stevens397

Are there any walls left to bang my head against!!!

We worked hard to get FC flights to Europe and back for a cruise. Original hub was Zurich and when I decided to change the first flight so we could have astay in Zurich, the FF seats were gone. So looked into Geneva and no problem

Went to look for rewards rooms at the President Wilson and none were listed. No problem - usually that just means you have to pay a few thousand points more for an upgraded room. But the Platinum Concierge said that from Aug 2-6, there are no rooms available for points - period!

I have simply never had that happen before. Are these special dates in Geneva?

stevens397

Gets even worse. Called Platinum Concierge and they checked again. Said hotel only makes standard rooms available and when they have none, too bad!

Again, never had this happen with Starwood.

gsch

July 29th to Aug 8 is the Geneva Festival (http://www.fetes-de-geneve.ch/) which draws in a lot of people. Hotels fill up quite quickly at that time of the year, especially upper class hotels due to high demand from Middle Eastern travelers.

Oh... and Aug 1st is Swiss national day...

stimpy

Yep, busy time in Geneve. And this is not the only hotel that only sells standard rooms as awards. A lot of others do the same. Someone correct me, but aren't pretty much all the upscale international properties like this?

gottaluvNW

Stay in Lausanne instead, 33 minutes away by train. You are right by the vineyards, the lake, closer to the Alps. www.brp.ch is an excellent hotel choice, assuming of course that it fits your budget. Several other excellent hotels in Lausanne too.

chanp

That place looks nice. With me always cutting it down to the wire with stays to requal, I'd always try to find spg properties.

stimpy

I don't think they are going to accept his Starpoints in Lausanne.

forumpersona999

I am at this property right now as part of an "all SPG" 2-week European road-trip where we started in Munich and then drove around counter-clockwise staying only at SPG properties.

When I booked for 2 nights, I was shown only a "Prestige City View Non-smoking, Newly Renovated, Flat Screen Tv, I Pod Docking Station, Nespresso Coffee Machine" for 500CHF.
This room's "lake view" equivalent was sold out on that day. Other days that week it seems to sell for 600 CHF.
I really wanted to book a lake view room to make sure I have lake-view no matter what (by way of SPG Plat Upgrades) may happen.

There was also a junior suite showing for 700 CHF earlier that day but when I was ready to pull the trigger it was gone.
SPG Plat Concierge booked the "Prestige City View Non-smoking" for me and made the usual "upgrade request in the notes".
I checked in and was given a "Corner Business City View" because "we are at full capacity tonight.".


First some good stuff:

I checked SPG.com and indeed there were no rooms showing for sale anymore (mind you this was 7pm local time so maybe the system was closed out already for that day).
I went to the room and I must say it is very well appointed indeed. ^

Was given a laminated card with WiFi credentials upon check-in. ^

There are fresh flowers and chocolates in the room and 2 small bottles of Evian ^.

Housekeeping called and said they noticed I just checked in and would I like turn-down service. ^


Now the not so good stuff:

I asked them why the office section of this room was locked and they said there is no office, that door is a connecting door (yeah, right).

There is no Ipod connectivity whatsoever in this room!

Mrs. FP999 fell in love with Geneva today so she is bugging me to stay longer. We were originally booked for 2 nights, she wants a third.

I checked SPG.com and see that today and tomorrow all room types are available so I call the front desk and tell them I want to pay a little more to get into a lake-view room and stay an extra night as well.

I was told that I would have to pay the difference and that someone would call me back in a few minutes with specifics. I figured "fair enough", I would probably change from the 500 CHF city-view to the now available 600CHF lakeview and then get upgraded to a Junior Suite.

The lady calls me back and tells me that for 400 CHF more I can have lake-view

I asked her what kind of upgrade that would be seeing as I stay in a 500 CHF room now and the proposed new room she offered me for 400 CHF more was on spg.com for 900 CHF BAR, i.e. for the 500 + 400 a night anyone with no status whatsoever can have that exact room.

As for the Ipod dock I was first told that "Its near your TV, look again" and when I called back to report that I cannot see any Ipod dock near my TV I was told that "oh then you didn't book a room with an Ipod dock".

When I patiently explained that I did book a room with an Ipod dock, I was hung up on. Well, at least that's my interpretation. Perhaps there was a technical issue with the call.....

Later they told me "Oh the room we upgraded you to has the Bang and Olufsen TV, which doesnt allow for Ipod connectivity".

Ordered room service and one of the two glasses of water was soiled. there was an object in it.

My PA sent me some stuff from HKG via DHL, when I called the concierge to ask about it, I was told that nothing had arrived yet (although DHL tracking shows it was delivered and signed for over 30 minutes ago). I told him that I am sure there are docs that just got delivered for me and I would need them ASAP and he tells me "no we have nothing for you.".


Bottom Line:

Geneva is lovely and the rooms in this hotel are nice, very "post-renovation Park Hyatt Sydney" but there is no Platinum love and I don't click with the service.
I will try to call the GM's office now and find a resolution or I will just move on to our next stop. It's a road-trip after all. I am flexible.

AZ Boomer

I was checking on spg.com to see of the President Wilson was available for a trip in June 2011. The web site only shows availability into December,2010. (I fould availability in Zurich for June, so I'm not looking too far in the future.) Any ideas?

chanp

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

ChinaShrek

If you read Tripadvisor, this places gets the whole range of reviews. Many people are unhappy and describe service problems similar to yours. Many people love the place and call it "true 5 star." For this reason, I was rather reluctant to book it. I have no status with Starwood but this hotel was one of the few that wasn't fully booked when I needed to stay in Geneva last month. I had a good stay but my expectations were low.

I experienced a few service problems as well. First, I had booked a room with two beds (I was traveling with a friend and we needed two separate beds.). At check-in, the girls says to me, "I have upgraded you to a deluxe room and one king bed." I tell her that we must have two beds and she makes a phone call and I end up with a nice room with two twin beds. She also asks me if I have a Starwood number. Huh? I notice on the reservation form that it has my point balance on it. I point this out to her and she says, "oh you're right!"

Thursday nights, there is a karaoke bar in the hotel that goes until 11pm. Not too late but it is loud enough to hear throughout the hotel. It's only one day a week but not something I expected from a 5* hotel.

Finally, I thought the location was fine. 10 minutes to the train station and about a half hour to the old town (walking). I liked Geneva a lot. I would stay here again if the price was under 400 CHF.

Condition One

Wow, this is one expensive city! I'm wrapping up a weekend stay here, and I'm really pleased with this property. Taxi from the airport was 40CHF. Booked a superior room at a decent AAA rate, and was upgraded to a Junior Corner Suite (city view - i.e. some random building across the street). As expected, my room wasn't ready upon my 8:30am arrival, but reception asked me to have a seat or breakfast while they called housekeeping to expedite things. I was told they would find me when it was done. Sure enough, just as I was paying for my 45CHF breakfast, the receptionist came over and handed me my room key along with an Internet card.

The room itself is quite nice. The Bang & Olufsen TV requires an advanced degree to operate. And the bathtub/shower has that annoying half-glass partition, causing me to get water all over the bathroom.

Service is excellent. My air conditioning unit was broken (it wouldn't turn off), and engineering was up in the flash. In the end, they couldn't fix it and killed it via circuit breaker. I was told to call them when I wanted it turned back on or off. A tad annoying, but everytime I called, somebody was there within minutes.

I received a call from Housekeeping yesterday around 5pm asking when I'd like my turndown service. A nice touch.

The gym is extremely small (one treadmill, exercise bike, 2 ellipticals). But nobody was ever using it when I was there.

Oh, and if you know exactly what you want for breakfast, it'll be cheaper to simply order off the room service menu. For example, a pot of tea (10CHF), scrambled eggs (17CHF), and pastry (5CHF/piece) came under what the restaurant was charging.

The walk to the nearest tram stop was about a couple of minutes. To Old Town, I'd say a very pleasant 15-20 minutes along the lake.

stevens397

Any decent and reasonable breakfast options within a short walk? Once you get free deluxe breakfasts as a Hyatt Diamond, it's hard to go full freight at a Starwoood Luxury hotel!

stevens397

Any decent and reasonable breakfast options within a short walk? Once you get free deluxe breakfasts as a Hyatt Diamond, it's hard to go full freight at a Starwoood Luxury hotel!

Condition One

No kidding on the breakfasts! I looked around, but didn't see any cafes or breakfast type places near the hotel. Your best bet would be to walk to Old Town and find something.