Phil Tomlinson

Review of The Westin Edmonton

In an age of quirky, fun places to stay for person...

In an age of quirky, fun places to stay for personal travel and intense competition for business travel, the Westin Edmonton feels like a bit of a relic.

Wonderful front desk staff are let down on numerous fronts. The loaner workout gear program is a great idea for business travelers, but it either takes upwards of an hour to arrive, or, simply never does without repeated prompting - hardly conducive to getting in a quick workout in between afternoon meetings and dinner. The workout room and pool are small and dated, the air conditioning loud and the dining quite expensive.

Asking for your car to be brought around in the morning can take upwards of a quarter of an hour and calling down from your room well in advance often seems to not accomplish much.

My impression is that friendly, helpful frontline staff are let down by poor communication and planning by those higher up. There's a lot of potential here though and I remain optimistic that a few tweaks are all it would take to provide a great experience.