Perfect location, pleasant rooms, good service especially with a discounted price
Just returned from staying at the Westin Seattle. The location is perfect, you can walk anywhere in downtown Seattle - 4 blocks to Pike Street Market, 5 blocks to the Seattle Art Museum, 2 blocks to Nordstroms, on the monorail. You just can't beat the central location.
We got a very good price two days ahead of our trip through a Priceline bid so my comments are not made in the context of having paid full price. However, overall the hotel which has a four star rating is a bit "tired". They are in the process of "transformation" according to many signs. There is not active renovation that we noticed, so that's not a problem. Our room was fine with a great view, but the bathrooms are not really what i would expect from four stars nor are the public areas. Fine but not really great.
A couple of cautionary tips:
- I learned from reading Trip Advisor posts to ask for a room without a connect door. Apparently a number of the rooms have connecting doors and are not adequately sound proof. We are surprised how easily we could hear people talking in the hallways, but fortunately there were few and it was quiet. The air conditioning system was good and very quiet.
- This is an enormous hotel with two towers. We were in the North Tower which was just off the lobby. I believe the second tower is farther away.
- PARKING - $41 at the hotel for 24 hours and in/out priveleges. Again, I knew this because of earlier Trip Advisor posts. I searched hard for an alternative but in the end paid the price for convenience. Parking in downtown Seattle is expensive. There are early bird deals for daily parking but overnight is tough to find at all and always expensive. An earlier post noted that street parking is free after 6 PM till 8 AM the next morning (I didn't confirm that this is still the case). Just want people to beware that even though you may get a good deal on a hotel, if you are taking a car, you need to think about the cost of parking.
A great feature of the hotel was the wonderful concierge Judy. A lively older woman with glasses, she is amazingly helpful. She helped me find a jazz club, movie theatre, Canadian customs regulations and even gave us a $10 gift certificate to the Tap House Grill, a convenient restaurant to the hotel with 175 different beers. We wanted to taste Northwest craft beer.
In addition, we arrived at 1 PM and while the normal check-in is 3 PM, we were welcomed and checked in with no problems as long as a cleaned room was available.
So, my rating is based largely on the great location, helpful service and adequacy of the room.
FYI for Priceline bidding, this hotel is a four star hotel in the downtown area.