deal, not applicable to the resort section of this property. But, checking the Special Offers page for The Westin Kierland Villas, it does not appear there either, so it is probably no longer in effect there:

http://specialoffers.starwoodhotels....OP_US_WI_5639&

Offers come and go, and it looks like this one has taken a powder.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

cupps

William,

Thanks for your quick reply. I figured this timeshare offer was history, at least for now, but wanted to double check. Great resort. Enjoyed our stay back in Fall of 2006.

jumpdogjump

Not sure what the "Explorer" package was, but I just received a call last night for the old $424 for 4 nights plus $75 credit thru SVO.

D1andonlyDman

If you actually want, and are able to use the Starpoints, and you also would like to spend 4 nights at an upscale resort in Scottsdale during the time frame that they are available to you under this promo, then it's a good deal. But I would caution you that it's NOT such a great deal if you are buying stuff that you wouldn't actually choose to buy absent this deal.

The 50K Starpoints themselves are worth roughly $1500, IMHO - but only if you actually have a concept of how you might use them.

4 nights in the Westin Kierland, depending upon what time of year and day of the week you used them, would cost you between $900 to $1400, other than for the busiest peak dates, which I doubt are available to you under than the promo. But, keep in mind that you could, with careful and aggressive shopping, probably get comparable acommodations on your own for $600-800, and not have to attend a timeshare sales pitch.

MKB

I stayed here last night (Sep 18) - my first Starwood stay in Arizona.

Was told my Platinum upgrade was to a junior suite. Asked if a full suite was available and was told: "in the USA, a 'junior suite' is a full suite with a separate bedroom". I knew that was baloney, but I didn't argue, happy to know that I'd got a full suite. Got to the room to find that there was no separate bedroom.

Now, the Kierland junior suite is a very nice room, and I would have been very happy with it, were it not for the front-desk misrepresentation. Further, checking online, I saw that the lowest level of full suites and also Casita suites were still available for my one-night stay for just $40 more than the junior suite I was assigned. The hotel didn't seem busy, so I'm left wondering if the hotel was actually giving me the best available standard select suite.

Today, I tried to used the sauna and steam room in the health club only to be told there was a $20 fee for health club access. I queried whether this should not be waived for Platinums as per SPG benefits, and was told no.

The resort/conference location get-out meant I was denied a 4pm late check-out, despite the hotel not seeming busy.

My bedside lamp worked on the same electrical circuit as the main room lights, so it wasn't possible to have the bedside lamp on, on its own.

This morning, as well as my detailed bill under the door, I also got the full bill for Holly in room 6067 opposite. I was pleased to see I got a better room rate than her!

This was a nice property, but I didn't feel I got the TLC that I get elsewhere as a Platinum.

ENIAC

I'm trying to decide between this hotel and the Sheraton Wild Horse for a 4 night stay over Xmas. Both have C&P, but this hotel is Cat 5 and the Wild Horse is Cat 4.

It seems like the lounge and the evening bonfires and piper are a big plus here. I get the sense of the Westin as being bigger and busier, with more stuff around it. Sheraton sounds quieter and usually emptier. Both hotels seem to have a good but not perfect upgrade record.

As I read the earliest posts the lounge sounded great here, and maybe worth the extra $30 and 800 points a night. But posts from earlier this year make the voucher (in lieu of evening lounge staffing) situation sound bad.

Does anyone know if it settled down along the logical lines of $25 per person per night?

WScottsdaleInsider

Well Hello There,

The Westin Kierland is in a much better location. It is in the heart of North Scottsdale by the Kierland mall which is this outdoor shopping area with tons of great restaurants. It is also located right by the Kierland golf course. This hotel is an amazing resort property. There is a lot to do and for for Christmas, they usually decorate a lot at Kieland. Wild Horse Pass is in Chandler and does not have the excitement as the Westin. So yes, it is worth the extra cash and points to stay here. Also they offer great upgrades SPG platinums. Have a great stay!

ENIAC

Thanks, W Scottsdale Insider. I've never been to the area before. I'll talk to my wife about what she's in the mood for -- activities and options or peace and quiet. As well as X-mas it will be our son's first birthday.

Are there any more recent experiences with the lounge voucher situation? Posts from some months ago suggested inconsistency in its early days.

CandymanJim

Just went to the lounge for the continental breakfast this morning. All you needed was your room key to get to the 9th floor and once again to get into the room. Better than average spread for breakfast. Interestingly, the lounge CSR asked me my name when I entered and said she had tried to contact me to offer me a "tour" of the facility and she would give me 10k SPG for my time. I was short of time and really wasn't in the mood for a timeshare presentation. The facility was amazing, people were still swimming in the pool at 10am, on 12/31! It was still about 72 F outside and I was told the water was heated. I asked some in the elevator how they could swim, and they said easy, they were from Canada and this was hot!

Jim

rgm18

does this hotel have some timeshare deal where you go see the hotel and get a good rate? i think i remember seeing that at some point but i cant find a link or a phone number, any ideas?

thnx
r

ENIAC

Having gone there I can now answer my own quesion. The lounge is still open for breakfast, which was about what you'd expect for a lounge. No salmon or fresh berries, which you sometimes find in Westin lounges, just bagles, muffins, coffee, juice, cereal and fruit. On checkin we got a $25 voucher for each day for the Unwind hour, usable in the bar of the fancy Deseo restaurant. The voucher was offered automatically. It wasn't a big bar, but we were able to get seated. The voucher basically paid for two drinks or one drink and a nibble. There was no sign of any actual happy hour. On Christmas day the restaurant was closed, so the drinks were elsewhere.

In general a nice hotel. Our checkin was messed up, but once things were resolved the duty manager spontaneously called and offered a decent number of points without me even complaining. This and the Diplomat seem to be the top to US resorts in terms of value for Platinums.

Something to look out for: the hotel seems to have good C&P availability for many dates but with a minimum 4 night stay. So make sure you search for a block of dates and not night by night.

yanxfann

Stayed there a few days ago for 2 nights, this what we experienced:

1. Best avail rate for our stay (available to the general public) on the SPG web site was approx $380/night (I watched the rate almost daily starting a month before our stay), C&P was not available. With the lousy economy I kept waiting for the rate to come down but it didn't. Got there expecting to find a full hotel, didn't appear to be remotely full. Got lucky and booked with a $160/night govt rate.

2. Unexpectedly received $25 vouchers good the 530-730pm "unwind hour" at their Deseo lounge for every day of our stay, that happens to coincide with their happy hour when appetizers and drinks are half price, I was unable to use one good on a Tuesday (I'm putting it on CC gratis).

3. Got upgraded to a mini-suite on the top floor (#11), I'm a soon to be expiring Plat.

4. Was given access to the lounge on the 9th floor, found the breakfast with fresh fruits to be excellent. The lounge was a ghost town when we were there, we spent hours there and basically owned the place.

5. Soon after checking in the Plat Concierge called us and said they had a gift for us at their desk, the gift turned out to be a cheap beach bag. They told us that if we agreed to go to an approx 1.5 hour time share presentation (they didn't use the words "time share") I'd be given 6500 SPG points. Thought it over and called the next morning and spoke to someone else and was surprised to be offered 10K SPG points to go to the presentation, I value 10K at about $280 so did it. The presentation turned out to be 2.5+ hours, at times I felt a bit like I was dealing with car salesmen, felt a bit guilty about not buying but got out of there without biting off on the $18K plus approx $700/year maintenance fee for a timeshare that can only be used every other year. They did offer another 60K SPG points if we bought the timeshare.

yanxfann

Our 10K SPG points for enduring the timeshare presentation have posted, it took less than 10 days to post. Definitely worth the 2.5 hours.