sjunkerg

I am traveling to suburban Columbus quite often these days and to try and get in some extra Starwood stays I am considering going all the way in to downtown and stay at the Westin but their current lowest rate is about all that my company will reimburse so I would have to pay for parking myself. What is the parking situation at this hotel? Any cheap alternatives?

I know the Sheraton Suites in Worthington has free parking but I am specifically interested in the Westin...

Thanks!

coplatua1k

I think the valet at the hotel is about $15/day with full in and out. You can do better at near by garages and even find street parking on the weekend.

Brendan

Nearby street lots can be had for $3--$6 a day/night.

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Play the travel game 3 vacations into the future!

Savvy Traveler

So glad you asked; I just had a stay there a few weeks ago and a front desk agent told me of a great alternative ($1.00 overnight).

Across one of the streets the hotel has an entrance on (not the main entrance, the side street) is the City Center Garage. I parked there overnight for $1.00; don't know about daytime rates, but I guarantee they're a lot cheaper than the (uncovered) Westin lot.

Trodheim

Sometimes I do miss my home state of Ohio...

I just spent 7 nights at various hotels in London Mayfair with in-out daily parking rates at GB£42.00 (US$67.25)! Parking meters are £4/hour and you have to pay £5/day just to drive in the city centre... (and looking for a house to buy with terrible "luxury" flats going for £250,000. At these prices, London is heading to a revival of Dickensian times with the poor & working classes unable to afford decent food and shelter!)

Doppy

I was just checking SPG.com for Thanksgiving weekend at the Westin, Columbus. Apparently, they like to have wierd pricing, like the airlines. If I want to stay four days, the rate is $99 per night. If I want to stay five days, the rate jumps up to $199 per night for each of the five nights.

Is this crazy pricing common? I've never seen it before.

Needless to say, I'll just make two reservations, if need be, as I'm not paying an extra $100 per night for the privilege of staying five consecutive nights. Or, if they don't like that, I can always take my business elsewhere.

d

dabbagmm

I would guess that there are certain number of rooms at cheap fare. In your case it seems that the availability of cheap fare rooms is quite limited. A cheap rate is is available for three nights only during that period. If you want four nights, you would get another room which comes at a higher rate.

Happend to me once and this explaination was provided. I can't recall if it was a Starwood hotel or not.

Two bookings is the way to go.

Ken hAAmer

My guess is that there is a weekend rate and a weekday rate, both of which are lower than the "any-day-of-the-week" fare, er, rate.

Make two bookings.

stydie

Sorry to start a new thread but I didn't want to hijack the "best SPG in columbus" thread. Anyway, I'm staying at the Great Southern (westin columbus) this weekend for Thanksgiving and was wondering if anyone's been there in the past few months. I know they've been putting quite a bit of money into the hotel and wanted to see if anything has changed.

We're staying on points - I'm a 250+ night platinum and hope to get an upgrade...

Nanook37

I don't know if they have much to upgrade to - They may only have the presidental suite which I begged and didn't recieve for the night after I closed on my house before I moved out to KC. Watch out for parking here - the Westin wants $20 a night but I my car accross the street for $2 overnight.

stydie

I would very much enjoy an upgrade - this is my first non-business Starwood stay, ever. I'm definitely not going to valet my car - City Center is WAY too cheap to pass up parking there. Too bad it's gangland now.

CPRich

I just checked in but have no history to compare to, so I can't answer the "has anything changed" questions. The room is very dark, even with all the lights on, the paint around the deadbolt is peeling off and, as feels like I could pull it out of the door with two fingers.

The reason I'm online - at checkin, I was told "We don't have any Kings left but I can upgrade you to a Queen room". It sounded odd, but I assumed it was a room description.

I got to the room - smallest room I've ever seen outside of downtown Paris. I measured - 14x10. The web site lists "200-300 square foot rooms" for reservation tonight (I assume mine fits in what is optimistically described as 175 square feet.)

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Update - after also finding an non-working toilet, I called down to the front desk. They moved me to a nicer room - still 15x12, not 200-300 sqft, but more like a standard hotel room. And the person I talked to confirmed there were no suites/better rooms available. She stated that I was upgraded from my reserved double bed to a queen. I went back to my reservation confirmation - it says King. Just tell me you have no Kings, don't lie to me.

This room is acceptable for $100/night, but I think the Hyatt/Renn will be getting more nights going forward.

michellemck99

I stayed there in August - agree with CPRich that the rooms are small.

The staff was friendly and helpful: I had booked (and paid additional for) a room with a bathtub (many of the rooms are supposedly shower-only). No problems moving me to another room once I walked into the bathroom sans bathtub.

I couldn't get the in-room internet to work, as I recall. As is to be expected nowadays, the route towards solving that problem was outside the hotel to an 800 number somewhere; I didn't pursue the issue.

Dinner room service was quick as I recall also. Always a plus. ^

PPM

I just stayed at the Westin in Columbus last weekend as a Platinum guest, and was upgraded to a suite. It was comparable to most other 2-room suites, but had no view, and the room was pretty ordinary at best. I noted several service issues, but couldn't really find anyone who cared enough or was sensitive enough to complain to. For starters, there were 3 pairs of men's underwear in one drawer--apparently left over from a previous guest. There was no fresh fish or acceptable vegetarian offerings on the menu for lunch or dinner. My room service order arrived on a tray (no table), but there was no table to put the tray on, and my husband and I ended up bringing out a luggage rack to hold the trays. But, my main frustration was with the front desk's staff inability to be helpful. They tried, but couldn't be clear about several items--one of which was my attempt to reserve the complimentary shuttle for a specific time. The front desk worker said it "should be OK", but to check back closer to time. I went back 10 minutes before I had requested the shuttle, and it was as if she had not recalled the conversation of 2 hours earlier. She said she would call the shuttle and check on it. When I had waited for nearly 10 minutes, I approached her again, only to be told that the shuttle was not going to "work out", because the driver had room service items to deliver. I gave up even commenting that if she had just told me that to start with, I wouldn't have waited 10 minutes for the shuttle to appear.

Anyway, this hotel is truly in the middle of nowhere--and I would rate it as about a 2-star property (given that I'd spent the previous night at the Sheraton Boston, and was upgraded to a massive suite on the top floor of the hotel overlooking the Charles River and the Boston Commons). Try to have a nice weekend anyway.

stydie

Meh - sounds like I don't have much to look forward to. Can you guys project how crowded the hotel is going to be over Thanksgiving weekend? I think getting upgraded to a suite might make the stay at least slightly more tolerable.

PPM - I'm a bit confused as to how you consider the hotel "in the middle of nowhere" - last I checked it was literatlly smack in the middle of downtown. It might be a $2-3 cab ride from the Arena district if I remember correctly but I didn't think it was out in the middle of a farm field somewhere.