Thanks for your votes of confidence. My BRG was approve a little bit ago. Got a 49% price shave on our Presidents' Week holiday. :)

I just wanted to give you another thumbs up for this hotel Uxb. I've stayed there six times in the past five years and always had a wonderful time. Facilities are outstanding and Platinum recognition has always been excellent. Rooms have conventional Westin decor but upper floor rooms and suites have great views and can have interesting shapes due to the sloping window line. I'm headed back there 3Sept and looking forward to another good stay.

Thanks. I went on the SPG website and read through a bunch of the reviews. Many of them seem to take issue with cleanliness or responsiveness. The majority of the responsiveness complaints came from NYers, so I discount these complaints by virtue of it being from NYers. The cleanliness complaints concern me because they are consistent with other SPG-owned properties in Miami. I am hoping for a hassle-free stay.

Other questions:

I'm travelling with four other people. Is lounge access limited to me and one guest, or will it be based on room type at check-in (n.b. two club rooms = access for all guests)? I'm redeeming SNAs on the non-award room, and expect to physically occupy the award room (assuming the possibility that one room is upgraded to a club level and one isn't).

Also, what's the breakfast situation? Do I have to make that my amenity? Or do we just take breakfast at the lounge? Is there an alternate amenity (local gift) at this property?

Finally, is the property completely non-smoking?

uxb.
I would presume that if one room is a club room and the other is not (but occupied by you as a plat), all the guests ought to get access to the lounge.

Breakfast is served in the lounge - and there is no need to ask for it as an amenity. I cannot state all the plat amenities but I know I once took a bucket of beer with pop corn as a plat amenity. If i recall, it was 6 bottles of beer with popcorn, but that was a few years ago.

My last stay in July, I simply took the points.

Breakfast is standard continental, with smoked salmon, hard boiled eggs, a good selection of pastries, some cold cuts, and quite a lot of fruit. I found it more than adequate, but nothing special.

I think the property is completely non smoking but I think some people smoke on the balconies.

From their website:

The Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, Hollywood, Florida is proud to announce the introduction of the Breathe Westin™ program. In response to guest requests, every guest room and all indoor areas are now smoke free. Smoking is allowed in many outdoor areas. To assist our smoking guests in this transition, we have added additional seating and ash bins on the resort grounds.

To ensure a refreshing experience upon each return, Westin Hotels & Resorts will enforce our smoke-free policy in guest rooms and balconies with a $200 cleaning fee for violations. For further information, please contact the hotel's manager on duty.

Don't worry, you won't find any bed bugs here :D.

Thanks for the additional info. :)

That hardly means anything if you've ever been to the Westin Las Vegas. ;) I'm actually finding out cos my sister is a dirtbag, and will need a place to smoke when she can't stand being around the rest of us. On a side note, it was fun watching her huddle in the rain down the street from the Westin Harbour Castle earlier this year. Clearly, she hasn't quite gotten the hint that smoking is lame. :p

I'm more concerned with gross WCs/rooms. Hopefully, the bed bugs at 4PTS SFO were a one-off. So far, knock on wood, all of my stays have been bed bug-free since. As with any place, whether SPG or competitor, you've gotta be smart about where you put yourself and your stuff. I'm thankful because I took the necessary precautions to prevent bringing them back with me to NY.

I'm staying here currently. This is probably my 25th stay at this property. The rooms are always clean. I should say suites as I have always gotten an upgrade. The lounge is very nice and food choices just keep getting better. This AM they had muffins, breads, fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs, bagels, and smoked salmon. Plus, a new addition: warm donuts filled with chocolate similar to Nutella. This is one of my favorite SPG properties anywhere.

Good to know. It's my cousin's fav as well, but she doesn't travel as often.

I have never had an issue with cleanliness at this hotel (unlike the W FTL but that's a story for another time). Club Lounge is large and attractive but I have not been impressed with the breakfast spread of late. I think you'll find it meets but no longer exceeds the brand standard.

Resort fee
 

Can anyone shed any light on why Priceline is showing a resort fee ("$16/night mandatory fee charged at checkout") for this property? I'm not talking about name your own price, but the standard retail side of Priceline.

Is this just a glitch? Or do they truly charge a resort fee on certain re-sellers? I hope it's not the latter, as not only is it really pointless and confusing, but they probably will be expanding the fee to more bookings soon.

EDIT: This tripadvisor review states that they were charged a fee on a NYOP bid "We had to pay an extra fee for daily resort and it did not include the beach chairs or umbrellas... Parking is an extra fee as well. Other than that, it is very luxurious. I was thankful I got this hotel after booking it via Priceline and bidding the price to a much lower rate than what it would have been had I booked it via their website."

So... I don't think it's fair to post "no resort fees" prominently on diplomatresort.com and then charge priceline guests a resort fee. If you don't want Priceline rates/guests (and all it's easy revenue), you don't need to put up bidding inventory. You can't have it both ways - win lower bids and then jack up the rates. Plus, why in the world are they adding this fee to the retail priceline rates? That just means they are all $16 more than booking anywhere else.

I have no doubt that the retail rise was just an unintended consequence - perhaps they had to impose it on the entire Priceline channel to get it to be consistently applied. I'm sure it's really to gain more revenue on the NYOP bookings. Of course, the bidders will be completely unaware of the fee until after their room is paid for, artificially raising their bid by $16 and skipping over potentially lower-priced hotels. AFAIK, this is the first instance of a hotel doing this, and unless it is a glitch, it seems ultra-shady... and completely consumer unfriendly.

Lurkers, any comment?

Interesting, I see the same thing when I use some sample dates in Nov. Is priceline cheaper on your dates? Why not do a BRG? On the dates I looked at in Nov priceline is cheaper than the SPGs website.

Edit: I re-read your post and I assume you are wanting to do the NYOP to get the hotel for cheaper which is why you are asking about the resort fee confusion. I agree, it is a shady tactic.

Yes. My best guess is that Priceline is returning some dated information. This property used to charge a resort charge of $16 per night, but they stopped doing that some time ago. Maybe Priceline didn't get the memo on that?

Regardless, I called and spoke to Revenue Management at the resort and they say they don't assess resort charges on any bookings, even Priceline. My suggestion was to let Priceline in on this as soon as possible.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Very strange. It's a recent change on their site so they must have reverted to some old info. But that's a good resolution, thanks for following up!

Westin Diplomat, Hollywood (Ft. Lauderdale), Florida 2008 onward [Master Thread]
 

Currently at property as Gold. Was automatically upgraded from superior to a grand deluxe ocean view at checkin.

No line when we checked in but on the day after our arrival there was a line during the entire afternoon.

Anybody knows what's the breakfast in the breakfast package? I'm assuming it's the buffet at Café but I would like a conformation.