| rev:text
| - When I found out we were staying in a Westin for our trip to Calgary, I was pretty excited. We came for the Mac's Hockey Tournament on Christmas Day and left on New Year's Eve, and our weather was probably an average of 16° for the week. The hotel was nice and clean, the beds were nice and comfy, the wifi was strong, and the rooms were normal. If you hang a placard on your door that says you don't want your room cleaned, you get a $5 voucher for food/points every day so that's pretty neat.
The Cold
So we're from California, I realize that when it comes to chilly weather, we're more sensitive than others. But waking up freezing every morning in our hotel room was not fun. Getting out of bed was so uncomfortable. Early on in our stay, I asked the front desk if there was maybe a trick to the heater (we had it at 32°C and were still cold) or if maybe our heater was broken. The front desk suggested a humidifier (which we already had brought up to the room) and then said it helps to keep the curtains closed to trap the heat. She also said she'd send someone up the next day to check on it and see if it may have been broken. Now I have no idea whether or not that ever happened since no one ever talked to us about it again, but I couldn't believe that in order to get warm in a nice hotel, we'd have to live in darkness and close off our view of the city. Nevertheless we tried closing the curtains all day and night, which (surprise!) didn't work. We wanted that "Ah" feeling when we came in from the cold, but it wasn't like that at all; it was just less cold than outside. "Maybe hotels in Canada are just all cold and we're babies", I thought. But we happened to walk into the Sheraton down the street, where the lobby was warm, cozy, and actually decorated for Christmas. For a higher end hotel, I expected the Westin to at least have warm rooms when it's cold as butt outside.
The Room
They were pretty nice, normal rooms. Comfy bed, desk, TV, dressers. The beds don't have a fitted sheet, so you have to re-cover the mattress when you wake up if you move in your sleep. Since the cold was an issue, we ended up taking showers to warm up. A bath would've been nicer, but wouldn't you know it, the rooms don't have bathtubs. Oh, and only one outlet in the room worked, and it was being used by the humidifier and light. Good thing we brought our own external battery chargers!
The Staff
Every single one of the staff who didn't work at the front desk was amazing. I've never met friendlier maids at a hotel and every staff member who brought anything up to our room was nice, funny, and so helpful. We used our vouchers at the end of our stay to order room service and I called the front desk beforehand just to make sure that the vouchers would cover not only the food, but all the taxes and fees involved. She told me it would be covered and we were good, so we went ahead and ordered. We got our food, Enzo brought it up and was super nice, and we're starting to eat when I get a call from room service saying that the voucher doesn't cover the fees and taxes and the money would just be added to our bill. I tried to tell her that the front desk lady had told me I'd be ok, but she didn't seem to care and was short with me. It was frustrating because it just seemed like the front desk never had it together throughout our stay and everyone seemed to tell us different things. This review almost went down to 2 stars, but Enzo came back up and apologized profusely for the mix up, even though it wasn't his fault at all! He even brought up a bowl of ice cream. That spoke volumes to us. The only time the front desk was at all helpful was when my dad went down to talk to them, and ONLY when they found out he was an SPG Member did they attempt to remedy any problems. If you pay extra to be a member, the staff will do their jobs well but if you aren't elite enough, you're out of luck at this hotel.
The Pool/ Lack of Jacuzzi
So there's a heated pool and small gym area on the top of the hotel with a cool view of the city. We couldn't figure out how else to get warm and relax, so we headed up to the pool. Now we were with a hockey team of 18 year old boys and knew the hotel was full of hundreds of teenagers so we obviously couldn't expect to be alone. Every time we went up, the pool was full of not teenage boys, but a bunch of little kids splashing and screaming. We know this is out of the hotel's control, but it would've been SO nice to have a jacuzzi to go relax in. We know there's a sauna, but my husband and I didn't want to sit and sweat in separate rooms. You would think a high end hotel in Canada would have a jacuzzi! But not even a bathtub.
I feel like my expectations weren't crazy. I just expected a warm building to walk into and sleep in while it's freezing outside. If you're booking high-end in Calgary, try the Sheraton.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)