I checked into the Sheraton Annapolis yesterday afternoon. I turned up at 2:40pm, was told they had me in a club room with two double beds. Umm, my wifeand I are still only a few years into our marriage, could we have one bed? 😉
This place was busy, busy, busy. They told me they had no king rooms available, sorry. Could you downgrade me off the club floor and give me a king? “Nothing’s ready, you know it isn’t even check-in time yet.”
Ok, when could I have a king? “Check-in time is at 3pm sir, please come back in 20 minutes. I will block you into a king room on the 5th floor.”
I return at 3:30pm. They had me in … a club room with 2 double beds. I mentioned that I was told to come back at 3 and I could have a king bedded room. “Who told you that???” I described the woman working the front desk.
Woman approaches the more senior agent on duty, neither look at me, “Well we can do that but nothing’s ready.”
“Do you think you might be able to find out when such a room could be ready?” and I rather stare sternly at her. She picks up her walkie talkie and learns there are 2 king rooms on the 5th floor that are ready just not entered into the system year. I was given room 501 which had a plaque “Starwood Preferred Guest Room.” I guess that means it had one complimentary bottle of water.
Without comment they gave me 2 keys in a platinum folder and two breakfast coupons. I mentioned the cocktails and appetizer coupons a colleage received a couple weekends back as a plat while the lounge is closed on the weekend, and the agent grabbed two more breakfast coupons and crossed out breakfast, writing in appetizer.
A Flyertalk member noted this past Fall (Flyertalk thread is here) that Platinums are given one free movie but I forgot to ask about this, and wouldn’t have used it anyway.
I asked when breakfast was, they said 7am – 1pm on Sundays. Funny, we went to breakfast at 11:30am and were told it was closing but they kept it open for us (never refreshed the completely empty french toast or bacon for us though). Buffet is rather sparse, but they do offer cooked to order eggs or omelettes.
We went up to the 5th floor. Elevator is VERY slow. Got out and noticed a musty, mildewy smell. It was all the way down the hall (carpet needs replacement in the hall, btw) and even stronger in the room. A/C helped get rid of it in the room. SPG room had microwave and refrigerator, I was told by the agent only club rooms had those.
Sweet sleeper bed, flat screen TV, desk, stained lounge chair, mildewy tub… free parking and free wireless internet.
I had told them I needed 2pm checkout, but my key expired at noon sharp. it didn’t work at 12:10pm. Went down to the desk and they reprogrammed it, but it still didn’t work so back (down the extremely slow elevator) to the desk. They gave me a new key and that worked fine.
Housekeeping wanted to clean the room at 8am, even though I was checking out “oh, sorry, we’ll come back.” They were back at 12:20pm even though we were supposed to have late checkout “oh, sorry.” I should have put up the do not disturb.
The place is frequently cheap, it’s a category 2, and I was here because I needed a night in Annapolis and the Westin had a 2-night minimum stay requirement in place. They do treat platinums consistently, but it is not a particularly great property.
