I just don’t get the W. After a sub-optimal experience at the W Boston a few years ago I decided to try out the W Seattle. Same experience.
I drove around and around looking for this place at 11pm for a 2-night weekend stay. It is darkly lit – impossible to find at night. It looks like a small store front. Valet on a one-way side street and consists of a narrow entry to a basement parking lot.
You walk into the “lobby” which is blaring loud electro-disco “music” into an empty dark space with a couple of clerks behind small counters. You need to yell at each other to communicate. This didn’t work so well since they did not find my reservation and I needed to call the SPG Concierge (I am a 75+ Platinum member) and the concierge did not hear me well from my cell phone over all of the electro-disco “music”. The concierge informed Andrew (the front desk staff) that the reservation existed, and he entered it into his system. They had no explanation as to why there was a glitch in the system.
I had paid extra for an upgraded “spectacular room” hoping to get an upgrade to a suite. I asked Andrew for an upgrade based upon my Platinum status. I was given an upgrade to a “fabulous cool corner” room. (Seriously this is how they call them). I can tell you that there is really nothing special about these rooms at all. They are small and with views of the sides of other buildings – big deal. I had hoped for an upgrade to a suite, but looking at their home page it appears that out of 415 rooms there are only 9 suites, and being that they had not expected me, I guess the suites had already been given out by 11pm. I was told by Andrew that I would get 5k starpoints for my trouble, which will help me go find some other Starwood property to stay at.
On a previous trip to Seattle I had stayed at the Sheraton which is only a few blocks away. Despite being ranked a notch below the W, I felt that Sheraton provided a much better experience at a lower cost – and it is much more convenient to the highway. I am planning on checking out of the W a day early here and going to try out the Westin. I’ll use the 5k points toward a 10k stay. I will try to post something about the Westin, so that you can get a feel for all 3 of the Starwood properties in Seattle.
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