Our stay at the Westin Laguna Mar was one of the worst we’ve had in 30 years of traveling the world.
2 major issues:
1. The room smelled overwhelming like paint thinner. We checked in, got our luggage and went to swim at the pool. When we returned to our room a couple hours later it smelled incredibly strongly like paint/paint thinner/cleaning supplies. It was so bad it immediately gave me a headache and we had to keep our child outside the room. The smell did not dissipate with all doors/windows open. We called the front desk and they told us there was some painting going on elsewhere in the building; they could not tell us if the painting would continue on other days of our stay. When we asked to change rooms they told us nothing was available and the hotel was full. When we persisted, highlighting the safety issue for our child, they found a room in another building for us. When we complained about the trouble of unpacking and now having to repack, and move rooms within four hours of arriving, we were offered a $25 gift card for the resort. We ended up deciding to move to the JW Marriott given the similarity in price and the poor way this situation was handled.
2. ALL of my clothes were STOLEN from the room. We hurriedly packed up our things so we could get to our new hotel before dinner and bedtime for our child. In our rush, we missed four drawers worth of my clothing – our mistake, but we called the Westin as soon as we unpacked at the JW and they told us no clothes were found in the room. After much back and forth on the phone, I showed up in person at the Westin the next morning. The front desk manager reiterated no clothing was found and proceeded to smirk at me throughout our conversation. When I said I was going to file a police report, they suddenly called the security manager who also said he could not help. I then asked the hotel to call the police department for me at which point another manger-type was called to join the conversation. In the meantime, I was given a paper to list all the clothing that was missing – upon seeing the list including descriptions and prices of items, the manager offered to check lost and found. Their initial ‘search’ of lost and found turned up nothing. When I persisted, they came back with a small bag of my clothing. When I highlighted all the items that were still missing, the staff was magically able to ‘find’ another bag of my clothing. This all took place over a few hours based on my extreme persistence, plan to call the police to the hotel, etc. I ended up getting about 75% of my clothing back, but it was clear my clothing had been tried on. The remaining missing clothing included two bras – the thief took the bras, but left the pads that go with the bras. Gross and weird. Although having a record of who went into the room to clean it after we departed, no additional action was taken. After continued follow ups after our departure, I was eventually given points from Marriott to ‘cover’ the inconvenience. The entire situation was handled very unprofessionally and it was extremely disappointing to have to go to such lengths to get my belonging back.
More minor issues:
• Check in took forever
• Ordering lunch at the pool bar also took forever and the food was very mediocre
• Be aware it is a VERY crowded hotel with people playing their own music around the pool, etc.
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