The Westin Galleria Houston — Hotel in Houston

We spent five nights at the Westin Galleria recently.

I’ll start with the (mostly) good – For a conference attendee, this should be a pretty good place. The conference facilities are pretty good and the location right above the Galleria is convenient. The guest rooms are mostly quiet. Maybe our wing was unoccupied, but we really didn’t hear anything from any of our neighbors. The self-parking is free – although you’ll have a little walk from the garage to the elevators. The wi-fi was pretty good for hotel wi-fi but be sure that you book through the hotel website or you’ll pay dearly for it. The elevators are quick and responsive.

The not so good – The hotel is really showing its age. The guest rooms are in desperate need of a makeover. Everything is beige or brown – the carpet, the wallpaper, the furniture, the tile in the bathroom, the artwork on the walls. The entire place is devoid of color. Our room also had several spots on the furniture and the mirror frame in the bathroom (really?) where the wood had been scratched or nicked and bare wood was showing through. The rooms have refrigerators in them, but there aren’t any microwaves. So, feel free to bring your leftovers back from dinner, but just don’t expect to eat them warm. The rooms can be pretty stuffy if the HVAC unit is off, so you might want to set the fan to continually run. Our bathtub didn’t drain properly. (No, I didn’t call and have it looked at because we avoid having people in our room when we aren’t there.) The in-room safe isn’t big enough for a larger laptop.

The other – Not directly related to the hotel, but we just really aren’t that impressed with the Galleria itself. It was just mostly crowded and felt dirty. The construction didn’t help matters any, but it just didn’t have much appeal. The food court is crowded and the noise from the music at the ice rink makes it extremely unappealing. Besides the Galleria, there isn’t much within walking distance. Lastly, prior to our stay I emailed the hotel a couple of times – one of them at the wecare@westin.com address – but never got any response. So, if you get a response to a review that says to email, don’t hold your breath waiting for a reply.

So – overall a “meh” from us. It could certainly be much more – especially at the regular rate for a room – but it...

The room and bathroom were clean and nicely laid out. The bed and bedding were really comfortable, which is something that Westin is known for. The valet staff deserve a special shout out because they were especially prompt, courteous, responsive and always helpful. I'd like to hope that they are paid well especially since the charge for valet parking is over $50/night. But just in case, we did our best to tip as well. I never carry cash these days but had to remember to get some solely for tipping valet and housekeeping. Speaking of, the housekeeping staff also deserve a mention because they went above and beyond to ensure that our room was serviced and supplied daily. The staff at the front desk were alright. Some where much nicer that others, which is typical of Marriot I think. Being extremely warm, friendly and welcoming is more the DNA of the hotel brands that begin with an "H". The concierge as well was great when we were checking out and helped with the many full suitcases that had resulted from having such easy access to an gigantic, well-appointed shopping mall. By the way, you can access the mall directly from the hotel lobby or from the third floor and return by your room key. It does make one feel like a VIP and might also have the added effect of making you want to shop till you drop. I'm not a huge shopper in regular life, but on this trip, I was in that mall every single day. The galleria is such a beautiful mall too, I was so happy to see Neiman and Veneta were there. Now as you may know from my other reviews, I'm always interested in how well the air flows through the room in a given hotel. So how did this one rank? Well there was only one vent in the whole space and one needs at least 2 to move the air properly. So I did have to request a fan to help move the air around, one was not available the first time we asked but on the second night we did get one. I will add that the thermostat worked excellently and the vent did blow consistently and maintain the settings I wanted. So that was great. Overall, it was a great trip. All business was handled successfully and I would probably...

I will start on a positive note first. The valet was excellent, very efficient and respectful.

I was very disappointed with our check in process. As I arrived at 4pm, check-in being at 3pm, I was told that we needed to leave our bags and wait because they did not have a room cleaned. At this point the young girl that was assessing me seemed confused, so I requested a supervisor. When I asked the on-call supervisor the amount of time it would take, I was told, “could be up to 2 hours and I’m not really sure.” I had a very important meeting that was to take place later that afternoon and wasn’t able to access the room in time to change. My meeting was rescheduled which cost me time and money. I continued to question why is check in at 3pm if I cannot gain access to a room that I am paying for. I remind you its 4pm. She replied, “well, I’m not sure what to tell you but there are 6 guests ahead of you and you will need to just wait.” I did at this point as for discount which was refused. I told her that my parking should be taken care of at least. She replied, yeah, I could do that.” I feel like this experience has really left a bad impression as far as my future stays at a Westin. I travel frequently and will avoid if possible. I have always had wonderful experiences with Marriott and I’m hoping that it was just a location issue, but this really astonished me. (Very dissatisfied customer and will mostly likely express to others of this experience.)

Room turn over should be more efficient. When issues arise it is imporant to have a staff that can deescalate clients not reply with attitude and combativeness. Your supervisor had attitude before she even knew the problem. Very unprofessional and poor reflection of a hotel chain that should reflect respect and value.

After finally gaining access to the room I was once again very disappointed. It was very clear that both top duvets were not changed out. Makeup marks and coffee drips displayed for us to see. That portion of the bedding was not used that night. The sheets appeared to be clean and pillowcases the same which...