The Westin Grand Frankfurt — Hotel in Frankfurt

All I can say is wow. Not once have I ever experienced service as bad as I have from the Westin Frankfurt.

This is a long post warning - but a story that needs telling. Here is my story:

I was recently slated to check in to the Westin Frankfurt, on Friday, June 23rd. Unfortunately, due to unexpected work events, I was not able to make it to Frankfurt as planned. On the evening of Wednesday, June 21st, I utilized the chat feature within the Marriott app to reach out to the Westin Frankfurt to confirm the cancellation policy on my booking. I directly asked if I would be charged based on my booking, if I cancelled the reservation.

The response that I received was that if I cancel by 11:59 PM local time, the day prior to check-in, I would not be charged. I cancelled my reservation, the following morning of June 22nd, at around 5:00AM, well ahead of the 11:59 PM deadline.

A few days later, I noticed that I was charged the full amount of the stay on my credit card, so I quickly called the customer service number on the Marriott Website. I spoke to an individual that day, who explained that he would open a dispute and that I would receive a communication within 48 hours. After 48 hours, I called back as there had been no follow up - and I again explained the situation to a new customer service agent. She indicated that the 48 hours quoted was inaccurate and that I would receive a confirmation of refund within 3-5 days.

After 5 days, I again called back and spoke to now a third customer service agent. I again explained the situation regarding the chat and confirmation that I would not be charged, and the agent went on to tell me that the booking was non-refundable. She then put me on hold, came back, and confirmed that my reservation was indeed refundable. She indicated that she would open up a new inquiry and that I would receive confirmation within 3-5 business days.

My response to the new inquiry being opened was that there was no new information presented, and that I did not see a need to continue to open new inquiries in a circular manner. She agreed, and called the hotel in question (Westin Frankfurt). After being put on hold - she came back and claimed that the Westin had already emailed me their decision not once, but three separate times - which is completely false. I received my first email from the Westin today, at 12:11 PM CT, from an individual named Tania Ledermann indicating that they would not refund me. This to me, was a clear fallacy, as I have received emails from the Westin Frankfurt, so there is not a case of them not having the correct email address.

I was then transferred to a customer service supervisor, who indicated that all she could do is open a query with the hotel, and provide them the information. Again, I explained that I have provided the same information now to four separate customer service agents, and that there has been no new information provided. She informed me that this decision is in the hands of the Westin Frankfurt, so I kindly asked to be transferred to the Westin - which she responded that she could not do. She then abruptly hung up on me, as she stated that there was nothing she could do for me.

I then received an email from Tania Ledermann from the Westin that I would not be receiving a refund. I responded to Tania with the same information, stating that I confirmed with the hotel ahead of time and they themselves told me I would not be charged. I attempted to call the phone number listed on her email signature multiple times, which was routed as an "inactive" phone number. She then claimed that I "never called" and that I had never even used the chat feature, only to request a reimbursement - and accused me of making "false claims" against the hotel. This in fact, is false in itself - I never used the app to ask for a reimbursement, I called the customer support service number immediately.

I would rate this place a zero for service if I could. I was a long time Marriott Loyalty Customer....

We stayed in room 600 for 7 days, booked a room with club lounge benefits. We tried to check in about 2 hours early at around 1pm on a Sunday as our flight from USA to Frankfurt arrived around 12pm. The hotel room was not available until about 2:45pm. The lounge had plenty of coffee, drinks, soup, bread, fruits, cheeses even at 1pm. We used the lounge multiple times daily. The lounge has a very nice Asian lady with a pony tail (sorry I don’t recall her name) who kept the lounge fully stocked with food and drinks and meticulously cleaned up each table after usage. The lounge was open for about 13-14 hours every day of the week, including on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, unlike the Marriott brand hotel lounges in USA where they are closed for the weekends and holidays. The location of the hotel is outstanding! It is only a 2 minute walk to the nearest Aldi supermarket and only a 4 minute walk to the Konstablerwache train station which has access to multiple U lines (trains to various places in Frankfurt including the main Frankfurt train station, Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof) and S lines (trains to the Frankfurt Airport). The hotel is only 4 minutes walking distance to all the shops and restaurants of the Zeil (famous shopping street in the center of Frankfurt). The area immediately outside of the hotel felt safe. There were a couple of homeless folks near the Konstablerwache station. The hotel also has a gym, sauna, pool, and restaurants including an area that serves daily continental breakfast ( free continental breakfast was offered for Marriott Titanium members). If we were to return to Frankfurt, we would definitely stay at the Westin Grand Frankfurt again. The hotel is newly renovated. If I had to pick on something, I would say that the bathroom was a little small, only 1 person can fit in the bathroom each time and the water spilled out from the shower area onto the entrance of the bathroom (fall hazard) each time because the shower did not have a door. There was a rain shower and a handheld shower available. There was plenty of space in the room, with a closet, two tabletops for luggage unpacking, a round table with two chairs, and two bedside tables. There was also a nespresso coffee machine and a refrigerator provided. The hotel also provided two complimentary bottles of water...

The bad experience started with Check in. I arrived at 3:45pm and was told the room was not ready. Mind you this was on a Sunday afternoon where they had very low occupancy rate as they were offering special rates for that evening that was 50% of the standard rate. I opted to pay the full rate as I wanted a flexible rate. The lady at check in asked if I wanted to pay 20euro extra for an upgrade to a room 1 class higher. This came as an insult as I am Lifetime Gold and my boyfriend who stayed with me is Platinum and they asked us to pay for a small upgrade when it's their fault that the room was not ready well past the standard check-in time. So I refused and after some back and forth, I was given the room which was on the second floor, but it felt like a basement as it looked out to a terrace that is higher than the window, so you are underground. Next, after coming back from dinner, we really wanted to watch a movie. We had planned to go to the cinema, but thought we could order a movie in the room and be comfortable. The movie system did not work, so I called the service and found out that one of the phone was broken too. Finally they sent someone to the room to fix the TV issue, but no success. I called guest services again and they said to wait a few minutes as they tried to reset the movie system. 20 minutes later, the movie system still didn't work. We wasted now an hour trying to watch a movie. We finally gave up and decided to order a movie on Netflix and watch it on our ipad, but of course the wifi in the room was hardly working and super slow. So after 1 and half hour struggling trying to see a movie, we finally decided to go to bed. Mind you I usually adore the heavenly beds at Westins and even considered to buy one for my apartment. However, this is not the case in this Westin: the bed was way too hard and I slept terribly the whole night, The blanket was too heavy and too warm for the room as even with the heating off. It made the entire night extremely uncomfortable. In the morning, after I jumped in the shower, I noticed there was no shampoo provided in the bathroom, there were only conditioner, shower gel and body lotion, so I had to shower without shampoo.

All in all, this was one of the worst SPG stay I ever had in my 450+ nights spent in Starwood hotels...