The Westin Pasadena — Hotel in Pasadena

Westin’s quality of service has taken a nose dive. I will absolutely not stay here again and plan to stay loyal to Hilton Honors. ||||The moment I stepped into the hotel to check-in, the experience was disappointing. I traveled from Washington, DC for a friend’s wedding. Mind you, I am from SoCal and take great pride in that. With that, this is truly embarrassing for the brand and for Pasadena. I initiated check-in via the app and indicated that I’d be checking in at 1:30pm, said “yes” to daily housekeeping service, and was certain that after arriving I’d have time to get a nap before wedding festivities started later that evening. The app never updated that my room was ready. ||||I arrived at the hotel around 2pm, and attempted to check in. My room wasn’t yet ready, but I was assured that it would be ready by “3pm at the latest, but hopefully sooner.” The front desk associate, Elissia (so?) proceeded to collected credit card payment despite room readiness. I had a credit card issue due to my travel card being recently compromised and had to resolve with a different card until I could contact the cc company to unlock my new card. Thankfully, it was resolved and I was able to change out the card to my new travel card later. Maybe they pre-judged me at this point, yet here I am, Dr. Lee ready for my room. ||||I ate with a friend in the empty restaurant and noticed I had not received the promised phone call indicating my room was ready. It was after 3pm. I went to the front desk, a separate associate was there, and I inquired about my room. Surprise surprise my room was still not ready. Why? Because, “the previous guest requested 4pm check-out and the hotel is fully booked.” I’m curious why Elissa didn’t disclose this key detail. Not only that, but it would take housekeeping 40 min after that person checks out to clean the room. After much frustration and insistence that the hotel find a solution, as I have to be ready for an event soon after, and on two-hours of sleep, they find a room that is in fact a downgrade. However, the room rate was never downgraded as I learned from the manager when I called to complain. ||||Moving on, I thought this was behind me and made a plan to contact the GM after my stay to express my frustration. Turns out, there was more. Housekeeping service is non-existent. I was away most of the next day only to return to a still dirty room and no towel refresh. I contacted the front desk twice about this who indicated that “housekeeping is away for the rest of day, but we will make a note on your account that you’d like service starting tomorrow. We will send a towel refresh today.” I’ve stayed in many hotels around the world and never ever have I had to explicitly request housekeeping service, and via the app and the front desk. What is wrong with this place? ||||Finally, Saturday breakfast at the not-so-busy restaurant has terrible service. After being seated outside with my friend, a nice man poured our coffee. After that, no waiter came to take our order. At least 10 minutes had passed before waving the same man down who poured our coffee. He went to get someone who proceeded to come out, look at our table and turn around and completely ignore us. He even appeared to chastise the man who tried to help us. Eventually, a nice lady came out to help us although the man who ignored us was servicing our section. How do I know? Because the couple who sat down 15 minutes after us had their order taken within minutes of them being seated by the same man who ignored us. After complaining to the waitress at our table she enlightened us to something her manager said to her which she said bothered her. Her manager once told her to look at how people are dressed and their overall appearance. Apparently, your appearance and the color of your skin, will dictate how you are treated at this establishment. None of that is an indicator of the value of your home and other assets, or the person you are or people you know. I truly to avoid making this assumption during the check-in experience, but it became incredibly obvious and her confirmation was the cherry on top. Wow! I shouldn’t have to be a walking billboard advertising who I am to get good service. No one should. In fact, I prefer the opposite as my day-to-day life is hectic and I just needed a break. We are all human who work so hard to get by, let alone climb the ranks. To be treated any less than what god made me is disappointing. ||||I’ve been to many places and I may not look my age or my net worth, but rest assured I have friends in high places. If not for my friend’s wedding recommending this Westin as a preferred hotel, I’d have taken my business elsewhere. I would never recommend this place if you want to have a nice stay in the Golden State. This was a 2-star experience at best, and the most disgusting hotel experience I have ever had. I try to live my life without judgement, following the rules, faith and positivity. This experience is proof that humanity...

My wife and I stayed at your hotel on the night of our wedding and the entire experience (if you take away the person I was with and the bed comfort - both of which were excellent) the stay was awful from start to finish.

First on booking, we reserved a block of rooms for our wedding guests (and one for ourselves). They gave us a rate that seemed to be high (especially when we were booking so many rooms) but figured it must be a really good hotel. Come to find out, our friends who didn’t reserve from our block for their rooms at cheaper rates. One more place that increased their prices when we mentioned the word wedding. Additionally I asked about early check in options or upgrade options as the married couple and was not even responded to.

The. For the night of the wedding. The bar closes at 10 but we were told if we spoke to management about bringing back a large crowd after the wedding they keep it open for us. What they meant was if I put around 800 on the tab they would leave it open. That seemed ridiculous so we chose not to. The process however was even worse because everyone we spoke to said they would do it until the week of the wedding when they said it would cost us so much money. We convinced people to stay here because of the after partying that never happened.

Then the service. We were showing up in a town car directly from the wedding and waiting to get to the front of the hotel to disembark the car. But even though our driver said he was fine your staff started opening the doors of our car a lot farther from the front of the hotel requiring my wife to walk even further in her heels and very heavy wedding dress. Check in was slow but we got to our room eventually. Then for checkout I went downstairs to get a luggage cart so I could pack up our luggage while my wife was getting ready. We had a very tight schedule (go get our stuff from the venue and make a lunch in Diamond Bar with family). They said they would have one brought to my room. When I opened the door there were two hotel employees and a cart. I said thanks and proceed to try to bring the cart inside telling them my wife is not ready and I cannot let them in the room but I’d load it, no problem. Except they are not allowed to let a guest use the cart. I’m a grown man and almost 40. What exactly you think I would do with the cart is beyond me. So I had to call back to get the cart AFTER we were completely ready which increased my time. Then, when I called for the cart we waited 15 minutes before just leaving burdened with lots of luggage. As I got out of the elevator in the lobby carrying a lot of luggage, I passed an employee with a cart who had the nerve to ask, you wouldn’t happen to be room 302? And then not bother to help us once I said yes.

Lastly the room. I am not sure who designed this thing but it fails at every level (except the bed). You walk through a long dimly lit hallway and once you make the turn into the room, you can’t see anything at night. And there are no room light switches. I had to go into a dark bathroom to find a switch to get enough light to find the bedroom and even then, no wall switch. Instead the luggage helper had to find the beds reading light to find individual lights and lamps around the room that had small sometimes hidden switches. How people are supposed to navigate this room at night is beyond me. And the bathroom is completely ridiculously set up. The counter from the sink extends too far for the toilet seat to stay up or even allow you to sit upright. The shower tub is further from the wall than necessary and the shelf it creates means the shower curtain cannot go all the way back which leaves a ton of water on your bathroom floor when you shower.

So my advice since you just remodeled, would be replace or retrain your staff, get your mo Rey back from the remodel as it’s awful. Take the beds out and save them, then maybe just redo everything else from start to finish. This was such a horrible experience for a night I thought would be the most amazing of my life. I’d NEVER stay here again. The only thing this hotel has that’s good is a petty lobby and a...

Update as of 2/04/23: I have contacted the hotel 6 times since Dec 2022. I have provided my contact info for the General Manager to contact me. I have NOT received any calls regarding this issue. Truly horrible service. WORST staff EVER! We unfortunately stayed here from 11/4-11/6/22 during our WEDDING WEEKEND. We booked the Presidential Suite ($2,400 a night with fees) and the Rose Suite (approx $850 a night with fees). I booked these rooms 9 months in advance in preparation for the wedding. I also requested several blocked rooms for my guests.

Prior to check in, I had been communicating with a sales rep by the name of Stephanie Chan. Booking the rooms was no problem, however there seemed to be an abundance of miscommunication between the sales department and the regular hotel staff. First of all, everyone had different information. I called the morning of check in (11/4) and was informed my room would definitely be ready by 3pm, as the hotel was aware this was for a wedding. I needed a room for myself to get ready for the rehearsal+dinner which would take place at a church nearby at 4pm sharp. I did not ask for early check in, I knew that might be a stretch. So, I was perfectly fine with the advertised check in time listed on the Westin website, which is 3pm.

I arrived at 2:45pm. Upon check in, the Rose Suite (used for family) was ready. Great! What was not so great was the Presidential Suite was NOT ready. The staff at front desk informed me that the cleaning staff was ACTIVELY CLEANING THE PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - which would be ready at 3:15pm. Ok fine, 15 mins delay. I waited and waited. I called at 3:15pm from my family's suite (who I had no intention of bunking with). The front desk NOW told me the Presidential Suite WAS STILL OCCUPIED BY THE PREVIOUS GUEST! So I guess lying to guests here at the Westin Pasadena is standard service, because that's what occurred. I spoke with the manager Natalie. She apologized but was no help. Natalie told me they had called the guest several times asking him to leave but he didn't answer. So what did they do? APPARENTLY NOTHING because the Presidential Suite that costs more than $2k a night was not ready until after 5pm. I informed Natalie that this was of no help to me, as I had nowhere to get ready for my own rehearsal dinner. They did not offer any solutions for me, instead tried to give me a free breakfast coupon (which we did not use) and a bottle of cheap red wine (which was also not consumed). Natalie fully admitted they were aware of my needs and the situation, did nothing. They stranded myself and my wedding party, deprived us of the room we needed and FULLY PAID FOR. Natalie said she would fully inform the incoming night manager, Renee of the situation. Later that night, we were finally able to enter the Presidential Suite. The manager Renee called my room. To make matters worse, there was NO HOT WATER! I let the shower run for over 15 minutes on hot--nothing. I called the front desk, they again apologized. At this point, I felt like this was intentional. I spoke with Renee, I said you know I've had a horrible experience so far and I would really just like to shower with hot water. Renee said "I'm sorry ma'am but this is the first I'm hearing of your bad experience, can you elaborate?" THE SAME MANAGER WHO CALLED TO CHECK ON ME TO ENSURE I WAS OK AN HOUR AGO . he told me she would send a maintenance worker immediately.THIS WAS A LIE!!!! The maintenance man took 1hr to arrive. Mind you, this was 11:30pm at night. The night before my wedding. I let it go. It was Saturday - my wedding day. All my bridesmaids were getting ready in the room. 9am comes, a knock on the door was heard. A maintenance worker with a cart barges in without being called or invited/permitted to enter. He states he was here to fix the hot water. I was LIVID -- a room full of young women half dressed... AND A STRANGER ENTERS UNANNOUNCED! We asked to speak with the GM. 3 months later, GM still...