The Westin at The Woodlands® — Hotel in The Woodlands

I love Marriott and had high hopes for The Westin because it's in such a great/beautiful location and is fairly new. The location along the waterway is perfect not only for enjoying scenic strolls--but for being able to shop, dine, attend a concert, and enjoy so much of what The Woodlands has to offer without ever having to drive. It's like a little slice of Europe in Texas.

My hope is that The Westin would benefit from my critique and be the great hotel is could be, which is why I'm taking the time to leave a detailed review. The location is great and the rooms are pleasantly designed/furnished, but the service and overall experience leaves much to be desired.

Unfortunately, my experience here during Memorial Day Weekend was terrible...so unpleasant that I almost left and booked elsewhere despite having already paid for the night.

1. Check in: the front desk appears to be habitually under staffed with only 2 workers, and check in was longer than I've probably ever experienced in my life at a Marriott. Because there's no parking in front of the hotel except valet, they offer 30 min free parking across the street in the garage. Check in took so long I ended up having to pay for parking, and they refused to comp me.

2. Mediocre service: Not only was check in slow, but things were unprofessionally handled by the front desk multiple times. Every one of us in line waited 20 minutes for a "Karen" who insisted on getting an extra breakfast voucher free, and tied up 1 of the only 2 front desk workers for at least 20 minutes and the 2nd front desk worker for part of the time. They waited on her while she complained, called Marriott, etc, while at least 4 separate parties waited patiently to check in. None of us were acknowledged during that time. They should never have had so little staff on a Friday evening (especially during a holiday, during graduation season, etc), and if so should never allow 1 individual to ruin everyone's evening by waiting unnecessarily. They could have asked her to step to the side while she called so they could take care of others.

3. Pathetic entry: the entry sequence to the hotel is dismal at best, unless you valet. Even then it's still not great. The cars and trucks parked in front block the access to the hotel entry from both sides of the sidewalk, and the line of people waiting at the front desk often block the entry doors at least partially.

The lobby area is way too small, and the doorway to the elevators is so narrow you're almost guaranteed to bump into someone with a cart or with luggage as you come and go. My first 2 times going to the elevator someone almost ran into me. It's a blind corner that's terribly designed.

4. Unlike most nice hotels, there's no grand lobby area to sit or hang out with friends. Other than the Starbucks seating, I didn't find anywhere I could sit with my wife and a guest to talk. We checked multiple floors: nothing.

5. The rooms are generally nice, but the toilet area is a disaster. The toilet paper dispensers are located so close to the toilet I'd imagine everyone over 5'6" busts their knee against the metal toilet paper holder at least once during their stay. It may seem like a small thing but it's indicative of the lack of attention to detail or care that you feel throughout the stay: as you approach, as you enter, as you make your way to the elevators, etc.

6. It should be noted that the bars below/adjacent to The Westin have music with heavy bass until 2am (at least on Friday night). You'll notice they have complimentary ear plugs in each room (which is not common in Marriotts), so I assume noise is often an issue.

7. Waterway views: It's also worth noting that one side of the hotel faces a large parking garage directly across the street, so don't expect a waterway view for every room.

For Marriott's reference, I have stayed in countless Marriotts around the country and have been Titanium or Platinum...

Broken: blackout curtain/blinds front bathroom door wouldn't stay shut. no lock shower door

Cleanliness: housekeeper claimed, "during covid, we don't have as many people so we're not cleaning. We haven't cleaned this room in a few days."

Stay: We booked a King Suite overlooking the Waterway It was our anniversary so we decided to get a Suite. Unfortunately, we were shocked at the overall lack of care and quality of our room.

Location: Amazing - right on the Waterway in the square by the fountain. Several great restaurants within walking distance, and poppin' square at night. The Fountain and surrounding sidewalks along the waterway light up at night, so nighttime walks were great. Couldn't have picked a better spot.

The Room (King-Suite): Walking up to the door, there's a doorbell. I don't know about you, but that made me feel fancy and thought it was a fun feature for room service.

Upon walking into the front entryway, there is a small washroom away from the rest of the suite. Convenient for those needing privacy. Our bathroom door did NOT work and the lock was broken, so we were unable to grab the privacy we would have liked during our four-day stay.

Behind the partition separating the living room is the massive King bed. So comfy and full of pillows. The sleeps were heavenly. (except for the broken blind that put the sun in our eyes.)

The Bathroom: When booking a stay away, besides the view, the bathroom is my favorite spot. I like it to feel like a day spa where I get all to myself, so naturally, I spend more time in there than a quick shower. One of the reasons for picking this room was the soaking tub. A cup of tea, a book, some backlighting in a soak-tub? Sign me up.

Unfortunately, the shower door was broken and wouldn't close and the cleanliness of the bath was iffy; there was hair (not ours) upon arrival in the bath, on the floor, and in the sink...wasn't the best entry. We asked housekeeping to revisit our bathroom and we don't mind stepping out for a bit. We were hungry anyway and needed to grab a bite.

We came back to the room to discover the same issues we had called about were still there. No one had cleaned (we had left for 2 hours). The housekeepers finally came upstairs to clean while we were in the room which was very awkward. They complained most of the time that there were too many rooms and they had skipped our room because no one was in it and they ran out of time. We were pretty surprised they admitted this. They hurriedly cleaned the bath and left. It was visibly unclean, but we were over it at that point and let it go.

A few days into our stay, we noticed blood in the grout by our shower. Neither of us was bleeding and checked for cuts to be sure it wasn't us. We let housekeeping know and asked to have the bathroom cleaned again. I had coffee in the bathroom with me earlier and had spilled a little next to the spot on the grout, so it was noticeable. I didn't think I needed to point it out. When we came back to the room after housekeeping had cleaned, we were shocked to see not only the blood in the grout, but the coffee spill was still on the floor, accompanied by more hair.

The overall takeaway for the Westin is they need NEW housekeeping standards of service, and or new staff to execute optimal cleanliness, especially when touting a "covid clean inspection" throughout the hotel. Simple cleanliness should not be an issue when working in Hospitality. The Westin has always been a higher-end stay, but this was not my experience at this location. We let management know about the issues during our stay, and they offered us a free breakfast buffet upon check-out. For the money and time spent at this location, and the understanding manner on our end (we didn't Karen out on them or act rudely, knowing customer service can be challenging), we thought they'd offer to be more attentive or reimburse some...

I would rate this zero Stars if I could. I got married on Saturday October 28th 2023 and my sister and I had the balcony Corner Room actually room 505 just so everyone has a warning. As I left the hotel Saturday morning to head to my wedding venue I knew I would be gone all day and I would be back Saturday night after the wedding was over. I asked Hotel staff to make sure the room was set with Champagne rose petals and fresh sheets for my husband and I to come back to. Not only did they not follow through but they went the extra mile to steal all of my intimate and private wedding gifts that I set out for my husband as well as my toiletries and very high-end expensive skin care line. We follow the claim and apparently Hotel staff has no record of anyone coming into my room between Saturday morning 1130am and Saturday evening 1130pm and I know that this was an inside job because of that. There's no way anyone else gone into my room while I was getting married because I had my own key card and my husband had his own key card. There's no record of anyone coming into my room but not only did they not follow through they could have just left my stuff alone and I didn't even care about the rose petals and champagne because I left the room neat and tidy enough in case room service didn't come by. I didn't expect to come back to the room and see my bed completely stripped, towels missing, lingerie missing, gifts still brand new in package missing, and photos with my face on them all gone. They did manage to leave the photos that came out blurry or completely blacked out or malfunctioned from my polaroid so I thought it was very odd that only specific photos and specific articles of clothing were missing because some of my stuff was there but very expensive or intimate things were missing and no one has any clue why. Room 505 is beautiful with an amazing balcony view that overlooks the Waterway and right across from Rose rooftop. The balcony extends from one end to the corner and so there's no way anyone from another room could have scaled it to come in as it would have been very dangerous and very obvious from the outside. Either way no one ever predicts to be raided especially on such a special day after the rush of a wedding. I feel very embarrassed for the items that they stole and having to repeat it to the staff didn't make me feel better as they were absolutely no help and I feel as though they were in on it since they can't even find any record of someone opening the door between my departure and arrival so that tells me someone was in on it and no one wants to come forward. Has the days passed by and I unpacked my stuff at home I realized more and more things are missing and it makes me feel even more creeped out because it's only very intimate and personal items so I just want to make this public to give anyone a warning on room 505 and the staff and their sketchiness with being able to clear out room logs from the system. I'm a seasoned traveler and I'm not new to hotels to understand safety protocol on my end and I want to be clear that this was no one else's fault but the staff and their lack of attention or their malicious practices. Either way it was very disappointing and I am very gutted and embarrassed that my wedding night not only didn't meet my expectations but left me robbed of my opportunity to celebrate with my new husband. As we dealt with cleaning up the mess they left us with on Sunday morning, we had also booked a late check out for 4:00 p.m. Sunday. My husband went to arrange our rental at noon on Sunday and would be back to lounge with me at the hotel however as soon as he walked out the door a hotel staff member came right in and didn't even knock or check to see and make sure we had late check out and I was still in...