The Westin South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa — Hotel in Costa Mesa

Let's start with the positives: The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful (although they couldn't help address our specific grievances, they did try). The hotel is pet friendly, and doesn't even charge a fee (very hard to find these days). There are plenty of amazing places to exercise a dog nearby. The beds are very very comfortable. We did not swim but the pool looked amazing - very clean and welcoming. We did not use the exercise room but it looked busy (busy but not full) and had a great view (overlooked the pool). The catering for my friends’ wedding and the breakfast buffet the morning after was amazing – the wait staff was so incredibly accommodating. Though I wouldn’t recommend you stay at this hotel, if you need an event catered they sure do a fantastic job (though I don’t know how the pricing is). On to the negatives: The first impression of the room was disappointing. Our dog sniffed out an old crusty piece of chicken that someone had jammed under a chair (housekeeping must not have found it). Because it didn’t stink we merely threw it away instead of requesting a new room. On day 2 of our stay we saw and killed a beetle in the room (I don’t think it was a roach but we didn’t let it live long enough to find out). Again, nothing to call the desk about, but up on the third floor I wouldn’t expect that bugs should be that common. Parking is more expensive than it should be. If you don’t know the price, call in advance to find out, as it is a pretty significant daily charge to park on the top level of a ramp that is about a block or more away from the front door. They couldn’t seem to coordinate between the ramp and the front desk. For 6 exits during our 2 night stay, they had to call the front desk every time to verify they could charge it to our room (we gave them our key cards but apparently that wasn’t enough). We did discuss this with the front desk and they gave us new cards in an attempt to alleviate the issue, but by then we were already at the end of our stay. The internet is not worth the money. The connection is incredibly slow, and they “bundled” our internet with our parking which didn’t make it any cheaper because they insisted on charging us for our entire stay instead of simply the days we used the internet. If I had known this in advance I wouldn’t have been so frustrated, but I received mixed messages from the front desk staff when I gave them the ok to bundle it with the parking. From what I was told when we signed up, we would only be charged the bundle rate for the days we used the internet. Upon checkout I was told the bundle price is for your entire stay. The rooms are in dire need of an update. The carpet was dark, stained and damp. The curtains took some serious muscle to close (they jammed on the track). The windows were dirty. The bathroom was dated. The lobby carpet was stained near the elevators (very noticeable). The elevators were old, clunky, and the paneling / mirror was pulled out in one or more of them (seemed a repair or replacement was never completed). A room in our hallway had a tray of dirty dishes sitting outside the door for over 12 hours. We saw housekeeping in the hallway during the 12 hours and figured they would pick it up, but they didn’t. Upon check out we saw an “honor bar” charge and asked what that was for (we hadn’t touched the bar). We were told it was for the bottled water in the room. There are 2 bottles of water left in your room. Be aware that one of them is complementary and the other is charged. We merely looked at the label on one bottle and saw “complementary” and assumed they were both free, even though the 2 labels SAID different things but LOOKED exactly the same. It was a small charge but the principle of the thing bothered us. It seemed sneaky to have the labeling look so similar. Our own fault for not reading both labels but I don’t make a habit of reading every label on every little thing they leave in the room, especially when the first label we read said “complementary.”

All in all, if we hadn’t been there for a friend’s wedding, there is no way we would have stayed through the duration of our reservation. We were pretty consistently disappointed with our experience. This hotel is not worth the price tag until it does some serious updates to the rooms and improves the internet speed. I’m staying in a lower quality hotel right now for much less, with high speed internet, free parking, a fridge, microwave, etc. It seems the more you pay the...

Redeemed Bonvoy certs & stayed 2 nights (Fri & Sat) in June '22. Very nice hotel but could not ignore glaring (-)s.

(+) THESE ARE AS EXPECTED FOR A PRICEY 4-STAR HOTEL: Excellent service (in person & on their app) Large clean modern rooms, large work desk, plenty of USB & power ports Large clean comfortable modern beds Large clean modern bathroom, shower robe, plenty of towels Free highspeed wi-fi & good connections 3p check-in, 12p check-out No scheduled cleaning ladies (nice update to a disruptive service - just request when actually needed) Clean, safe, easy parking in large adjacent building Overnight parking includes the next full day - after checkout on last day, just leave vehicle parked until you're ready to leave area Mini fridge & programmable safe Large flatscreen (many streaming options included) Plenty of shelving, closet space, ottoman stools, reading loveseat 24hr gym, pool open to 10p, restaurant, Starbucks cafe, cabana & rec area (ping pong, floor chess) Clean modern hotel inside, with quiet safe, clean, walkable areas outside Close to many eateries within driving distance Walking distance to SCP mall over a nice bridge (there's a high end steakhouse in front of hotel - for affordable & more relaxed option, walk over bridge to Claim Jumper)

(-) THESE WERE BIG DISAPPOINTMENTS FOR A PRICEY 4-STAR HOTEL:

Expensive restaurant, limited hours & menu, no lunch (forcing guests to go elsewhere) Limited breakfast menu options, no basic breakfast buffet such as eggs, sausages etc (forcing guests to go elsewhere) Starbucks cafe has limited hours, limited breakfast options, no lunch Expensive parking ($39 overnight, $9 hourly - these are airport prices but airport parking is limited), parking structure had multiple empty floors and should not be so expensive High fee for redeeming Bonvoy certs, with a bunch of other misc fees Carpeted rooms.. really? Many 4-Star hotels converted carpet to faux wood YEARS ago. Why the dirty, dust-mite & bacteria attracting, asthma causing carpet? Even MOTEL-6 has converted to faux wood! Microwave had to be requested, front desk forgot initial request, I had to request again (with limited restaurant options especially for breakfast & lunch, at least provide a microwave without so much trouble) My profile preference is for high floors, but I got a room on the 5th floor next to elevator The app's virtual key does not work in elevator, making it basically useless because you have to carry the physical key for it Tiny gym with tiny weights area & missing dumbbells (a 4-Star hotel should have a gym at least twice the size) No hot tub, sauna, or steam room (there should be at least one of these options) Heated pool was barely heated, and should open to midnight (considering there was a wedding party in the large tent next to the pool blasting their music past the pool's closing time) The massive cabana & rec areas had so much unused wasted space.. large gatherings are likely less nowadays than pre-pandemic; the wasted space should convert to provide a larger gym, hot tub, sauna, or steam room, which will be used more often.. in fact, during my stay the gym got crowded on Sunday & pool area was frequently used & I was asked multiple times by other guests who were looking for the hot tub

The (-)s got irritating & would cause me to choose another hotel that doesn't have these drawbacks (there are many & they don't need to cover all of the (+)s either). I was going to give the rating 3 stars, but upped it to 4 stars due to the great service. Overall, it is a very nice hotel & I will stay there again but with slight hesitations due to the (-)s, especially if I can find...

I booked this hotel because of my loyalty to Starwood, especially the Westin brand. I read mixed reviews about the hotel, but I thought it would be ok since the weekends are less busy here, so the staff could be more attentive.

The lobby was nice, consistent with other Westin hotels I've been to. There was a tree around the back with cute gift boxes underneath from different stores at the mall. The check in process went smoothly. I didn't have to wait since I arrived late at night. I don't think I got an upgrade, but I usually don't when I check in late in the day.

The room was pretty standard, but not as recently renovated as I prefer, but still within my expectations. The first thing that was weird was that the shampoo and lotion bottles in the bathroom looked used, they weren't filled up nearly as much as the conditioner or body wash! I brought my own toiletries, but still found that weird. The illuminated ring around the shaving mirror was out too, but I was too settled in to call for the bulb to be replaced.

I don't bother packing toothpaste or a razor when I stay at hotels, so I called down for those. I didn't think there'd be a long wait at this time of day, but I must have waited over 30 minutes after I was told it would be sent up! I wouldn't care if it weren't so late already, but I was hoping to get to sleep by the time the toothpaste arrived. When the toothpaste arrived, I experienced another mishap. I was too short for the peephole to see who was at the door! I'll admit I'm short - 5'1", but I couldn't see through it even on my tiptoes.

When I finally got to go to bed, I found out that only one side of the bed is close to any accessible power outlets. I thought all Westins had the nighstand lamps that have 2 outlets on the base, but this one didn't. My fiance and I had to choose who would get the outlet side.

The bed was great. I slept pretty well during my stay. The only annoyance I ran into there was that the sheet wasn't properly put on the bed. The bottom of the fitted sheet wasn't completely pulled down in one corner so by the middle of the night, I could feel the mattress or mattress pad (not sheets) under my feet. Obviously I wasn't going to turn on the lights to fix the sheets at this point, so I just fixed it the next day.

The next morning when I took a shower, I loved the water pressure. If anything, it might have been too high, but it wasn't adjustable. Unfortunately, the shower drain didn't work as well as the water pressure, so the water started flooding around my feet and I had to speed up my shower. Aesthetically, the shower was unappealing as well. It had outdated small square tiles, some of which were chipped. There was nowhere to hang towels to dry besides the hook on the back of the bathroom door, which can really only hold one towel if you want it to dry. I know I could have just called for new towels for my next shower, but I don't like to be...