The Westin Arlington is a lovely hotel. The lobby is just outstanding, I’m a big fan of their lighting concept. The gym and pool are nice. It’s still new construction, I first visited with a hard hat and then attended opening day less than three years ago. My only real beef about the hotel is that their standard rooms feel small, and there are very few suites. Fortunately I managed to snag one for five days recently. The hotel was a virtual ghost town, occupancy was so low that they had closed off the top four floors. No suites available at checkin but they were happy to prompt just as soon as one became available and switched rooms without difficulty. The club lounge was closed for renovation, which is a bummer because the lounge has always…
Hotel Report 2008
Tag Archives for Hotel Report 2008.
Intercontinental Barclay Suite Photos
The Intercontinental Barclay is a great Royal Ambassador hotel. The agent at the dedicated Ambassador check-in desk (where you may be seated, instead of standing in the sometimes long lines at reception) explained, “Royal Ambassadors are supposed to get suites.” And so I did. This is not a truly world class hotel, by any means. Turndown service is performed and they… turn down your bed and turn on the CD player. They didn’t deliver any chocolates or bottled waters, fortunately Royal Ambassadors receive complimentary drinks from the minibar so it hardly mattered. The bathrooms, even in a suite, are tiny and virtually identical to bathrooms in standard rooms. The closets, however, both in suites and regular rooms are quite large for New York City. In fact, rooms here generally are large by New York…
Atlantis Casino, Reno
Reno’s Atlantis Casino has been a perennially easy hotel to score on Priceline, it’s been the only four-star property in Reno for awhile – or so Priceline says. It strikes me as rather three-star, but there’s no hard and fast Priceline rule distinguishing the two categories. Still, targeting Atlantis is easy if that’s your bag. Although at some point the Peppermill may get an upgrade to four stars as they complete a renovation. Last week I was there on a $39 Priceline rate. At check-in I was told that no king bed rooms were available (I had put in a request for one in advance). I insisted and was offered a king in the motor lodge. There’s a no-tell motel facility out back, pretty dodgy, a separate facility that I wanted nothing to do with. After…
Travel Photos – Westin Diplomat Pool and Sunrise
The Westin Diplomat offers the best Platinum elite recognition in all of Starwood. With the exception of the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and perhaps Presidents Weekend and Memorial Weekend, a suite upgrade is almost guaranteed (they have over 80 of them). In addition, the club lounge is just lovely — a 33rd floor affair with both indoor and outdoor seating and an extensive breakfast, evening canapes, and after dinner treats. I’ve written about my stays at the Diplomat several times, for example here, here, and here. Here’s the pool at the Diplomat, during the day and at night: And sunrise off the balcony of my corner suite:
The Phoenician: A Beautiful Property With Some Things To Learn About Starwood Preferred Guest
The Phoenician is a lovely property, and in short worth of both its Starwood “Luxury Collection” branding and its recent fifth diamond. The facilities are beautiful and well-maintained. The service is prompt and courteous. And, for a property of this caliber, I didn’t even find the food offerings to be especially overpriced. Not cheap, mind you, but not really more expensive than better Westin properties. If there was a short-coming, it was in this property’s understanding and recognition of Starwood Preferred Guest program benefits. My status didn’t appear to be properly reflected in my reservation, and I asked the hotel to correct that which they told me they did. In advance of my arrival, I received a concierge email that contained someone else’s reservation — but that showed my Starwood Preferred Guest number with the…
Return to Le Meridien Barcelona
The morning after dinner at El Bulli we took a cab to the Figueres train station, had our return ticket stamped for the Catalunya Express to Barcelona, and boarded the train. Uneventful ride back, grabbed a cab to the Meridien, and checked in. This time they had us assigned to a junior suite on the 7th floor corner, facing a side street. I asked if we could do any better, and they offered a similar room overlooking Las Ramblas with a fairly panoramic view. I asked whether any renovated suites were open, and they told me this was it… they also mentioned that they hadn’t yet decided to renovate some of the remaining suites on the upper floors, “some customers prefer the older style.” I don’t know whether this was guesswork on the checkin agent’s…
Barcelona Trip Report Continued – Le Meridien and Rambling Along Las Ramblas
Le Meridien Barcelona Just under 30 euro cab ride from the airport, and I walk into the hotel and up to the checkin desk. Relatively quick and painless, but not suite available. In fact, no upgrade available. “It is a very nice room, it is an upgrade, trust me you will like it.” It’s the smallest room I’ve ever seen in Europe, and it faces a side street. Back down to the desk to renegotiate, they give me a somewhat larger standard room – this time facing Las Ramblas with a little standup balcony to walk out on. The only downside is that it’s two beds joined together rather than a true King. Ah, Europe. This is an improvement, at least. Service isn’t great here, no one helped me with my bags. And my first…
Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel & Towers
We cruised through immigration with not a single person in line ahead of us and walked over to the departure level and up again to the escalator to the pedestrian bridge, and across the way to the Sheraton. I had reserved the hotel on a cash and points award, US$60 + 4000 points a night. Walked up to the check-in desk, though I suppose we could have headed up to the Towers lounge on the 9th floor for checkin. We were given a room on the club floor. I asked if suite was available as a platinum upgrade (not that I cared, actually, on a one-night stay at the airport). The woman checking me in said “We don’t normally do that.” I asked, “Are you sure, I thought that if a standard suite was available,…
Westin Beijing Financial Street
About 1h15m in traffic, the cab deposited us at the Westin for 118RMB. I had had a map to the hotel with the address in Chinese (which I had emailed the hotel for), but the dispatcher simply asked us our destination and communicated it to the driver and all was fine. Upstairs to the club lounge to checkin (since Platinums have access to the lounge, they can necessarily check in there). I had reserved the hotel on a cash and points award, US$60 + 4000 points a night. 500 point Plat amenity has already posted, along with points from two room service coffee orders, but no points for the cash portion of the rate – will have to followup. We were informed the hotel was full (and it certainly was, with a huge American tour…
Bangkok Overnight at the Airport Novotel
Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport With the time change it was about 9pm local time when we got out of the BKK airport. We were heading back to the airport for a morning flight, wanted to get there early enough for the first class spa, and so decided not to head into the city and instead spend the night at the Novotel on the airport grounds. While the in-room materials describe the walkway from the terminal, that isn’t built yet. Instead there’s a shuttle that runs every 15 minutes. After clearing immigration and customs, there’s a Novotel representative standing by door 4 ready to assist you into the hotel’s van. A quick loop around the airport access roads and you’re at the hotel. Contra several reports, check-in was a breeze although there were curiously many forms to…
