The Westin Playa Bonita Panama — Hotel in Veracruz

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Equals Food Poisoning

My family and I stayed at the Westin Playa Bonita for 5 nights to celebrate a birthday. The hotel is beautiful, and the staff were amazing. The maids and other staff members were friendly and attentive. The room was beautifully appointed. We had a balcony room which faced the ocean. Every day we would watch the ships line up to enter the Panama Canal. The ladies at the Spa were just awesome. We enjoyed the pool and all of the folks working in the pool area. Our reservation included breakfast and lunch as a result of the July 4th special. However, the food was horrible! On our first day, we arrived around lunch time and ended up having to pay for lunch. We chose to eat from the buffet for a charge of 33 dollars. The quality of the food was terrible. It did not look appealing, but because we were hungry, we decided we would eat there and then choose from one of several restaurants at the hotel for our dinner. Well, at dinner time there was only one restaurant open and that was the StarFish. The food served at dinner was the exact same thing that we had for lunch. Each day the foods were the exact same items but prepared in various forms. Despite having several restaurants on site, only one opened up at a time. The same staff and the same foods are moved to the one restaurant that is open. Each day the food lacked visual appeal and tasted like garbage. They did not serve even a decent salad!! On the 3rd day, I ordered A La Carte and that was when my problem began. The burger I ordered for dinner tasted delicious, but by the time I could make it back to my room I had developed stomach problems. Each day after that, I was sick, so I started eating bread and drinking milk for breakfast. Then my daughter started feeling queasy. By the time we checked out of the hotel, both my daughter and I were feeling sick. We left the Westin and went to the Sheraton where we stayed in our room for 3 days. The day after leaving the Westin, I was so sick I ended up in the emergency room with a bill for over 400.00 and 4 prescriptions. I was diagnosed with food poison. My daughter was not as ill, but continued to feel queasy. We ordered food at the Sheraton, and we could see the contrast in the quality and freshness of the food. The food at the Sheraton was superior to that of the Westin. By the time we left Panama we were both ill. My daughter became ill on the flight back to the states and began throwing up mid-flight. Once we landed in Miami, she continued to be ill. I feel that the food served at the Westin was not fresh and was of poor quality and possibly recycled! I believe that they served leftovers from a period of several days. I also believe that there is no chef on staff. Pay attention to the reviews about the food! During the weekdays, there were never more than 10 people dining at one time. On our last days there, which was a Saturday, we counted 20 people dining for breakfast. For a hotel this massive, with over 600 rooms and fully booked, that was a sign that we should have picked up on. In addition to the horrible food, for several days, I was presented with a bill for our meals and each day they had to get a supervisor to verify that meals were included in my room rate. Finally on the 4th day, I had the hostess go with me to the front desk to verify that meals were included. I did a review on the Marriott website, but of course they did not post it. I also sent email messages to both management at the Westin Playa Bonita and a complaint to the Marriott Corporation asking for reimbursement for the money I paid out for the emergency services. Of course, I have not heard from the corporate office or management regarding my request. What a nightmare this was. My advice is stay at the Westin, just don't...

We paid for was an Ocean front suite with loud music played at extreme decibels the first four nights driving us off the ocean front balcony

There were nightly strobe lights flashing on our balcony and suite windows.The constant flashing forcing us to spend our time in the bedroom while the resort hosted yet another money-making reception! The lights were so disruptive we could not watch a movie on TV in the main living area!

Guest security protocols are completely ignored and one is asked for a room number and last name loudly from the club floor lounge to restaurants and the gift shop anyone can over hear this private information!

It was no surprise to us that on check out there were charges from the bars and the gift shop, all charged to our room and none of them ours!

To get a replacement room key to our room – All we needed was the room number and our last name

Frighteningly disconcerting how guest security is ignored

Mentioning the issues to the general manager and the front desk manager garnered the flippant response of “Thanks for the Feedback” – Interpreted as “we have your money and could care less, as we are a high turnover resort and there are other guests lined up to take your place

On departure we called twice over a 30-minute period for someone to help with our bags & still no one showed up.

I had to lug all our bags along with my disabled husband down stairs to check out on our own.

At the check out counter, we could only bottle our dismay when the person behind the counter remarked “Oh” when told the story of no one coming to help with the bags – And why should the hotel or staffs care, they had our money and we were leaving!

No need to assist us off the property, we have their money, so guests can get themselves off the property attitude!

One day the hotel decided to close down the largest pool for cleaning. We would watch as they pressure washed the area around the pool, washing the dirt into the pool and then being vacuumed from the bottom of the pool – no night maintenance program, only a day time regular inconvenience to the paying guests program!

Around 12:30 PM the cleaning stopped, yet the yellow tape closing off the entire pool remained.

Around 4:30 PM we inquired and apparently someone forgot to take the tape down.

Before and after the cleaning we would observe a bandage stuck to the side of the pool for six more days along with garbage and a rotting apple core (See Photo’s)

We would return to the suite minutes after housekeeping had cleaned the suite finding the shampoo container empty mid shower & the toilet paper holder hanging empty (See Photo)

The buffet breakfast was a mix of uncooked runny gross eggs, empty food dishes & pushing and shoving as patrons jockeyed for food

Staffs appeared helpless and disinterested in controlling this disgrace or even putting out more food – Not to worry management had every one’s money, so let the stampeders fight it out in some sort of barbaric survival of the fittest complicity!

At the starfish grill, not one morning did they get our order right and two mornings we were forced to share one order as one of us did not get a meal!

The first day we attempted to go to the gym only to find four of the five treadmills out of order - The gym equipment remained out of order our entire stay!

No we will never again stay at this blight to the...

My boyfriend and I booked an all inclusive trip to the Westin Playa Bonita Panama. We paid over $6000 for a 7 day stay. The first few days were good, all meals were served buffet style in a restaurant type setting. On the third day we noticed a lot of people from 3 different conventions. That evening, we headed to the lobby for dinner, we noticed that the doors to the buffet were closed. We had to ask the front desk where dinner would be served. We were notified it would be outside. We then saw tables outside with place settings of eight. This was frustrating as a party of two we weren’t too keen on sitting with six random people. We asked if it was possible to take dinner to our room, we were then provided take out boxes. We started going through the buffet to find empty plates and what was left was cold as there were no burners underneath some of the plates to keep the warm. As per outlines posted all around the hotel, dinner is served 5pm to maybe 9pm, we attended around 6pm. So to find no food or cold food only after an hour was infuriating. We left our take out boxes and having no other option we ordered room service which of course is an additional charge. It took 15 minutes to get through to someone to be able to order, 40 minutes to receive the food, then 30 minutes to get change back as I paid in cash. I also had to call the front desk to notify them I was still waiting on change. The night after this, same thing. No food or cold food. We spoke to a supervisor at the front desk this time, the response we got was “Okay, I’ll let food service know.” Again, we were very angry with this and didn’t have dinner that night as we did not want to pay for room service again or attend one of the three restaurants at the hotel considering we paid a pretty penny for an all inclusive trip. The night after this, the same thing. No food or cold food. This time, we heard others saying that everything was empty. It seems as the kitchen cannot keep up with multiple conventions at a time plus regular guests. Nor is it fair for the hotel to favour the conventions when there are other people who paid a lot to be there. We again, spoke to the front desk but were not so kind. They offered us a complimentary pizza. We waited 30 minutes for this and when it arrived it was partially frozen still. The cheese wasn’t even melted. On our final day, we went to the front desk again, finally someone grabbed Linda Ortiz who we believe is the manager. We explained everything, she was apologetic. She took our emails and phone numbers and told us she would be in contact either that evening or the next morning. It is now 3 days later and still nothing. For future they should notify regular guests that dinner will be including the convention guests or separate them so that the regular guests are still accommodated and still receiving good service. If we had known this we would have went to one of the restaurants later on instead of spending money right from the beginning. We would appreciate a partial refund for the three dinners that were supposed to be included but couldn’t even be provided and a refund for the room service we had to order because of the inconvenience. But we are doubting it will happen. Therefore, it is very easy for us to say, we will not be staying at the Westin Playa Bonita Panama again or even...