Just curious... you received a cake for your birthday last week at the Westin, and were looking for something for your birthday at the W as well?

How long do you celebrate your birthday, and how many free gifts do you hope to receive?

Excellent ^

IIRC RT Airport Express tix costs around HK$180, I understand hotel phone charge could be expensive, but I highly doubt a 20 minutes call to UA HK office would cost more than the train fare.

tee hee...YHPM so as not to derail this entire thread.

Geilux - I gave all the birthday details because you specifically asked whether this W is a good hotel for "special occassions". IMO, it is not an ideal hotel for special occassions but indeed it is a fabulous property and we enjoyed our stay nonetheless. As far as I can tell, all guests receive the same treatment (which is excellent by any standards) but if you are looking for special treatment or anything extra because of your platinum status or the fact that the trip is important to you and your mom, you may be disappointed.

I am a bit jetlagged having just arrived home yesterday and I can see that my post was super long and very unfocused but I do hope that you found it helpful in any case. It sounds like you have stayed there before and you are working a relationship with the GM - good luck, I do sincerely hope you will be Wowed during your stay if you do choose the W Hong Kong.

having been struggling with a bunch of options about an upcoming stay....

will be in hong kong later this month & my clients have put me up at the conrad for the first 5 days of my trip....

since mrs saad will be accompanying me on this trip, we decided to extend it by another day & go to macau....most of the the advice i have been getting on macau is that i should not stay overnight but rather make it a day trip....

so i guess i have 3 options:

1. leave for macau in the morning & stay at the westin....leave next afternoon & head straight to the airport for our evening flight back home....

2. leave for macau in the morning & come back to hong kong later in the evening....spend the night at the le méridien cyberport before heading back home the next day....

3. same option as no. 2 but this time stay at the w instead of the le méridien....

i'm getting a set rate of hkd 1,097 at the le méridien as compared to hkd 2,000 at the w....but i'm still tempted to pay more & go for option no. 3 & that is what i have booked currently....

how are plats treated at the w compared to the le méridien????which property is easier to get to from shopping areas, airport or tourist spots????is it worth paying double just to spend the night & half a day at the w????what are the suite upgrades like at both properties at this time of the year????

any advice from people here would be extremely appreciated....thanks in advance....

i think option 3 is the best. last year when i went to HKG i made 2 days available to stay in Macau. everyone told me that 2 days is way too much for Macau. a day trip is more than enough. if you don't gamble 2 days is indeed boring in Macau. i would recommend you taking the speed boat that takes you directly to the Venetian Hotel. it is similar to the one in Vegas. have a lunch there, explore the surrounding area then head back to HKG. i did not stay at the LM. but W upgraded me to a Marvelous suite. it was indeed Marvelous.

The W is attached to a nice mall, there is a train Station in the mall. there is a train that takes you directly to the airport. actually you can check your luggage with the airline from the train station ( you don't have to check your luggage from the airport). check weather your airline has a counter located in the train station ( i saw many airlines including United, Air Canada, etc..)

also you can use other trains to go almost anywhere you want in HKG including Disney land.

option 3 is good.

Will be staying here coming Thursday. I wrote to the hotel on the availability of C&P since it was unavailable on SPG.com, but was told that the Wonderful rooms were all sold out and the best they could offer were the Spectacular rooms at HK$2,900++.

I told them that it was ok and that I'll just stay at the Intercontinental, which costs almost half. The hotel wrote back to say that they didn't want to spoil my "holiday mood" and offered the C&P, i.e. suddenly there were Wonderful rooms available. :)

Today I received (probably) a standard email asking if I was celebrating a special occassion, whether I needed a limousine, wanted to book a spa, etc. - pretty clever upselling, I must say. Though, what I was looking forward to was the pre-communication email on suite availability.

For those who've stayed here, are there Instant Rewards for the breakfast and how much points per person?

Mrs. G and I did the day trip to Macau about a year ago. We don't gamble, but found Macau to be a neat place. If we went back to HKG, I'd consider a night or two there, but it sounds like I might be in the minority on that one.

Perhaps they do want the business, so pre-upgraded another client, and made the room available to you.

As well, I don't believe C&P rates offer guaranteed availability like a pure points room, and are subject to capacity controls... they blinked first, and you got what you wanted... Good negotiating on your part!

i don't gamble so i think the day trip would be good for me....

i think the airport option is definitely good....will have to check if kingfisher has a counter at the train station....

this would have been a great option if we were going to disney from the w....but good to know....

thanks for the comments....

everyone i have spoken with has suggested a day trip....i think we would probably get bored if we were staying longer....thanks for the opinion....

Touched down at 8pm today. We bought a group pass for the Airport Express, which costs only HK$220 for 4 adults.

It wasn't difficult to find the hotel and we were in the room by 9:30pm. They upgraded 1 of the 2 rooms to a Marvellous Suite. In short, it's the best hotel room I've ever stayed in so far! I now also understand the fuss about the W brand. :)

There's no comped breakfast for plats since they don't have a lounge. RE my earlier question about breakfast, it costs US$37 per person or you can redeem using 2,800 points.

Great to hear! I'll be there on Sunday for 3 nights on C+P. What kind of rate were you on, if you don't mind sharing?

Both rooms on C+P.

The pre-comm email stated an upgrade to just Fabulous Room and to be fair, a check on SPG.com showed there were really no suites left. Thus, the double suite upgrade was a really pleasant surprise.

Yup... same deal here... just checked SPG.com, and I'm in a Fabulous room... not showing any suites for sale, either. I'll be fine, either way really... not planning on spending a ton of time in my room.

Does this hotel actually sell suites or anything higher than a Fabulous Room on SPG.com?

Checking dates months ahead doesn't show anything besides Marvelous, Spectacular and Fabulous Rooms...