KENNECTED

Don't put words in other peoples mouth, that I don't appreciate.

We can agree to disagree, but don't make things up! I don't have an issue with anyone.

sjuhawk_jd

Similar experience for me as a SPG Plat during my stay in July of this year.

worldspan

All of the criticisms posted to date are totally spot on!

I will add two more things:

1. That "try of snacks" sitting on the bureau when you arrive in the room that they charge you for. I did not appreciate fact that when I called front desk asking them to remove the tray from the room so my 4yr old grandson would not go wild with it, well they wanted to charge me $25 to remove the try from the room! Charge me $25.00 to remove the tray ?! Only after a 20 minute argument did they finally agree to remove the tray for no charge.

2. As an ex-Republican turned Democrat, I did not appreciate fact that I could not get MSNBC at the W FLL. They claim they don't carry it but they do of course have FOX. I could stay at Motel 6 and get MSNBC, never known a hotel anywhere in this country where I could not get it. What gives "W FLL" ?!

Cold day in hell before I ever return there!

Worldspan

kippax

Will be at the W for 4 days with car (as part of 10 day vacation) but don't plan to use it whilst in FL. Don't fancy paying $120 for the car to sit in a garage. Anyone know of any nearby, cheaper options to leave the car?
Thanks

Andie007

Just pass the hotel on the bayshore drive (south entrance of the hotel). You'll have parking for free on bayshore dr btw riomar st and N birch rd. Never had a problem there. Plus, it's a 3 mins walk to the hotel.

JBauer

Nice. Staying here now. Horrible service as usual, but did snag a spot on riomar street. Easy, free parking.

Thx

Zacnlinc

@Andie: thanks for the tip regarding parking. Although I'm growing a little concerned about booking a 2-day pre-cruise stay at this property, but at lease knowing about the free parking options is a perk.

@JBauer: please elaborate a little bit as to why the service is horrible in your opinion. Thanks!

kippax

Thanks for the tip!

kippax

Just adding my two pennies worth re: hotel.

Checked in last night. First night was on a suite night award up to a one bedroom flat, next 3 nights SPG couldn't get me into the flat and my awards were returned to my account. The hotel put that right at check in though and extended our entire stay in the flat right there and then.

We love the flats (especially the missus who has the washing machine on loop!) Few niggles with the flat when we got to our room but all soon resolved with a call down to Whatever.

Hotel is jammed right now which is never ideal in terms of getting a decent spot at the pool but overall we're happy to be back which must be over 10 times now.

Hotel has its issues (which hotel doesn't) but for us the positives always outweigh any negatives.
We just love it for its location so we can indulge at Lulu's, Rokburger and Big City Tavern! Dining places we just don't get back in England.

Land-of-Miles

Mrs LoM and I also currently in residence. We have had something of a nightmare today firstly with our hire car not being available as reserved and at the W despite reserving a room from yesterday so that we should have "no issues" for our morning arrival today, finding that it wasn't ready. We now are in our 2 bed Marvellous flat but Mrs LoM is somewhat put out as she preferred the view from the interim 1 bed flat we had (xx03).

The parking tips are appreciated, I am not paying $30 a day for parking for my whole stay and shall look to move tomorrow now that I have got the car I originally booked.

JBauer

Another fun upgrade story. Same thing happened earlier this year. Checked in for one night on points. Basic wonderful room. I saw online there were nicer rooms for sale. Like Fabulous and marvelous. Not suites, mind you. Upon check in the usual schtick. No upgrades available. I show him my phone app selling the nicer rooms. I ask what happens if I buy one? He said then I get that room? So I called plat concierge. Politely explained situation. I watched as they called the front desk. And, magic. We were upgraded to a nicer room -- not a suite. Platinums should not have to do this.

And the pool? So small. We are early risers so its fine getting a chair. But by 9am all the chairs are taken. And the area is empty until lunch. People just leave shirts and shoes on the chairs but this hotel does nothing about it and doesn't enforce this 25 min chair holding policy.

It's an ok basic hotel disguised as something much nicer. Nice views, zero service. Lots of attitude.

Land-of-Miles

Well I am beginning to agree with the naysayers re: this property.We arrived on Thursday and despite booking a 2 bed Marvellous flat from the day before we arrived (as we were arriving relatively early in the morning) it was still not ready at check in some 18 hours after it should have been available (and they knew when we were arriving). We did get a 1 bed flat to wait in but this was quite basic stuff and despite a few freebies it left a bad taste in our mouth.

Today we get back to our room at 17:30 to find it had not been serviced so had to go out again for another hour or 2 whilst they did a half-hearted attempt at room service where the rubbish was not even collected.

We requested wine glasses which have still not arrived after 45 minutes but that shouldn't come as a big surprise given the bathrobe I requested over a day ago still has not been delivered either. I would have expected the wine glasses as a basic feature of a 2 bedroom flat with full kitchen. Then again I would have expected a kitchen knife set too but thinking about it this might have been removed after disgruntled guests ran amok clutching them

Thankfully the tips on this thread have allowed me to avoid the $32 a day for parking.

This is all Travelodge level service pitched at St Regis prices.

Zacnlinc

Okay! After much research, I opted to book a stay at this property pre-cruise departure.

Using points I opted to go with the Spectacular Room rate (unadvertised) over the Wonderful one as advertised. Not that much of a point difference so why not! Was able to apply SNA to the stay and am on the list for an upgrade to their Spectacular or Fantastic Suite. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out!

Stay tuned for an update (soon) in 2013!

Happy New Years to All!

Land-of-Miles

We completed our stay at this property and I thought I would add a few thoughts on the experience to add to some of my comments above.

I booked (as a paid upgrade over a 10 night reward booking) a 2 bed Marvellous flat from the 26th December to the 5th January. We always planned to arrive in the morning of the 27th December and my Plat Concierge informed the property of this, however upon check in my room was not available and there seemed to be some mess up with the booking, it would appear I would have been allocated a one bed flat with a better view as a regular Plat without any paid upgrade. We had this room for circa 6 hours whilst the room we had booked (to be ready for early arrival was sorted out). Ultimately the front desk staff were quite apologetic and I know there were issues with people leaving Ft Lauderdale due to storms disputing travel elsewhere in the country but really if I book a room to arrive the day before I actually turn up (for my own convenience) I expect it to be ready at 08:00 when I do arrive the following day. We did get what I felt was appropriate recognition for this issue locally but it started our stay on a negative note.

Positives

• The 2 bed flat was very spacious
• The Staff were all very good, helpful, charming and tolerant of my occasional rants on recurrent issues (see below), most un-W like in fact
• The location was great
• Beds very comfortable
• Furnishings pleasant
• Wet West secluded and peaceful
• Kitchen equipment (appliances etc.) very good and we loved the blender for in room margaritas
• In room laundry facilities are great

Negatives

• Our 08 room was behind a lift and was in the shade for most of the day whilst the lift noise was generally unintrusive but the view wasn't great (16th floor)
• The room layout was somewhat bizarre especially the TV positioning at the far corner of the room which made it very difficult to watch from most positions (both bedroom TVs and the living room TV), even the living room/dining area was oddly laid out with no dining table lighting.
• Open bathroom concept to master bedroom (or only bedroom in 1 bed units), I just hate this idea in principle
• 1 bathrobe provided for a 1500 square foot 2 bed apartment which could easily sleep 8 and was designed to sleep at least 4.
• When additional bathrobes (we only needed one) were supplied on my 3rd request 2 days after check in, we didn't get a belt (I gave up by that point)
• automatic infra red sensor light operation in 2nd (properly enclosed) bathroom loo. the delay on this light was something like 30 seconds so if you did not keep waving your arms whilst perched on the loo you would be sitting in darkness.
• Housekeeping was dreadful, I don't think our room was properly clean when we occupied it (but accept I put the property under pressure to sort out my room quickly as the promised 2 hour turnaround ended up being 6 hours).
• Daily housekeeping was missed on 2 occasions and I had to call to have it done at around 5pm
• Bed linen wasn't replaced on one occasion and yet there was no spurious "green avoidance" card to force this to happen, to be fair when I raised this issue
• I only found out that there was a turndown service when it happened (the only time during our stay it did) on night 7
• The parking at $32 a day is simply outrageous especially with a tip on top of this for the valet staff
• Open tip boxes on most service bills (e.g. bars, restaurants, room service) despite 18-20% service charge automatically added
• Patchy in room wi-fi reception (poor in Master bedroom) better in other areas with no working ethernet port (I attempted to get this fixed on night 1 then gave up and resorted to wi-fi).
• Incomplete kitchen equipment, what use is a full kitchen without wine glasses, champagne flutes, kitchen knives etc?
• Room maintenance issues, upon our arrival 3 light bulbs needed replacing, the ethernet port was out of order and on night 8 the smoke alarm developed a fault and started to sound. this was not properly fixed 2 hours later when we returned after dinner at 22:30 so we had to wait for an engineer to visit again before we could go to bed.
• Deserted bars - both Whisky Blue and The Living Room were simply dead the nights we visited or wandered through.

All in what could have been a great stay was marred by significant ongoing relatively minor service issues. The warmth and friendliness of the staff went some way to making up for this but I think the root cause of the issue is that the owners have funding difficulties (and I can see why not many of the flats have been sold given the layout issues) and the property is poorly managed and maintained.

The even numbered side of the property has poor views and is constantly in the shade. The 03 numbered 1 bed flat and 09 (I think) 2 beds seemed to have the best location.

I would really like to return but would have to think long and hard before doing so. Currently I am thinking that an oceanfront 1 bed suite at the Hilton next door would be a much better option for a planned stay in a couple of months time.

sbtinme

Just had a truly exceptional stay here and wanted to quickly post. We arrived around 2pm for check-in and one of the front desk supervisors, Ryan, was out in front of the check-in area interacting with guests in line. We found him to be a model ambassador for the brand. Once he learned that I was a long time SPG Plat member, he took us under his wing and showered us with attention.

He ran behind the front desk to personally check us in and managed to find us a nice upgrade in the process. It was a sensational arrival experience -- one of the best I've ever had... and that's saying something.

Our marvelous flat was in great condition and we really appreciated the extra room. As others have pointed out, the flats are all in the west tower, so if you're needing/wanting direct ocean views, you will not get them with the flats.

Housekeeping was solid, but not excellent.

Whisky Blue was stunningly beautiful, but shockingly dead (and I mean DEAD) the entire time we were there -- including the weekend. Wow.

Based on previous reports, I was concerned that the Platinum Breakfast amenity option might be poorly executed here, but it was executed quite well, I thought. Top quality choices were available to select and this was at the W bar in the living room area -- one could choose to sit indoors in the living room for breakfast or step a few feet away onto the expansive sundeck and grab an outdoor couch or table for breakfast. Perfect, really. This was a very pleasant surprise.

All in all, we left feeling great about our stay here. I'd give it a solid A. It doesn't have the electricity of the W South Beach, but it still has good energy and made us very comfortable. We used the Wet West (condo tower pool) each day since it was super low-key and virtually empty.

We'd go back in a heartbeat. Nicely done, W FLL.