OUR RATING: 5.5 out of 10
Carrie and I do almost all of our booking through Priceline when we’re staying in major cities in North America. We decide how much we want to pay for a night and put in a bid. We never know where we’re going to end up, but that’s part of the fun. We’ve stayed at some really nice places – places we probably wouldn’t have stayed at on our own – in the past five years.
Unfortanately, the Westin in Edmonton was a miss for us this time around. We really didn’t enjoy our stay there, and our main beef with them was the quality of service, or rather the lack of service we received. Despite our late arrival at the hotel, the service staff didn’t seem all that interested in making us happy.
We arrived at midnight and when we got there, there was no doorman or bellhop, so we ended up lugging our suitcases on our own. Lugging our own luggage in is NEVER a problem with us, but in light of what ensued, we felt the lack of service added to our overall impression of the hotel. That is, after all, what this site is for.
When I booked the room, I asked that our room be equipped with an extra cot for Caleb. I reminded the front desk again when we checked in and when we went up to our room, we spent fifteen minutes trying to get the door unlocked. We called someone to come and take care of our keys, but after what seemed like a long time of waiting around in the hallway with our luggage, I just decided to go downstairs and get the key changed myself. You’d think that in that amount of time, they’d have the cot delivered, but no, we ended up waiting another 20 minutes for the cot to arrive. We didn’t get to bed that night until an hour after check-in.
One thing we did enjoy the next morning, however, was the The Westin’s signature Heavenly Showerhead. Now, those are a nice added touch to the rooms. Each shower is equipped with a dual showerhead which was perfect for me and for five-year old Caleb. It’s the first time he’s showered with me and had a showerhead all to himself. After a long day of traveling, that high-pressure showerhead smoothed all our travel aches and pains out.
My complaints with the Westin are minor and I haven’t written the Westin off, though I’m curious about the lack of service at midnight. Does this happen during the day as well, or did we just catch them at a bad time?
