The Westin Riverfront Mountain Villas, Beaver Creek Mountain — Hotel in Avon

Arrived, no valet. Dragged the bags in myself. Got convoluted instructions how to self-park that made my eyes gloss over as she just kept talking. It wasn’t that complicated. No mention of Bonvoy benefits at all.|Getting into my room, there was a dirty napkin from a prior guest left hanging in the shower.|I asked for housekeeping. They showed up and took the napkin away, didn’t even make a show of actually cleaning the bathroom.|Bed was definitely not the “heavenly bed”- mattress was old and worn and I woke up multiple times every night with hip pain despite letting guest services know after the first night. They just put 2 comforters down under the fitted sheet- no other solutions offered in this near-empty hotel (like changing room, changing mattress).|Hair dryer doesn’t work, intermittently blows hot and cold. At that point, I didn’t bother calling again to ask to fix that too.|Was put in the villas where the smell of cooking and fried meat from neighboring units fills your unit and can’t help but seep into your clothes.|Coffee shop is closed, market is closed, restaurant is closed except for an a la carte breakfast- none of this is outlined on the web site so you wouldn’t know that when booking.|No mention of my [lifetime] platinum benefits when checking in despite attaching my number to the reservation. So got none.|On the last night, I called to ask where I could eat because even the pool restaurant was closed that day and was told repeatedly by an agent (with someone whispering to her in the background very obviously) to look up the website for the restaurants, and my only option is the lobby bar. The website given shows the lobby bar hours until 10pm and does not say anything about the kitchen closing before that. So I arrived at 9:15. And was told the kitchen had closed and to try in-room dining.|In-room dining had also closed at 9 except salads and sandwiches. And adds 22% to each bill plus a 6$ delivery fee|After everything, I finally got upset on my last night there, I was starving, having eaten only a couple of granola bars because I spent a good part of the day in a sales pitch for the residences that I genuinely considered but finally declined.|I spoke to “service express” whose attitude was clearly that it’s not their problem (though they were the one who sent me to the website that said the place was open til 10 and served food). No acceptance of any responsibility. I asked for the manager- similarly no accountability or care. I was told I could try Domino’s pizza.|I have a health problem and this trip was made to try to help as a “wellness” getaway…with all the attention to “wellness” they advertise. Domino’s pizza isn’t even a possibility for me, but they clearly didn’t care why I might have been concerned in the first place.|Last night ruined with zero effort to try to help or even figure out how to make amends for their mistake-much less take responsibility for it. They just shifted blame to another department as if that makes a difference to my vacation experience.|I used to come to this resort years ago ( 5) and now I remember why I hadn’t been back- zero customer service, despite the great location. Bad enough to make the location irrelevant. . The attitude has always been that the staff are shift workers with no investment in the property or the experience in general and even less concern for yours. The answer to everything had always been to ‘do it yourself’, with indifference. Nothing’s changed except the mattresses are more worn out than 6-7y ago (and not changed) and the appliances are similar. |They apparently don’t do much to clean the bathrooms between guests, they don’t think it’s important to let guests know what facilities are open or closed when booking, they aren’t interested in honoring Bonvoy status and they don’t show any interest in taking responsibility and addressing their own misinformation or troubleshooting. Their only ‘solution’ is to have you pay a mark-up in price and service charge as well as additional fee because of their mistake, or ‘figure it out’ elsewhere after outside restaurants are already closed. |Best part is the laughter in the background on the call with the front-of-house manager overnight- like giggling high-schoolers are running the hotel. Being overtly ridiculed when calling with a complaint only adds to the aggravation. And I paid for the honor of being treated this way by employees half my age?||The service is unchanged, and given long experience with hospitality and years as titanium and ambassador elite status [before an accident slowed my travel temporarily], this usually is a reflection on the manager who feels this level of ‘service’ is acceptable at their property. Unprofessional, giggling high-schoolers who don’t take responsibility for their mistakes and don’t show any concern for the guest experience at all.|Thank goodness I didn’t buy into their points ownership program, which includes properties with this level of “care”. |Judge for yourself if you want to spend luxury-level money for a hotel that doesn’t match what it represents...

We have stayed at this property several times before and love the hotel! It has the best gym in the area, a lovely lobby and excellent dining options. It is ski on/off but the gondola takes you to a transfer place, the hotel is actually not on the mountain but right center in-the town of Avon. However, on this off season visit in September we traded our time share in Cancun to stay in a studio apartment in the villas. We did have a nice time; our studio room had a lovely view of the river and mountain, a nice balcony, and a nice river trail with access right from the property. I would give 5 stars and actually do rate the hotel 5 stars and perhaps the very best Westin in the chain. BUT the villas are not actually attached to the hotel, one has to exit onto the street and walk through the public gondola plaza to access the hotel, or walk through the underground maze of a garage to get from villa to hotel. This might not sound like a big deal, but I felt it rather “ghetto” to walk onto the street and gondola area in my bathrobe to get to the gym and hot tubs. Meanwhile, the sales gallery for timeshares, of which they have none for sale at this property, has prime ground floor space and an outdoor deck with fire pits and chairs that are not part of the villas, just for fake show for potential buyers. What a waste!! Important to note; the villa building (unlike other Westin hotel/villas) has no facilities of its own, not its own hot tub, no pool, not a single outdoor lounge. I guess they feel the hotel is close enough, and yet there is no path to take between. On the other hand, in winter we would likely be thrilled to have an apartment kind of sort of connected to the hotel ski in ski off. My point is that I will return to this hotel but...

We have stayed at this property several times before and love the hotel! It has the best gym in the area, a lovely lobby and excellent dining options. It is ski on/off but the gondola takes you to a transfer place, the hotel is actually not on the mountain but right center in-the town of Avon. However, on this off season visit in September we traded our time share in Cancun to stay in a studio apartment in the villas. We did have a nice time; our studio room had a lovely view of the river and mountain, a nice balcony, and a nice river trail with access right from the property. I would give 5 stars and actually do rate the hotel 5 stars and perhaps the very best Westin in the chain. BUT the villas are not actually attached to the hotel, one has to exit onto the street and walk through the public gondola plaza to access the hotel, or walk through the underground maze of a garage to get from villa to hotel. This might not sound like a big deal, but I felt it rather “ghetto” to walk onto the street and gondola area in my bathrobe to get to the gym and hot tubs. Meanwhile, the sales gallery for timeshares, of which they have none for sale at this property, has prime ground floor space and an outdoor deck with fire pits and chairs that are not part of the villas, just for fake show for potential buyers. What a waste!! Important to note; the villa building (unlike other Westin hotel/villas) has no facilities of its own, not its own hot tub, no pool, not a single outdoor lounge. I guess they feel the hotel is close enough, and yet there is no path to take between. On the other hand, in winter we would likely be thrilled to have an apartment kind of sort of connected to the hotel ski in ski off. My point is that I will return to this hotel but...