Vista LIC Hotel, Premier Collection by Best Western — Hotel in New York

My cousin and I were visiting some family for the weekend and decided to book this hotel based on its price and it’s location right next to the Queensboro bridge, in addition to the fact that I like SPG hotels and generally have great experiences at them. I booked a couple days earlier on the SPG app and asked for a double room. We checked in quite late as we had a long busy night in the city and we’re looking forward to some rest. We got to the hotel and was greeted by the front desk clerk who was generally very nice but a little awkward. It took a little bit to find us the double bed room we booked but eventually he handed us the room keys and told us to go to room 305, which we were excited to do because we were so exhausted. As we were on our our way to the room I found it odd that we were given such a low floor considering I had actually booked a cit double bed room with city view. As suspected when we got inside the room was facing the city, But you couldn’t see any of it because we were on the 3rd floor. This wasn’t a huge deal and we didn’t say anything about it. Here’s what was a big deal though, when we got in we noticed the ac was on at the room was at 76F . We set it to 70 and proceeded to unpack. Half an hour goes by and the room temperature hasn’t budged at all. I call the front desk and he nicely asked us to wait a little bit more to see if the temp can change, and if it can’t he’d change our room (since no technical service was available at 4am). So we wait a little more but the room is frankly getting unbearably hot, the thermostat is teetering between 76 and 77F. Eventualky they did change our room to the 505 which was two floors up. It’s almost 4:30 now and we were eager to get to bed. I should note you could see more of the city from this floor since I was further up. We get in and the room seems cool or as the AC seems to have been on. The thermostat says 75F. We set it to 69F which it accepts and go to bed.

I should also note the front desk was nice enougn to give us a late check out of 4pm (I requested 3pm late checkout at booking), SPG in general has always been accommodating of this.

We finally sleep even though the room hasn’t really reached a temp below 75F yet and fall asleep. In the morning however I woke up (around 4 hrs later at 9am) which sweat on my back. The room is at 77F now. This only gets worse theoughout the morning and we eventually call the front desk again at1-2pm explaining the AC is not working in this room either. They eventually send up a technician at 3pm who fiddles which it’s settings (like the setting to auto turn the ac fan off after 30minutes and changed it to 180 minutes). This however didn’t do the trick either, since it’s getting hotter and hotter outside the room was actually 78 by this point. By the time we checked out the thermostat was reading 80F! Frankly this was unacceptable and we tried to be nice about the whole thing.

In summary we were barely there for 12 hours , with less than 5 hours of sleep and had to switch rooms once at 4:30am. Both rooms ACs were not working and it’s the dead of summer right now. This is honestly the first bad experience I’ve had at an SPG hotel and it was a horrendous one. Upon leaving the front desk informed me they’d email the manager and he’d get in touch with me to see what can be done. Today though still waiting on a response from the manager or hotel.

I wouldn’t recommend this place, it’s maintenance clearly wasn’t up to par. It’s redeemable qualities was it’s price and location but it doesn’t matter if you can’t sleep in the...

I migrated myself from Marriot rewards to Starwood last year and First of all let me start with my experience so far with Starwood hotels…

So far I have been staying with different starwood hotels and my experiences with them is exceptionally great. In terms of taking care of your guests understanding the need etc.

However, my current stay with Four Points by Sheraton Long Island City is an exception or I must say an horrible nightmare…

Let me share my first day experience with the hotel starting from the check in experience

When I came to the check In counter, Manager on site was busy helping one of the staff in checkin process of another guest. Whereas another staff was talking to someone internal staff in Preferred guest line and made me wait about 10 mins.. That’s ok.. They might be doing something urgent… and this is not the reason I am writing this…

When she received me… She declined to recognized me as Platinum member and said I cannot offer you any benefit of Platinum member… When I showed my status (on SPG app) and email received from SPG to manager. They agreed to recognized me or I must say change my room key card holder to platinum … Yes… There was no change in my experience as compare to gold.. I asked them this email say it should include my breakfast and she was not willing to listen to me. Anyways… Hold on.. this is also not the reason I am writing this… I ignored this one as well …

I went to the room and there was stinking smell in the room (probably previous guest smoked there).. I called them and asked them to change the room she said we are 100% full ….. ok.. Never mind..

Later in the evening I ordered food from outside… and I requested Manager on site at 9.00 pm on 06/05 to help me with some fork and spoon (disposable was also fine with me)… He asked me to go and pick it from the restaurant… and here is my experience with fork and spoon request..

Lady in the Restaurant declined to give me fork and spoon( YES.. SHE DID)… and her justification was.. you have to order food here in order to get fork and spoon…. So Instead of getting more insulted I decided to walk out and talk to the person at checkin counter (He introduced himself as Manager, which I doubt) I asked him “Sir, she refused to so could you please ask her to give”… and to my surprise .. That Lady even came out of restaurant and simply said NO to me again in front of that Manager / guy at reception as well…

So instead of debating with them I decided to go out and purchase that fork and spoon.

Now… I believe being a platinum member there has to be some respect … But I strongly feel this experience has nothing to do with any status… Even the person coming to stay first time with you should be able to get fork and spoon if needed..

I don’t think anyone will look into this or reply / react in this.. But here is what my experience with this property… Few small things which I haven’t mentioned and can share the pics as well if you want..

1. Washbasin was chocked and never got fixed despite my complain..

2. Iron table was broken and never got replaced

3. Shower room was dirty

4. Stinky...

What can we say about this establishment? Catastrophic?

I work for the Best Western group in France, and I am a Platinium member.

When I arrived at the hotel, I expected a minimum of consideration from the team, but that's where all the problems began:

My friend arrived before me, and they didn't give him the room key, knowing that I was still on the plane and that the room had already been checked in. When we arrived, we were asked to pay a €100 guarantee, so far so good because I understood that the hotel needed a guarantee for their reservation system, except that this story lasted 6 days and they deactivated my key and put posters on my room door telling me to come to the hotel reception (knowing that the room had already been paid for).

So every day I have to go to reception to reactivate my key, and every day I have to pay a €100 deposit, whereas they should have done this to me at check-in all at once rather than making me come every time for the same situation!

The receptionist for the day (whose name I don't know, he should change jobs as he's very unpleasant and haughty) tells me that there aren't two separate beds for my last booking, knowing that I know how it works and that by looking at the sales I can see that there's availability. So I asked him to give me this type of room or to keep the same room I'd had since the start of my stay, and I was even prepared to pay a supplement. He gave me a much more expensive rate than what was shown on the BWH website, so I refused the request because once again I didn't think it was normal.

Following this, I was given a room with a double bed, so I called reception and told them that the light in the room wasn't working. They told me that the technician would come, but he didn't and so I spent my last two nights with just one light out of two.

To round off a wonderful stay, we once again had the key deactivated, knowing once again that everything had been paid for and that the deposit had already been paid, and this time reception couldn't come up with a valid reason, the only reply being "we can keep your suitcases for you free of charge", with no comment in response to this reply.

To sum up my stay as a Platinium member of BWH and one of the group's employees in France, I found it catastrophic. I wouldn't recommend this establishment at all based on my experience and the reception team's poor customer relations. (we had the impression of being a nuisance)

I changed hotels and stayed at the Best Western EMPIRE, I can tell you that the service is incredible and that there is a very big difference, they have a lot to learn.

Good luck for the...