Tag: W hotel

W Hotel Atlanta Lives Up To ‘Whatever/Whenever’

Push this button for happiness at The W

Push this button for happiness at The W

Recently my friend Karen wrote a post here about not loving The W Hotel during her stay in Chicago. I was thinking about her while I attended the Blogalicious Conference, which was held in The W Atlanta Midtown.

Pretty much all of her gripes about The W are true.

  • The lobby and elevator are a hot, loud, rock ‘n’ roll mess of music and scenesters  — even more so the weekend I stayed there because the BET Awards were being held across the street. We saw quite a few “walk of shame” outfits. Ladies, those 5″ high shiny hooker heels, at 9:00 am, give you away every time.
  • The sliding door on the bathroom sucks. Forget sound privacy, it doesn’t even close all the way to give you visual privacy!
  • All that mood lighting = a freaking dark room. Forget trying to read anything or putting on makeup anywhere besides the (completely not private) bathroom. When I twittered that I forgot to take pix of the hotel for this review, a friend wrote back, “Turn off the lights in your bedroom at home and take a picture in the dark. It will look just like any W room!” So accurate!
  • The whole building was insanely hot. No matter what we did, it was impossible to get the A/C to kick in.

As your basic tourist, paying a couple hundred a night, it’s annoying.

But here’s the thing — I was there for business purposes. My social media agency was hosting an event in a suite during the conference, and the W kicked serious ass!

Cool decor, great space, and that Whatever/Whenever customer service rocked my world!

We dialed the Whatever/Whenever button at literally all hours of the day and night. They brought me scissors, a garment rack, extra hangers, another chair, more hangers, champagne glasses, more hangers, room service, extra napkins … I got the feeling that we really could ask for anything and they’d just make it happen.

We paid some big bucks for all of this service — a $20 tip makes even most inane request seem reasonable, right? — but in a business context it made absolute sense. Our event went off without a hitch, and it was worth every penny.

So do I recommend a W property for your next “girls trip” with your Mom and Aunt Mabel? Heck no!

But I definitely give them a high ranking for customer service and put them in my top 5 for places to throw a party or event.

Photo credit: C. Lincoln. Sorry for the poor quality, but it was TOO DARK to get a better shot.

W Hotel Lounge at Bryant Park: Fashion Week Hot Spot

Living Room Bar, W Hotel Times Square New York

Living Room Bar, W Hotel Times Square New York

You know how cool the bar scene is at the W?

No, I don’t need to specific which city, because they’re all uber-cool. From LA to Sydney, Australia, to Bryant Park, New York City.

The W is so cool that they can set up a lounge in a tent, at Fashion Week, (a.k.a. the epi-center of cool) and still create that dark, euro-bar ambiance, complete with Mickey Rourke breaking morals clauses in a corner. And balance it with Rachel Bilson bringing the class quotient right back up to spectacular in another corner.

How badly do you want to be there, right?

One of the talents of the W team is the ability to create a mood with music. They value this aspect of their brand so much that they just hired runway and music-show programmer Michaelangelo L’Acqua, to be their music director.

According to USA Today, L’Acqua has been hired to build relationships between the hotel chain and the music industry. One thing we can probably anticipate is lots of celebrity musician sightings at W lounges around the world. Let’s hope that also means more  Celebrity Hotel of the Week missives (written by the celebutastic Karl Erikson) starring various W Hotels!

Starwood Hotel Deal: Stay 2 Nights, Get 1 Free for Summer!

Four Points Sheraton in New York City

Four Points Sheraton in New York City

I came across this blog this morning as I was looking for deals, and it’s a pretty good one. Starwood Hotels (the brand that has W and Sheraton hotels) is offering a stay two nights, get one night free deal anytime from May 1 through July 31. The really great part about this deal is that that the two nights that you stay do not have to be piggy-backed. So, you can stay one night at a W in Atlanta and another night at a Sheraton in San Diego, and then you’ve easily earned a free weekend night at any Starwood hotel!

The free night can be used through September 2009, so there’s plenty of time to use it. And the best part? There are no (really!) blackout dates! You do have to sign up for the Starwood Preferred Guest program, but that’s free and easy to do as well. There are no limits to how many of the free nights you rack up, either, so start booking today!

Here are some Starwood hotels in Atlanta, San Diego, New York and San Francisco:

San Diego, California

Westin San Diego

Four Points by Sheraton

Atlanta, Georgia

W Atlanta Midtown

The Westin Buckhead

New York City, New York

W Times Square

Four Points Manhattan Chelsea

San Francisco

Le Meridien

Palace Hotel

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