I just got sort of a bummer email. I used my 50PRG to book a long weekend here at the end of March. This morning is received the "You have chosen to stay over an exceedingly busy time frame, where this resort receives more demand for our Suites than we can possibly accommodate. As a result, we are reaching out to our Platinum Starwood Preferred Guest's that have booked with us to let them know that the probability of a complimentary suite upgrade is very small." email.

Understandable that they are going to be pretty booked up but I was pretty excited that I had a good chance of getting a corner suite for my long weekend stay. Oh well - based on what everyone here is saying, I'm still excited to get there - especially at 3 nights for 18K points.

Well, rooms booked via 50PRG aren't eligible for upgrades anyway. (but as always YMMV)

i stayed there two times in the past month. i had 4 rooms paid with points, we got balcony room and club floor for all but no suites.

the next weekend i was there with points and again they said they had no suites availalble.

I have stayed at the Diplomat for 4-5 years now, 2-3 times a year. Normally when I made a reservation, within a couple of days the hotel had already pre-booked a corner suite. The last two reservations made, with one stay completed and another pending for a May weekend, there has not been pre-upgrading done. My last stay was upgraded the day of arrival to a corner suite, but I wonder if the pre-upgrading policy has changed in the last few months.


Being a favorite property for me and probably many other platinums (love that lounge) I would venture that they are more careful in the their pre-upgrading of the suites.

Once I was upgraded to a diplomat suite instead of a corner suite, but frankly I would rather get a deluxe ocean view with balcony than a non-balcony diplomat suite.

Cheers!

At the Diplomat, Does SPG Gold automatically get you the SPG level and use of the lounge?

Using the Westin hertz, do you park at Hertz at night or still pay the parking fee even though you are using the Westin Hertz?

thanks

I suspect they care about this more if someone is having a party and brining in cases of alcohol, rather than a bottle of wine or two for a couple.

Yes, first stay - we got a suite on the 30th floor; however, the suite did not have a balcony and the view was toward another building. Good luck!

That's incorrect.

And Starwood Lurker agrees with me, fwiw. ;)
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showpost....&postcount=161

Although this post is from February, I wonder if this was advanced warning for the upcoming spring break season? :confused:

Parking?
 

Is parking free at the self-parking facility? I am staying on points and wondering what extra charges there might be.

Also, off topic, but I am planning on spending some time at the beach on S. Beach - anyone know where the best public beach in the S. Beach area is (by 'best' I mean highest concentration of smoking hot Miami chicks wearing the skimpiest bikinis).

TIA

Aside from the lack of balcony, are the Diplomat suites better or worse than the corner suites? other differences?

Parking is not free. You park across the street and when you check in tell them you have parked across the street and they will give you a pass. There is also a resort fee.

Report from stay March 13. 4 nights
 

I got the upgrade to one of the lovely Corner Suites and was a happy camper. Stay was a 50% off redemption offer.

Rooms
We had one of the Corner Suites which was nice. Old style TVs in both rooms.

Bed
First of all, they don't have Heavenly beds, a huge drawback!

Parking
Valet is slooooooooooow. Expect at least 15 minutes. Opted for self park after first night. The parking garage forces you to drive up 5 stories and then over to the next building and 5 stories down. It's a long hike. The reason is that the hotel has scaled back and only has a parking attendant in one of the sides. The parking garage was meant to have two entrances and exits, but the Westin Diplomat has decided to save money and make people spend 5 minutes driving through the entire structure. Not satisfactory at 18 bucks a day!! The commotion of getting out is another point: The parking attendant asks to see your room key in addition to the ticket. She then wants you to write your room number and name on the ticket. About half the time, they had to call the hotel to confirm for some reasons. Needless to say, a line was forming because of these ridiculous old fashioned way of running a parking garage..

Turn down
Turn down service 1 out of the 4 nights and the day they did, the chocolate was put upside down on the night stand..... To call it turn down service is stretching it.

Housekeeping
The bed looked like it was made by a 3 year old.. No refill of stuff in the bathroom.

Internet
I opted for the wireless internet in the room. It was 12.95 a day. The wireless is not good. When I complained, Sprint said the service wasn't official yet. The front desk told me they didn't have wireless in the rooms. I said they do, I got on it and paid for it. It was just slow and bad reception in the bedroom. He said I must have picked up the free lobby internet.. :rolleyes: I asked him where the hotel found that accesspoint, I would love to get my hands on an accesspoint that can go through 20 floors of concrete :D

I said it was impossible. The wireless was not free, I called down to get an access code, so even if the service was not official, it was there. He said there was no such thing and was rolling his eyes at me. I got a little annoyed and asked to talk to the manager who actually did the same as the other guy: It must have been the lobby internet.. I AGAIN told them I paid for it before being able to enter.

Concierge
Talk about a clueless bunch. We asked for some nice, close restaurants.. The concierge sent us to Las Olas 12 miles away :rolleyes:. I knew how far away it was, so I asked if there was anything closer. She said only mall restaurants.. I looked through the Diplomat Magazine provided in each room which had several pages about Downtown Hollywood and the restaurants there. Went there every night, great places to choose from.

Pool
Pool was nice, service was great. Prices not that bad. Food was good.

Restaurants
Ate at the burger place across the street. Fair enough. There are offers every day.

Executive lounge
Not very crowded. Free internet that actually works. Breakfast was awesome. The evening meals are a joke. A little cheese, fruit, some tuna salad and caprese salad, that's it. One of the nights they had some strange Prosciutto look a like..

Dessert: dry cookies and coffee...

General service
Big property = big trouble. But other hotels this size, including the Westin Maui can run a smooth, consistent operation. This was below par


Conclusion: If I paid the USD400 a night they wanted for a standard room the dates we were there, I would have been very disappointed. I expect a lot more for that kind of money in Florida...

This is one of those rare occasions where I am glad to have been wrong :D :p

I can confirm this. I don't know why that is!!!! :confused: The regular rooms (our connecting room) had heavenly beds, but not the suites!!!

That's what I've heard and it's confirmed if you try to book the hotel at spg.com.. When you read the description of the suites, it doesn't say "heavenly bed" like it does under the regular rooms.

It makes absolutely no sense at all...:confused: