The Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport — Hotel in Irving

This is one of seven Westins in the Dallas area. For perspective, this is actually the second Westin in Irving. There’s a much newer and corporate-managed Westin just 5 minutes away. Maybe 7 minutes with traffic. This Westin is franchised and while marketed as being at the airport, it’s not really at the airport. In reality, the hotel is about 15 minutes from the DFW car rental and Terminal E. And that’s without traffic.||||Besides six other Westins, there are plenty of other hotels nearby. You have a Sheraton, Marriott, etc. There are some low-end questionable hotels right next door too. The kind of places where shady people go and lurk about. More on that later.||||Despite the plethora of choices this Westin treats its customers like there are no other choices.||||They charge a​ $20 nightly parking fee for self-parking in an open and unsecured parking lot. This is a junk fee. If you’re to charge for parking at least offer valet parking or some sort of secured parking garage. To avoid the fee, look at some of the nightly package rates that include parking. They can be a decent value. I booked a room that included parking and a $50 food credit. It ended up being cheaper. So, pay attention to packages.||||Then there’s housekeeping. If you’re staying at the hotel more than one night, they don’t provide any daily housekeeping. This is supposedly a Westin -- an upscale, full-service brand. Even a Holiday Inn Express still offers daily service. Not providing daily housekeeping is unacceptable. I also believe it's against Marriott’s brand standards for Westin.||||These things aside:||||1) No pre-arrival email.||||2) No doorman or bellman to assist with luggage at arrival.||||3) The front desk clerk was polite, professional and very hospitable. I was addressed by name and thanked for my elite status. I was given a welcome letter (albeit one that wasn’t personally addressed or personally signed) that outlined the hotel, its amenities etc. I received the Bonvoy elite welcome choice, although it took a little prodding to get the option of a restaurant breakfast over the buffet in the club lounge. While the buffet is shared with the restaurant, the restaurant has an ala carte menu that in theory is better. More on this later.||||4) Before arrival the property confirmed me into a suite on its top floor, the 15th floor. I specified my arrival time. I arrived at 3 pm and was assigned a suite on the 13th floor. When I pushed back I was told the suite on the 15th floor wasn’t ready. I was told to wait in the club lounge and they could come get me when the suite was ready. More than an hour later at 4:15 pm, a different front desk clerk came and gave me keys to the room.||||5) In the suite there was no welcome amenity. The special request that I noted on the reservation and have set as a specific preference with my Bonvoy ambassador account was not fulfilled. Likewise, the room was missing several things that you expect in a room at a Westin, let alone what was (I believe) their most expensive suite. No mouthwash, no dental kit, no shaving kit, no slippers (there were robes, however), and no corkscrew. There was only one bar of soap. In my experience, a full-service hotel like a Westin will have a bar of soap on the counter at the sink and a second bar of soap in the combination bathtub-shower. The usual toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, body wash) were wall-mounted dispensers.||||6) While the lobby and some public spaces have clearly been renovated, the hallway leading to the room was very dated with carpet that looked 6-7 years old. Walls and doors were scuffed, scratched and showing considerable wear-and-tear. The suite had new TVs but was otherwise very dated. The case goods (furnishings) were showing significant damage. Scuffs, scratches, etc. While the furniture in the hallway by the elevator was consistent with the Westin furniture that you see at new or newly renovated properties, the in-room (or, rather, in-suite) furniture looked like a Westin from about 2007. Outlets, both electrical and USB, were few and far between. The bathroom was particularly dated. Mold or mildew was visible by the fixtures in the tub-shower. ​Fixtures had visible rust. The ceilings in the room were popcorn ceilings – something I haven’t seen at an upscale hotel in a very long time. In areas the ceiling was showing damage. The suite, while spacious and comfortable, was dated and certainly not worth booking with cash. I was happy to have the complimentary upgrade but would never pay for the suite. It’s not worth the money. It’s that dated. There also wasn’t anything in the room that was elevated from standard rooms. It was just more spacious. Sometimes a suite at a Westin or another brand will have better toiletries or extra amenities.||||​7) Cleanliness was iffy. The toilet had two pieces of hair on the toilet seat. Walls had stains. Carpeting had stains.||||​8) The bed has the newish Westin bedding that is downright awful. The bedding is cheaper and more polyester-based than the bedding at a Holiday Inn Express. Despite specifying only feather pillows I received four polyester pillows that felt like giant cotton balls stuffed in a pillowcase. A duty manager told me the hotel threw away its feather pillows. This should be communicated on the hotel website. If the hotel can’t fulfill a request for feather pillows then it should either inform the guest and give them the option to cancel or go to Walmart and buy cheap feather pillows. This is unacceptable, not least for an Ambassador.||||​9) I requested slippers, a dental kit, and mouthwash around 5 pm before going to dinner. When it didn’t come, I gave up and went to dinner. I put a do-not-disturb sign on my door. If they came to deliver the items, I expected them to put it in a bag and hang it on the door. Instead, the employee OPENED a door with a clearly visible DND sign and placed the items in my room. I discovered this upon returning after dinner. This was a huge invasion of my privacy. I complained to the duty manager. She was gracious and admitted that shouldn’t have happened. She offered points for the issue and also the issue relating to the pillows. I accepted the points as compensation. ||||​10) I had dinner in the lobby bar and restaurant. I also had breakfast there. The menu is okay with something for everything. The wine list is pretty awful, at least the still white wines. Think chardonnay from Kendall Jackson and Robert Mondavi. Cheap, grocery store wine. I didn’t expect a $200 bottle of grand cru chardonnay from Burgundy, but I would have at least expected something drinkable beyond mass-produced crap wine. They could have at least had some Texas wine options. The waiter was friendly and well-intended but the level of service didn’t match the price of the food. The food is mostly priced at Capital Grille level prices. But the service is more like an Applebee’s. Drop the prices or train the staff properly to elevate the service. If you’re charging $40-$50 for an entrée/main course, you expect service that’s better than Applebee’s. I ordered a salmon main course and asked for it to come without the glaze and without the sides. I ordered different sides from the menu. The salmon came out with the sides that I specifically said I didn’t want. The waiter apologized but told him the chef insisted on that preparation. This issue repeated itself at breakfast. I ordered an egg white omelet that asked for it to be prepared without the mushrooms and without the goat cheese. The omelet was supposed to be accompanied by a side salad of arugula (rocket) and tomatoes. It came out prepared with exactly what I didn’t want. It also came with breakfast potatoes, which weren’t listed on the menu. I also never received water, juice or a refill of coffee at breakfast. The restaurant needs a kitchen that listens to orders and cooks up and serves what was ordered. Likewise, it needs wait staff that are properly trained. I could have gone to Denny’s and gotten a better breakfast for less money and with better service.||||1​1) There’s a club lounge that is accessible to guests who either book a room with club access or elite status with Marriott. While the lounge is open for breakfast on the weekends ​with all-day soft drinks, there’s no evening service. The hotel shouldn’t sell club lounge access if it isn’t going to open the club lounge with a full service every day.||||1​2) Like the lack of daily housekeeping, other amenities or services are missing. There doesn’t appear to be real room service. There are no newspapers anywhere in the hotel. Not even a Visit Irving or Visit Dallas magazine.||||1​3) The outdoor pool is worn-down and looks shabby. In the gym, which overlooks the pool, the equipment comes with a TV. But the TVs don’t work. The treadmills are a little dated. They’re at least one or two generations old. I later learned that some rooms have an in-room treadmill.||||1​4) Some of the hotels next to the Westin are questionable. Like the kind of places hookers or drug dealers frequent. Yet, the hotel has no card reader at the elevators to protect guest safety. And the waiter at dinner and the waitress at breakfast in the restaurant asked my room number in front of other guests who were within earshot of me. Hotel employees are never supposed to ask a guest their room number.||||All things considered, management provided a significant number of points (30,000) as compensation for the issues that I experienced. But I should have never experienced the issues in the first place. I should have looked at the reviews because some of the issues seem to be longstanding. As I said earlier, there are SEVEN Westins in Dallas. There are two in Irving alone. Given the fact that it is not physically located at the airport, there is no reason to choose the Westin over say the Hyatt Regency or the Grand Hyatt, let alone one of the better Marriott options. Even the other Westin in Irving, which is managed by Marriott, offers newer and better rooms/suites, full daily housekeeping, a better gym, and a resort-style pool. They also have...

I had a poor experience at The Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport last fall and returned earlier this month as the hotel had asked for a second chance.||The Westin DFW is a franchised property.||||This time around, my experience was better. While better, there were still some issues, including things that had not been improved.||||First, the positives:||||1) Staff from the Front Desk to the bar and restaurant continue to be friendly and generally well-intended.||||2) Rates are fair. Be sure to review the special rate packages, as I found a rate that included free parking and a daily $50 food/drink credit. That saved me money.||||3) Unlike last time, my room was mostly clean. I said "mostly" because there was extensive black mold or mildew in the walk-in shower.||||4) The restaurant's food is good, including the breakfast buffet. But the service isn't at the level you expect for the price. While drink prices are reasonable, the food prices (especially main courses) are somewhere between Outback and Capital Grille, but the overall service is more like an Applebee's or Chilli's. I think some main courses are overpriced by $10-12. It's overpriced just enough that some guests have a drink or two but go elsewhere to eat. The wine selection has improved since my last stay.||||Now, the negatives:||||1) Bonvoy benefits are challenging to get. Platinum and higher elites are supposed to receive at check-in a choice of breakfast in the restaurant, points, or an amenity. This is the elite welcome gift. Like last time, the Front Desk was trained NOT to offer a compliant elite welcome gift choice. I had to press the Front Desk for my three choices. I chose the amenity, which the Front Desk said was drink vouchers for a $10 house glass of wine. The only problem? The wines sold by the glass at the bar and restaurant are priced above $10. I received four vouchers (two for each day), so they were just a credit of $40, either $20 per day or $20 total. That worked out fine because the bar treated it as just a credit. But they should probably re-think how they do this because it shouldn't be this difficult.||||2) I was upgraded to a presidential suite before my arrival. I assume it's because of the issues I experienced during my previous stay. While appreciated, the presidential suite was just a larger suite. Despite being the presidential suite, nothing extra was in the room to make it feel more premium or upscale. It was just bigger than a standard room. That's it. I will take the free upgrade but never pay cash to book the presidential suite. Oddly, the presidential suite did not offer a more elevated experience. For example, other comparable hotels would have had something like nicer toiletries, a stocked mini-bar, an espresso machine, or perhaps higher-quality furnishings/décor. Something to differentiate the presidential suite from a standard suite or a standard room.||||3) The hotel placed a food amenity in my room, the presidential suite. However, they gave me items listed explicitly on my Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador profile as things I don't eat due to allergies. My Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Services agent also informed the hotel about my restrictions before my arrival. This lack of attention to detail shows that the hotel doesn't care. What's the point of Marriott collecting preferences from ambassador-status guests if hotels don't follow them?||||4) The presidential suite itself wasn't in the greatest condition. In addition to the mold or mildew in the walk-in shower, one of the fixtures on the jetted bathtub was broken and much of the in-room furniture had considerable wear-and-tear (scuffs, scratches, paint marks like the furniture had rubbed against a painted wall).||||5) No daily housekeeping was offered even though I stayed two nights.||||6) Security continues to be an issue. There is no keycard reader in the elevators. So, anyone can walk off the street and access any floor.||||7) Limited staff. Specifically, there is no bellman or valet parking.||||8) No local information. Specifically, there were no newspapers anywhere (in the lobby or the club lounge) or even things like a Visit Dallas or Visit Irving tourist magazine.||||All things considered, I don't know if I would return. The Westin as Las Colinas isn't that far away and is a nicer property. There is also more around that hotel, including quite a few restaurants. I might consider returning if this particular Westin improved services, amenities, and attention to detail. But I feel like they're doing the absolute minimum required of them. The condition of the furnishings in the presidential suite (to say nothing of the mold or mildew in the shower) shows that the owner isn't doing basic...

I'm staying here for 6 long weeks. I am a Marriott Bonvoy member but I'm not technically platinum. My first 3 weeks here were good. The gentleman in maintenance was nice and the house keepers were so sweet and helpful. They do not offer continental breakfast but for awhile I was able to grab free bananas, oranges, and apples from either the club lounge or the coffee area. Nobody really eats them so they just sit there. I'm a vegan with an autoimmune disease and a strict diet. I was so appreciative of the gesture and it wasn't something I did daily. I had a package delivered and the process was smooth. They had what I needed and it was logged into my reservation. My 4th week has not been so pleasant. They advertise a free washing facility but it's only one machine in the workout room. Several of my colleagues had ants or some type of roach in their rooms. One was moved 3 times. I had a package delivered that was medication for my condition and the front desk lost my package. The first time I came down she said check the tracking that it wasn't there. the 2nd time she couldn't find it , the 3rd time she said she didn't look at all the packages. I requested several wake up calls and I received the first one during my first week but after that I never received them. I called down to the front desk to have them input it and I also used the Bonvoy app. The last straw was the fruit. Now they tried to charge me $3 for an orange or banana. Something that I was getting complimentary and nobody wants is now $3. HORRIBLE. They can offer free coffee packets and water bottles then they can offer free whole pieces of fruit. They harp on being a healthy hotel but that's not honestly what they are. You'd think for a $5,600 dollar price tag for my room, they could part ways with a few measly pieces of rotten fruit. Especially when they don't offer anything complimentary and I'm here for such a long time with strict dietary needs. Don't stay here. Stay at the embassy suites close to the airport. They have free continental breakfast and offer free drinks and happy hours to their patrons. I'm disappointed with the Westin. I never liked the Marriott franchise and I wish they had never bought the Starwood franchise. You're better off at the Red Roof inn...