Westin = Worst Hotel Experience
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 1/7/08
Some colleagues and I stayed at the Westin Copley Place in Boston for a convention in November. We had made reservations for two rooms (there were five of us). Our plane was delayed, so half of our group didn't arrive at the hotel until later in the evening, when we were informed that the entire hotel was booked. Apparently, reservations don't mean much to the Westin. Half of our group arrived earlier, so three of us had a room but the two that arrived late did not.
At midnight they offered to shuttle the two of us to a "boutique hotel" that they contract with for "no additional charge". This was not an acceptable solution as we had to be at the convention center the next morning at 6:30 a.m. and the Westin was on the Convention Center Shuttle Line (they were unable to tell us if the "boutique hotel" had easy access to the convention center). At 1 a.m. we ended up ordering cots and crashing in the one room our group of 5 actually got. The cots took 1 1/2 hours to arrive (after three ranting phone calls down to to the front desk, the manager finally agreed to send someone to see why the cots were taking so long). The extra towels we ordered took an additional 1/2 hour after the cots. We did not get to sleep until 4 a.m. because of the entire debacle.
The next day, we came back from the convention mid-day to check in for fear they would be "overbooked" yet again. When we arrived in our room, the smell of stale cigarette smoke hit us like a wall. We called the front desk and they insisted it was a non-smoking room. Again, the front desk staff were not accomodating or helpful and were reluctant to give us another room.
Finally, we had an acceptable room. We made a long list or our grievances and presented them to the manager, who offered to give us complimentary breakfast vouchers to compensate. We stayed four nights total, and each day at least one thing went disastrously wrong. My key never worked, the internet was spotty, and the staff was always slow and unwilling to help.
When I received my credit card bill just yesterday, I noticed that I was charged twice (two rooms for three nights each- aka, an extra $974.00). I called the hotel and they insist that according to their records the colleague who was staying with me and I each had our own room. I am now filing a formal dispute through my credit card company.
I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. The beds were comfortable, but everything else about this hotel and its staff was utterly horrendous. They rarely apologized or offered to compensate us in any way for any of the inconveniences to our group. I am a loyal Crowne Plaza/Holiday Inn customer, and only stayed at the Westin due to it's contract with the convention that I was attending. I will never stay at a Westin again.