ECOTONE

thanks!

intheairagain

Wow is it that bad?? I am looking to go for a few night next month just to get some sun sit on the beach and relax now I am thinking of somewhere else? Non heated pools sounds bad, what the weather like in Jan?

TooMuchTravel73

It is tops on my "avoid" list. Whole resort is sub-par for a Westin. It was nicer before the hurricane (in 2003/4ish?), but since then only the "very very basic" has been done to the property.

Food Average/Poor
Service Poor/Rude
Room Average
Property grounds Below Average to Poor

the 15% auto tip encourages poor service. everyone in the resort has a "I could care less about you" attitude.

Westin Grand Cayman A+. If you want a nice experience fly into NAS and stay at the Hilton.

PrivatePilot

Any recent reviews? Was planning a trip there in late March but seems the reviews in the last 1-2 years havent been too good...

TheMan

recently completed a stay at the Freeport Westin in the Bahamas. While the hotel itself has been renovated since the last big hurricane, the ongoing maintenance of the property is poor. Locks on sliding doors are broken, air conditioners don't work properly, poor pool maintenance, bad staff attitude are just a few of the problems we encountered. We had a number of extremely irregular problems during our stay and felt that management had no interest in addressing them. It seems that the property itself, along w/the Sheraton, are owned by a Chinese company which seems to have no interest in customer service.
When we checked in and went to use our safe we found a decent quantity of illegal narcotics in our safe, can't say it was a welcome gift but when we brought it to the hotels attention they didn't seem too interested in discussing it. For that matter they never even apologized at the appropriate level. It took a multitude of phone calls to even get someone to call me back.
Add to that the fact that we were in our room and someone came to the door w/a crowbar and tried to break in and that leaves you a bit more than skeptical about the condition of the property.
We then asked to have our room changed but they only had larger, older suites available, which really wasn't a problem but upoin inspection of the room it turns out that the sliding door locks were broken, which also led to a feeling of insecurity. We asked to be moved and they moved us again and the next room had at least one lock working but again not all of them were functioning. We proceeded to barricade the doors for the evening.
Our friends also had a bad time at the hotel. The front door to their room had a large gap in it from the bottom to the middle, so large that you could see thru it and if you pushed hard enough it would pop open the door. They placed repeated calls to security, maintenance and the front desk but no one repaired it. We asked to have them moved as well when the attemp on our room happened.
In the end we asked to speak to hotel managers but they were off for the weekend and couldn't be disturbed. Does this sound like customer service to you?

fireworksboy

Usually, when someone tries to break into my hotel room with a crowbar, I check out. That's just how I roll.

TheMan

That would be great but there is no where else to go on this island, and it is the "best" resort there, ALLEGEDLY.

mehh

I just read about the horror story concerning the Westin Grand Bahama Our Lucaya Resort. Now I'm worried about our July trip. We're traveling with in-laws for a 50th wedding anniversary and we really want the rooms to be special especially for the couple. According to the posts the staff here seems to not care about anything. My concern is that obtaining any upgrade might be difficult to impossible. To top it off, our incoming flight arrives late at night, so if the rooms aren't acceptable, we'll be stuck at least for the first night. Any suggestions on how to avoid a potential disaster and ensure that we can at least receive rooms on the same floor? We're Starwood Gold members and we're supposed to automatically receive upgrades, but here that might not apply. Help! We're locked into airfare so this is where we have to go!

Baeck

I would make sure to ask for rooms in the "Breakers" building. It is the newer of the buildings that comprise the Westin. That should help to some degree. Best of luck to you and please DO enjoy yourself. The hotel isn't a total disgrace, just not quite up to standards. You should at very least have a pleasant stay, so long as you don't actually expect a Four-Diamond resort.

mehh

How soon should I contact the hotel? I usually just wait until check-in before I ask for the Gold Status upgrade. I'm concerned about this situation because we are arriving so late at night.

TheMan

I checked on the upgrade the night before by calling the SPG line and was informed of it. They may just upgrade you to an ocean view room but the mini suites in the main building are nice. The Lanai suites are nice as well, larger but a bit older and they have their own smaller private pool area but it is very nice if you want a bit more quiet.

sc flier

mehh, you can contact the hotel's SPG coordinator any day to ask. You can try the tollfree reservations number to see if they can handle your request. (888) 627-7130

If it were me, I'd do that now and then follow up again about 2 - 7 days prior to arrival.

Without knowing what room types you actually reserved or when you are going (i.e. during July 4th holidays or later?), I can't give much opinion about the odds for upgrades. But if you reserved a low-floor, island-view room, there are lots of other rooms to upgrade into. And other than the holiday week, most of July is not really their peak season.

It's been 2 1/2 years since my last visit, so I can't comment on the recent service complaints there. I used to get great service and great Plat upgrades there.

Sort of OT: I'm curious about your late-night arrival schedule. What flights arrive late into FPO?

TheMan

BTW, you can get a minivan from the airport to the hotel for 5 or 6 people for about $25, not the $20/couple the hotel tells you. As for food, the food across the street at Port Lucaya is great at some of the restaurants. Try Zorbas for breakfast and lunch, a fraction of the hotel price and worlds better. Lucianos also has great food for a fine dining experience. If you are there on Wednesday night try the Fish Fry that the natives talk about and go to to Da Bustop, great food but keep an eye on the staff as they seem to forget who got their first. We waited an hour and a half for our food.

mehh

Scflyer, our late flight is on Continental.

griffinj

The Mrs. and I have been there twice. Once a few years ago, and then again last year. Based on our most recent experience, we will never return to this property.

See my several postings in the Sheraton Our Lucaya thread below for just a small portion of the experience.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...9&postcount=10

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...2&postcount=17

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...9&postcount=19