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.