yerffej201

what is the sna category? any recent stays?

Seat 1F

I found this post I did from 2013. It related to my one and only other stay at this property in 2012. I have managed to avoid staying here again for 10 years...until this week. I'm currently here now for my third and final night. I can confirm that my opinion of the W Hotel Ft. Lauderdale, as expressed above, has not changed. Worst W property I have ever stayed at. The standard of customer service here is very very poor...from check-in to restaurant staff and everything else. I'm in an ocean-front Wonderful Corner Suite. The views from the balcony are beautiful but that's where the positives end. Filthy balcony furniture, urine-colored tap water, finishings/furniture in room very worn, no-one to help with luggage on arrival, endless waits for the elevator...the list goes on and on and on. Full disclosure: it's late February and high season for Florida. Hotel is packed (as are all beach hotels down here right now).

I do give the property points for consistency...consistently poor service, that is, for ten years running. Perhaps I will return in another 10 years to see if they can qualify for the 20-year lousy service award. That would be quite something.

ElevatorEnthusiast

Okay, this was a roller coaster stay. However, despite the negatives, I actually found myself to be sad to leave the W, which I was not expecting. This is not a property for everyone, but with prepared knowledge of the flaws, I think there is stuff to enjoy here. I'll leave it up to you all to decide :-)

Positives:

• Eventually upgraded (more on this in the Negative section) to an Oasis Oceanfront Suite
• Views from the suite were stunning - waking up (and then immediately falling back asleep) at sunrise over the water was a nice moment
• The bed was plush and great for sleeping (nice pillows, covers, and plush mattress)
• The shower had great pressure and created a very nice steam room effect
• I was delivered a lovely plate of macarons (this must be in my profile) as an Ambassador welcome gift (unexpected for the US, but much appreciated)
• Service attitudes were generally quite friendly from the front desk, luggage handlers (asking me where I was from, etc.), and valets (checking to make sure I was waiting for an Uber)
• Able to extend checkout to 1 PM by asking at check-in (obviously, this property is a resort)
• Elite breakfast at El Vez is a $25 credit (I'm not sure if this is per person, but I only got $25) - my ham + cheese omelette and coffee and 20% tip came out to $26.67, which meant I got breakfast for $1.67
• Breakfast food at El Vez was quite tasty
• Service at El Vez was unmatched - very friendly server (offering to-go coffee and generally jovial), employees holding the door open for me, so many goodbyes from all of the employees (I was not the only patron in the restaurant)
• Engineer who came to my room to deliver a TV remote (one was missing) was very friendly and proactively asked if anything else needed fixing - they noticed the thermostat displaying an odd temperature (the AC constantly said the room was at 80 degrees, but the vents were blowing cool air, and it definitely wasn't 80 degrees), but I assured them I was comfortable
• The room came with 6 bottles of water

Negatives:

• Upgrade shenanigans? - I was upgraded to a Fantastic Suite in app the morning of arrival. When I arrived around 2 PM, I was told my room wasn't ready, given a pool key, and told I would receive a call. About 5 minutes later, I received a call that my room was ready - odd. I went back and got my keys. When I arrived to the room, it was not a suite. I went back down and spoke with the original agent who checked me in, and they went back to speak with their manager. When they came back, they said that the suite I had been assigned had a carpet cleaning issue that wouldn't be fixed in time. The issue here is that I should have been told this. Now, what I will say is that the agent (without me asking for it) said that I would be moved to an Oasis Suite that was ready, which is what happened (this should have happened automatically, but at least they recovered).
• Wear-and-tear - the furniture has seen better days. Frankly, I was quite worried and concerned when I entered the suite and noticed the condition of the beige couch. This is a room that has been used and abused by partying guests, I'm sure. I think the hotel could have done a better job with more resilient designs (beige shows every color), but this didn't end up ruining my stay. I don't know how they can change their clientele and their respect for furniture.
• No Internet TV OS here.
• I found a floss pick under the mattress - I'm always finding floss picks under mattresses.

Photos (the bed was wrinkled because of my inspections - it didn't come like that):

DELee

Did you get to spend any time out on the balcony/patio?

David

ElevatorEnthusiast

Unfortunately, no, but had I made some time, I could have met my neighbors in the Fabulous Room next door as the barriers are quite low, and they spent a lot of time out there (luckily quietly). Frankly, I was just jealous as they had robes, which my room didn't have (probably have to call to request).

milemonkey

On the website it says the hotel is currently closed. I have read about some renovations but no details if that has closed the hotel or when it will re-open. However, I have read some reviews which appear to be current (or simply fake).

Anyone know the details?

ElevatorEnthusiast

I found the following on a Google Review:

Thank you for taking the time to share your concern. An unexpected power and water outage forced us to evacuate the hotel and cancel all reservations through the next week. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and want to assure all our guests that we are working around the clock to reopen our resort. We appreciate your patience and look forward to welcoming guests back soon. All the Best, Alexis Espejo Director of Marketing

nequine

Just wondering if anyone has stayed here recently and how good/bad the hotel is? Reading on here and on Trip Advisor there seems a lot of very mixed reviews - some saying its excellent while others saying its awful especially as the hotel seems quite dated?

OH and I have a 5 night stay here in November and unsure whether to keep it or look elsewhere? Anywhere else in the vicinity that others would recommend?

indufan

So, I read this thread and other sources and their generally poor reviews on this place before staying there. It was cheaper than other mid to upscale properties in the immediate area (still very expensive). I thought, how bad could it be really?

So, in short, it wasn't. The common areas are beautiful. I checked in early without incident and was informed that I had a $25 per day breakfast credit and a $25 total hotel credit coming to me which I didn't know I was getting. There is an elevator down and I doubt they are fast with all four working and they definitely aren't with one down. There is a sign that indicates that it is temporary but I am not convinced how temporary it is. The oceanfront room was fine if not a little plain. It was clean and the bed was comfortable. The front pool was a little on the cool side in January. The back pool was wonderfully warm and the hot tub was just that. No food service at the back pool....other than maybe a room service delivery diverted.

The employees were friendly. The Mexican restaurant where my breakfast was good for was fine but nothing special and expectedly expensive given the area. All said it was better than most reviews until the end. I am so, so tired of hotels screwing up the final bill. So, I am expecting a couple of hundred dollar+ balance for the resort fees and the agent tells me my balance is almost $400. I said I would need to see an itemization. Of course, you guessed it, the credits weren't on there. He quickly "kind of" fixes it. But the numbers still aren't quite right and I finally noticed I have a credit of $125 but not $150 .He says that my rate didn't have the extra $25. I told him that I was told that it did. He all but asks me to prove it, which I can't. He said his manager was in a meeting, I told him I would wait, which was clearly not what he wanted to hear. Ten minutes go by and he comes back and says I was right and apologizes profusely. I don't know if he ever talked to the manager at all. This is the kind of crap that pisses me off to no end about mostly mid to upscale hotels. They get this stuff so wrong routinely it seems on purpose. So, W FLL Beach, I gave you a fair chance and it was mostly OK but you left a sour taste in my mouth.

nequine

Must be an common thing then mucking up the final bill! My $25 breakfast credit wasn't given but the bill was quickly sorted out when I mentioned it.

Orignally we were booked into an oceanroom too but got upgraded and the room was in Tower 2 which, given the comments on TripAdvisor in particular, I was relived about as no lift issues there.

The best thing going for this hotel is the staff - they really are super friendly.