Sheraton or Westin in Tysons Corner, VA
 

Tried a search which brought up next to nothing ...

But I've got a meeting next week in Tysons Corner outside DC and I'm trying to decide on the Westin or Sheraton Premiere. Anyone have any thoughts? How's the lounge at the Sheraton ... and does the Westin have one? I love a good lounge.

Thanks!

I would stay at the Westin. I have stayed many times at the Sheraton, at it's wholly medicore. The rooms are old, dark, and uncomfortable, and the restaurant, bar, and the lounge are poor. (There are many threads on this forum about the property.) It's a typical older Sheraton; the main reason I stay there is because it's often, though not always, a bit ($20-$50) cheaper than the peer properties in the area (e.g., Marriott, Hilton), and deservedly so.

I have only stayed at the new Westin once. The rooms are brand-new (just renovated) typical Westin -- elegant and comfortable. They have a restaurant and bar, which I did not visit. I assume that they don't have a lounge -- at least, as a SPG Platinum they didn't give me access to it if they did!

And the location of the Westin is slightly better, especially if you want to take the Metro. Although both hotels have vans that provide local transportation. I believe that parking is free at both hotels.

Also, for awhile they had a grand opening points promotion for the Westin. Not sure if it's still on, but that would be a nice bonus.

I commented mostly on the Westin Tysons Corner, but mention the Sheraton in comparison in this post.

Personally, I would just stay at the one that has the better rate for the nights you are looking for. Staff seems more attentive at the Westin, but it has fewer services, no gift shop or drink vending machines anywhere (inconvenient!), and as you will read in my previous post, didn't have an ice machine on my floor, so it's not quite "full service" in my book.

Location-wise they are comparable if you have a car; if you don't, the Sheraton has more "action" going on around it, but nothing you'd really want to walk to, though you could if you wanted to, since it is located off a walkable service road. The Westin is located along busy Leesburg Pike and not practical to walk to anything.

To me, both properties are just "meh" with upsides and downsides to each that make them pretty equivalent.

Sheraton has a lounge that I did not bother to visit. I don't believe the Westin has one. If they do, I can't imagine where they put it, and there is certainly no indication of one in the elevator.

The Westin (former Double Tree?) may be noisy on the highway side. I stayed in a renovated room very near the end of the Double Tree tag here and the new windows let in a lot of noise.

Have not stayed since the rebrand.

Westin Fan
 

Agree the Sheraton is mediocre. Perfectly acceptable. But, I have stayed at the Westin twice since the conversion, and the only real complaint I could muster is that the rooms are smaller than the Sheraton. Staying on the Beltway side of the hotel was not an issue for me. I barely noticed. The staff at the Westin is super.

I've found both of them average, although the top floor suite at the Sheraton, right next to the lounge, was much nicer than the suite I had on Wednesday at the Westin.

I had 2 Westin stays this week but the Sheraton has been a couple of months. I have 2 nights at each coming up this week, so I'll be able to comment with more recent data.

The Westin doesn't provide a newspaper in the morning, nearly a dealbreaker for me. Half of the room also are next to a heavily travelled, noisy road.

I'd say the Sheraton is average for the brand, the Westin below average for the brand.

I would agree with this post, having just returned from a two night stay at the Westin Tysons and over the years having had at least a half-dozen stays at the Sheraton Premiere.

The signal problem at the Westin is that the staff is so poorly trained that all of the pleasantness and willingness to help (which is clearly in evidence) does not help much if you are checking in near midnight after having experienced an extremely slow check-in caused by two inexperienced and tentative night desk clerks.

And then to find, piece-by-piece. that the room has not been properly (not even minimally) supplied. No regular coffee, no coffee cups, no shower cap, no mouthwash available, and, to top it all off, the water bottle had been opened and partially consumed, I presume by the prior guest.

Yes, the (free) water bottles that room service sent up with our salads was a very pleasant surprise, but the waiter was completely clueless about the need for a bottle opener for the glass bottles. It actually took him a full 15-20 minutes to find one for us after he had brought the order.

Even more interesting was that when I left a note for the housekeeper to leave a shower cap for the second day, that was not forthcoming. Since there was no memo pad supplied in the room, I needed to use one that I had picked up at my last stop, a Marriott in Louisville (where there is no Starwood property at all). As I wrote the note, it occurred to me that my need to use a Marriott pad to communicate with the Westin staff would certainly not have pleased our friend William, the Starwood Lurker. ;)

There are a few other comments that I have. Altho the common areas were quite nicely redone, the elevators, which actually worked quite well, seemed to be drab and claustrophobic. I think that a cosmetic overhaul of the elevators is needed. The other observation that I made that is IMO noteworthy is that it appears that nobody has informed the valet and bell staff that the handicapped parking spaces smack in front of the hotel are not to be considered convenient places for them to park the shuttle van, contractor's trucks, limousines, and as unbelievable as it sounds, their own personal cars. I would like to see the face of the manager of that hotel if he gets socked with one of those massive fines for ADA violations.

But, all things considered, the location is very good for me, nearly as good as the Fairview Park Marriott, and I surely will return to this hotel from time-to-time. I imagine when someone decides to properly train the very nice people who are working there, most of the rough edges will be smoothed out.

Very well said.

By the way, good point about the newspaper. I fail to understand a "full-service" hotel these days that doesn't give at least USA Today. . .

I got USA Today both days but one of the mornings I was awakened at 530AM by a loud thump against my door and another series of thumps as the delivery continued down the hallway. :td:

The opinion that the Westin is below the brand is spot-on. Employee attitudes vary tremendously although they are consistently slow and each and every one seems to be on their first week of working there. Appointments in the rooms are minimal and certainly below Westin standards. Check out your electronics before you put down your luggage: on my visit neither the tv nor the telephones work (requiring a trip back to the front desk since I couldn't call down for assistance!). In the room they moved me to, the phones' speed dial buttons hadn't been programmed so you could only touch "O" and ask to be connected everywhere.

That said, if you go with lower standards (or what you'd expect of a Sheraton) then you'll be fine. The rooms are comfortable enough and I didn't at all find being over the highway to be noisy or disruptive to sleep.

Thanks for all the suggestions .. I'm going with the Sheraton.

It's funny ... on the Hilton board, it's all about the lounge ... but you Starwoodies never seem to care much about lounge access or what they're serving there!

Good choice with the Sheraton. I stayed at both this week and, after the 2K/stay "new hotel" bonus ends, I'll be at the Sheraton.

The words that come to mind with the Westin are "cramped" and "dark". I was on the 10 floor. After being joined by four people on 9 on my way down in the morning, we stopped at every floor, where people looked in saw a full elevator (yes, full with 5 people) and continued waiting. The hallways have low ceilings, medium brown walls, dark brown carpet, and nothing but wall-mounted lamps with screw-in lightbulbs for lighting.

Room service - soup and a pizza - took over an hour. The guy delivering said nothing until after I had signed the bill, only then saying "waiting a long time, huh?" and left. Half of the soup has spilled out on the tray and the pizza was some of the worst ever. A newspaper did show up in the morning - it must just be for the "SPG Preferred floors". No lounge and a very average bar downstairs. Most of the rooms also are adjacent to major roads, although double-pane glass and thick curtains made this mostly a non-issue. New beds were the only positive - standard excellent bed/linens/pillows/etc.

At the Sheraton, 2 days later - open, spacious, bright - room service in 20 minutes, a very nice gentleman, food was decent. The lounge was very nice, better than the Marriott where I spent the last 2 months (Megabonus - 57K points and 24 extra night credits...). The beds didn't quite match the Westin, but everything else was better.

I will be staying at the Sheraton for the next few months, possibly hopping over the Westin periodically as both have the 1,000 bonus points/stay starting in July.

Or at least I think I will. I found our corporate rate at the Ritz-Carlton, closer to my project site, is $10 more per night. I'll be trying that out on Monday....

Interesting comments about the Westin. I don't agree with the comments thus far. I find the Westin much nicer than the Sheraton. In fact, I have only had pleasant stays at the Westin. Although you can easily tell that it was a conversion property, it is still a nice choice for that general area. I typically frequent W and St. Regis properties and I didn't have a single issue with my stay at this property.

I definitely don't agree. I've stayed at the Westin and the Sheraton Premiere (often on consecutive nights) and have had many problems with the Westin. The Sheraton isn't the nicest Sheraton I've stayed in but it does have a very nice club lounge on the top floor whereas the Westin has no lounge or club floor making it difficult to have a quick breakfast. There is a coffee shop (Starbucks) in the lobby but it has an EXTREMELY limited selection of both coffee and food.

The last time I stayed at the Westin, I didn't even have hand soap in the bathroom and had to call to request it. I do like the decor but would pick the Sheraton without hesitation.

Then, I guess we will have to agree to disagree. :)