The Westin Melbourne — Hotel in Melbourne

I stayed here for 5 nights and found the hotel to be in one of the best areas of Melbourne. You are right near Federation Square, the Yarra River, Southbank and many restaurants and shops in Melbourne.

ROOMS: I was upgraded to a deluxe city view room which was a nice large size. It had a flat screen TV, work desk with outlets nearby and a comfy bed with nice pillows. Lots of closet space and hangers for my clothes, plus an iron/board. Sadly there are no available outlets by the bedside. The city-view rooms are quite noisy however as they overlook Swanston street which is bustling with activity beginning very early in the AM.

BATHROOM: Bathroom was a nice size and had a separate shower and tub with a nice rainfall shower head. They offered a nice shaving mirror but were lacking a scale. The lighting in the bathroom was darkish and could be improved.

FACILITIES: They have a pretty lobby with comfortable seating and it also has a bar area. There is a nice balcony where you can sit and watch the passers by. They have a gym and pool both of which are super nice - although there were no gym towels when I arrived. Mid-workout I noticed housekeeping bringing some new towels by.

SERVICE: I'll start with the positive... the concierge and the doormen/women are very nice and friendly. However, the front desk personnel leave a lot to be desired. They are unfriendly and unhelpful. I found I had to pull teeth to get any answers from them, and certainly never received a smile at all during my 5 days. That's hard to pull off imo. I did my best to avoid them as much as possible so they didn't take away from what was otherwise a very nice stay.

PLATINUM RECOGNITION: The platinum recognition at this property leaves a lot to be desired. They really need to improve in this regard. 1- 2 free mini bottles of water offered daily. So basically one normal size bottle of water provided courtesy of the hotel. Really? This is the best you can offer? 2- Free Internet - it was fast and free. 3- You must give up your Platinum amenity to get breakfast. The breakfast is a full buffet breakfast and has an omelette station and fresh fruits, but not any things on offer at the "hot station" . I expect more from a Westin and certainly ore if you're going to take away my Platinum amenity to get it. 4- I did not receive a suite upgrade nor any mention of a suite upon arrival. I was upgraded to a deluxe room and it was nice. Still, a suite is preferred especially when they are available. 5- There is no club lounge at this property but they do have a lovely lobby bar. So why not offer Platinums a drink at it? Nope nothing. 6- And finally, at checkout they tried to bill me for breakfast, which of course is annoying since I'm a Platinum and shouldn't be charged. At least this was the only friendly front desk person I met my whole trip and she happily and quickly removed the charge.

Overall I enjoyed my stay at this Westin and will come back. But I hope they figure out how to treat Platinums a but better and now know I'm to avoid the front desk with any questions. I'll just ask the...

This is one of the nicer Westin Hotels I've been at worldwide. I had an opportunity for just a one night stay after an overnight flight from the U.S. The airport area is quite boring and underserved, so if you have even a 1 day layover, it's worth the 30-40 minute transit into Melbourne to enjoy the city, have a nice dinner and relax at this Westin. I was at this Westin about 6 years prior for a several night stay, so I knew what to expect in terms of location and features. I was not disappointed. As before, I enjoyed the prime location in CBD, walkability to many attractions, restaurants and accessibility to the tram system. The lobby and other public areas are well maintained, modern and convenient. Service levels and friendliness of staff were professional. My room was spacious, and on a higher floor, having received a nice upgrade due to my Lifetime Platinum status, The furnishings were in good condition. All in all, a clean, modern and convenient hotel. There were a couple of minor problems. The shower controls were very difficult to operate, to the point where I had to call the front desk to figure out how they worked. Apparently, this is a well known issue to the staff because I was informed that the handle was very tight and I had to apply a lot of pressure to get it to turn on. One would think that they'd just fix it, rather than having guests jumping out of the shower to call the front desk! As other reviewers have noted, the breakfast could use improvement. I don't understand why Starwood forces Platinum members to give up their point amenity in a trade-off for breakfast, but that is how they do it. Given that, it would be nice to feel like value was delivered. I arrived at breakfast just a few minutes after it had begun, and hot dishes, including eggs were absent. I asked and was told they were on the way, but after 20 minutes were still not available. Thinking back, I don't believe I ever got eggs that morning, since I had to keep to a schedule for my flight. I wouldn't have wanted to linger anyway, since the room itself was ice cold and very unpleasant. I saw one table leave because of it, and at another the husband went back to the room to get sweaters for he and his wife. I toughed it out enough to get cereal and a cup of coffee (poor quality), and left. There is no club lounge at this hotel, which is a somewhat surprising gap, and no offer of a complimentary drink in the lobby bar. That also seems like a big miss since I'm sure additional revenue would be created for the hotel if they got guests to visit the lobby bar with the offer of 1 free drink. Not withstanding these minor annoyances, I would stay at this Westin again. The location is superb, and the clean modern design of the hotel is a...

Stayed here a couple of months ago and it was excellent, but unfortunately my most recent stay a few days ago was a different experience. At check in, the room I wanted took 3 hours to be available (since I requested a specific room type I was happy to wait), but when I got to the room it was the wrong one. The staff over the phone were pretty uninterested and when I mentioned the specifics of the room I asked for they seemed not to care / know what I was talking about. After waiting another 45 minutes I got the correct room.

Some issues with the room:

-The roller blind stopped working twice (so could not open onto the balcony at all). They did fix it the first time, the second time I was leaving that day so just left it closed.

-The first night, I noticed the bed smelled odd (a bit like stale b.o), I assume the linen would have been changed before my stay but it didn't smell like it, so the next day I put the 'request for fresh linen' card on the bed. The smell was still there the next night. I also noticed that there were makeup stains all over a pillow case - gross! I ended up just sleeping on top of the cover on the bed instead to block out the stale b.o smell.

-The shower dripped the whole time. Not a huge deal, but sort of added to the disappointment of the stay this time around.

Finally, at check-out the staff member was quite surly and unhelpful. I was surprised when she mentioned there was a breakfast charge for one day as I never had breakfast during the stay. I queried whether it was room service or at their restaurant (hoping if she checked into it she would see it was a mistake) and she just sullenly said 'it just says Breakfast Charge'. I kept asking more and she just repeated: 'it just says Breakfast Charge' in an annoyed voice. Eventually they took that charge off but she did not apologise or explain what happened and was increasingly hostile. Even from the start she did not make eye contact and was disinterested and rude. I have stayed here a few times and this staff member is by far the worst in terms of attitude and service, I felt so uncomfortable. This is almost enough to make me not want to visit this hotel again by the off chance I will have to check in or check out with her. She also rolled her eyes when I elected not to donate the $1 to charity (an optional part of your bill when you check out. Well, seemingly optional, but if you don't, some staff may roll their eyes at you).

I do understand the overwhelmingly good reviews as I have stayed here before and had been very impressed, it just seems you may be...