Generally, I try not to write reviews unless I hav...

Generally, I try not to write reviews unless I have something positive to say. However, considering the reputation and price point of The Westin, I felt that I should say something about my experience.

The first thing I should mention is that my room was not ready until after 6 PM, over two hours after scheduled check-in. That's inconvenient, but I understand that these things happen. What's unacceptable is that the staff seemed totally unconcerned about the problem. Even knowing that I had an exhausted toddler who needed to rest, the front desk staff made no apologies, offered no compensation, and made no attempt to expedite the housekeeping process. On more than one occasion we were told that housekeeping was working on our room. Upon going up to the room, however, it was clear that no one was present. Only after compensation was demanded did the front desk offer free breakfast vouchers.

After checking in, we had ongoing issues with housekeeping throughout our stay. On the first day, housekeeping never arrived. On the second day, my wife politely asked for our room to be visited since it had not been cleaned the day before. She was told it would be taken care of, but again, no one came. On the third day, my wife was rather rudely brushed off when she made the same request a second time. The employee she spoke with didn't ask for or make any attempt to note our room number. I called the front desk and asked to request a specific window for a housekeeping visit since my toddler would be napping in the room. I was told that that would be fine, but housekeeping instead showed up in the middle of naptime, completely unaware of my request. My toddler woke up and that was the first and last time I ever saw housekeeping. We never even received fresh towels.

I want to be fair, so it's worth mentioning that the hotel is beautiful, the location is great, and there were several employees who genuinely cared about our experience. The bellhop staff was exceptional, patiently working with us to get loaded and unloaded and even offering complimentary bottled water for our drive home. We went by the hotel restaurant, The Reserve, a couple times and both times were met with friendly, helpful service.

If you're looking for a beachfront hotel, it's not that hard to find a tidy room and a good beach. When you book The Westin, it's probably because you're expecting a higher level of service than you'd find elsewhere. In this case, the staff couldn't deliver. Maybe we caught them on a bad week, but I can't help but feel that we could have gotten a comparable or perhaps better experience at a lower price point.