The Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort

I was there with a big business group for several days, and we were living and working out of the hotel for about two weeks, basically. We do this all over the country throughout the year, and are familiar with the issues the hotels face in dealing with a demanding group of guests. Note: This review responds to the aspect of hotel business that services large, corporate groups. Individual guests here for pleasure and the beach might not care about a lot of the below.
However. This hotel is problematic. Every single person in our group (10 – 14) was delayed in having their room ready even though we arrived well after check-​in, in some cases by 4 – 6 hours. The front desk would say, «We’ll text you when the room is ready», and the text never comes. I often overheard other people in the halls — people not part of our group — griping about the same problem, and it looks like it’s mentioned elsewhere in these reviews, too.
The front desk was very nice, but often extremely clueless — they/​reservations had our guests in wrong rooms and wrong floors contrary to what we had agreed through the rooming list, and they probably do that thing where they overbook deliberately, etc. We’d try to fix it, and they just… could barely follow along.
The hotel rooms themselves are dated and musty-​smelling. There was a very clear mildew smell coming from my bathroom, and the toiletries in the bathrooms are pretty low quality. Of course, it’s free stuff, so «you get what you pay for» and all that. Walls are super thin, and the doors slam very loudly unless you manually ease the door closed. Beds are comfy, though, and the rooms were generally quite clean.
We had huge issues with the hotel bringing us deliveries that had been sent to us. We’d confirm that our delivery arrived at the hotel, but actually getting the staff to find it and bring it to us took a really long time; in some cases, we didn’t get our stuff until the next day, even though it was there, on-​site, at the hotel. In one instance, the front desk said the delivery did not arrive, though in fact the delivery did arrive and was placed in quite the wrong room, even though we checked several times throughout the day and made perfectly clear where we wanted to receive it. But the fact is that the front desk had NO idea what was going on and where. I hate to say it, but unless you speak Spanish, the language barrier can be a huge problem. We had people bring us things for other guests totally unrelated to our group just because the last name started with the same letter. I understand that it’s not an issue locally because everyone mostly *does* speak Spanish down here, but it has been a major obstacle for those of us who don’t.
We had daily catering services. The food was generally very good for hotel catering, but we had some etiquette issues with the banquet staff. The banquet staffperson would just stand there while we ate, watching us. It was awkward. We eventually had to contact the group services manager and have her explain to her staff that this was weird and unnecessary; as I said above, we do this kind of thing at hotels ALL the time, and I’ve never had someone just STAND there. (Besides, those people are busy — let them go do other things for a half hour while we eat.) But, eventually we got the kinks worked out and they stopped doing that. Catering is all about etiquette so this was a bizarre experience.
I guess my point is that the hotel staff in general doesn’t seem very versatile; they’re used to doing one thing for groups (weddings, I think) and if your needs are different, they mess up.
Same with housekeeping. Because we’re working, often all day AND all night, in these rooms, we asked for a special schedule so that we weren’t constantly being interrupted by housekeeping everyday. We talked to several people about this, and it took DAYS — even after talking to the Director of Housekeeping — to get them to understand what we needed. Again, not very versatile or experienced in doing things outside of handling beach customers and weddings.
But I do want to say that the hotel staff, from the concierge to housekeeping to banquets and business services were all very polite and extremely courteous — this part, they do get right, and they’re all very friendly and understanding people. The valet and concierge guys are all great, though the valet on a Friday night is a damn disaster just because it’s so busy. Also, I have never encountered such an overburdened elevator system. At peak times, it’s unreal.
These problems, honestly, are the province of the management. Train your staff correctly and communicate! They need to work on understanding the variety of needs business clients have, and on improving communication throughout all levels of staff to assure they are meeting those needs. Business clients drop huge amounts of money for things like this, and it would be nice to get high-​level service without a huge amount of hassle

This is a nice clean hotel across the street from the public beach, however there are a lot of hidden a costs. $ 32.00 per day hotel fee and $ 39.00 per night mandatory valet parking. So much for a great price, unless money is no object then enjoy your stay. Beds are very comfortable, as they are know for.

Luckily, we got a great deal on this hotel. My friend and I spent a long weekend here recently, and it was the perfect little getaway. Like other Unilocalers mentioned, the hotel itself is a bit dated and overpriced for what you are getting. The staff could be rude at times, but it seems as though they were fed up with all of the complaints they get due to systematic errors (poor management?)
The pool was small with zillions of chairs. But beware, you’re charged a $ 30 resort fee PER NIGHT for the use of said pool and the gym… Towels are available but if lost is a $ 25 fee per towel, chairs and umbrellas at the beach are also available to rent for $ 12-​$ 20 per day? Which we didn’t dare purchase. Drinks were expensive, a lot of kids, and a staff member telling us we couldn’t reposition our chairs led us to feel as if we weren’t on vacation. It is hard to enjoy yourself at a place with so many fees and «rules.» As a beach resort in Fort Lauderdale that could be a cheaper but nice alternative to the W next door, you would think the «resort» attitude would be conveyed a bit more.
The room was nice, clean, and well stocked. The A/​C was always blasting. Bathrooms are a bit weird but we didn’t mind. Unbeatable access to the beach and the shops/​restaurants that run down the strip.

I stayed here for 2 night for a work trip and absolutely loved it. I got upgraded to an ocean room. The front desk agent gave wonderful places to eat. The hotel is directly across from the beach, and free towels are provided.
There is a 30.00 resort fee, which includes Internet, 2 bottles of water in your room. After the water is out, there is a fridge in the main lobby that has more bottles, score! Also bike rental is included! I woke up early and took the the beach cruiser for a ride. I loved it here, all of the staff was so friendly and welcoming, and there is a full Starbucks on site.

This is absolutely not a resort, not a Westin level property. Dated rooms, bad service at desk and rooms, inefficient valet/​check in area.
Hotel stay was a mess start to finish, including a $ 575 incorrect charge to my bill. They tried to give the wrong room type at check-​in, then the room had almost no air conditioning. Changed rooms to another dated room. Screwed up breakfast included in rate.
The pool is small and crowded.
Not relaxing for a getaway, not recommend.
The only positive I can say is that the staff at breakfast could not have been more helpful. Just be warned that if it is not included in your rate it is $ 60 for 2 people.

Such a great hotel! My mom and I have been on a road trip this whole week so we’ve done 4 hotels in the past 5 days. The Westin has by far been the best! From the moment I checked in today I was impressed. The hotel is beautiful and the staff incredibly friendly and professional. Having just stayed at another «resort» in the Keys for the past 2 days I can say the Westin truly lives up to its name and description. My only wish is that I was staying more nights. Should I come back to this area again I couldn’t imagine staying anywhere else. Thanks for a wonderful stay!

I came here on a girls trip in January 2016. I was overall happy with my stay but there could’ve been a few things that would’ve made it more enjoyable. First of all… yes, there are fees (Valet Parking: $ 36.00/day PLUS TIP and Resort Fee: $ 30/​day) with your stay. I guess it’s just the price you pay for staying so close to the beach. The fact that this place is a very short walking distance to the beach is the only reason I stayed here. I was not really impressed with the front desk staff during the entire stay. I also hated that they had valet ONLY parking. I would’ve liked an option to pay a flat fee to park in their garage to be able to come and go as I please. Thankfully, the valet staff were actually really friendly every single time I came and went.
CHECK IN: I was kinda bummed that no one told me at check in that the walk way (Skywalk) crossing the road was closed, so any time we went down to the beach you had to go in and out of the main lobby to the hotel. When I checked in I was told that if I signed up for a Starwood rewards program that they would extend the time of my check out by a few hours-​thankfully I double checked my check out time the night before because they did not make that memo on my account and that would’ve been an extra charge if I stayed in my room 2 hours extra! They also do this Green Choice program where every day you decline room service they give you a $ 5 credit to Starbucks. We got the first gift card and then every day after that we had to keep calling to ask for one as we did not ask for room service. There is a pleasant White Tea smell wafting through the lobby but it can be REALLY over powering. There is complementary flavored water in the lobby but it’s always empty or the cups were always gone.
THE ROOM: Room was nice but whoever designed the room had the terrible idea to put a wooden shutter type window fixture in the wall. So, whoever is in the bed closest to the bathroom is very unfortunate! Thankfully, I was here with my girl friend of many years and not my spouse! There’s little to no privacy with these bathrooms. The balcony was… not really a balcony. It would’ve been nice to actually step out and stand on the balcony but you can’t. The room did have a nice large TV and the wifi is «free». I planned on returning my pool towel by leaving it in our room (because they were dirty) at check out because I’ve done it at other hotels, but you MUST return your pool towel to the pool or the lobby or you’ll find a lovely $ 50 towel charge to your room!
PROS:
–Beach right across the street
–Polite restaurant staff
–Wifi
–Large TV in room
CONS:
–Rude front desk staff
–Valet ONLY parking
–Broken Skywalk elevator to the beach
–No privacy in bathroom

The only issue I have with this hotel, OK two is The cost to park since you really have no option and they know it. The second is check-​in time, don’t think you will arrive early and get your room by noon or one or two on, it ain’t happening folks. Guests here stay to the absolute last minute before checking out. There is a oddball thing with the bathroom and a cutout wall with a louvered wood window which makes it uncomfortable if you are dropping kids off in the pool and someone is watching TV, PLEASE consider changing this! The hotel itself has an awesome spot and view of the Atlantic. There are two wings and if you can stay in the wing where Starbucks and the SPA are. Hotel is clean for the most part. The pool area is good although service a bit slow out there.

The hotel is nice but you get gauged with additional expenses — eg pay for chairs on beach and umbrella 12 per chair $ 20 for umbrella. In addition a $ 30 resort fee — I booked through hotel tonight which found out later I should have called hotel direct to get a better rate.
The pool is heated but not very impressed with pool this is a very family focused hotel which is good for families maybe not people looking for some quiet relaxation.
They have someone play on Saturdays live music but it was a little annoying.
The beach is really great across the street — this hotel in not directly on the beach you can not get towels at the beach or order food.
It just turned out the Westin is not my type of vacationing in regards to service options and having to pay for everything including chairs.

Nice hotel, and friendly staff. Awesome beach in front of hotel. Room is nice, but had a stench so definitely didn’t like that.
No view in my room, so bummed about that. Would have been nice to get an Oceanside view.

Location is the number one plus of the hotel, the staff are all very friendly! It is clean just the beds were small because they were at full capacity and didn’t have a king bed. Regardless of that we will go back when we have a chance!

Perfect location. The staff are all very friendly and helpful.
unfortunately I have 42 minutes of loud noise from the ceiling.
I have complained and nothing is being done.
I believe it’s carpet steam cleaning.

Hotel is pricey $ 40 a day to park plus $ 30 a day resort fee! After a week here not sure what the resort fee does (basically you’re paying $ 30 a day for the wifi) Hotel is is the middle of almost everything staff is super nice and helpful. For the price and the extra fees kind of expected more out of the hotel itself the staff made up for some of it.

***UPDATE: Shannon at the front desk appears to have taken care of the issues and I sincerely appreciate his professionalism and assistance ***
Other than the very kind valet staff, this hotel is very poorly run and is probably the most mis-​managed Starwood properties I have stayed at…

This is a decent hotel right on the beach. To me, it feels a little dated, but it is clean.
Some pluses:
Location. Nearly all of the sleeping rooms face the ocean, and you are literally right across the street from the beach. There is a skywalk to avoid walking on the street, and with the traffic in the area, if you have little kids, this is a perfect way to get across the street safely. It dark at night right now due to the turtles, so walk carefully.
Rooms are clean, but not fancy and I was not blown away by them. However, if you are coming here, you will not be spending a lot of time in your room. My room was large and I could spread out, and with the view of the ocean, it has a nice feel.
Staff was very friendly.
Gym is OK. They have a Starbucks on site.
Cons
The hotel itself it laid our a little weird. It has two towers, so you have to go to the mezzanine level to get across to the other tower. And, you have to walk through part of the convention center to get there. Once you get by it all a few times it is easy to find your way.
Pool on the second floor has a new deck, and is decent. Crowded, but decent.

2^nd stay here. Love this hotel! The staff are «Westin caliber» at every step of your stay. The hotel isn’t new but it isn’t old but clean and well-​maintained. The lobby isn’t grand. Mainly what this place has going for it are:
1) Location — facing the ocean, across a street from the beach, with a sky walk to help you get there safer
2) Rooms — they look modern, remodeled, clean and well-​maintained
3) Staff — friendly, professional and nice, 4 stars!
4) Good value — **IF** you wait for a sale, otherwise, it’s a meh value
The hotel itself has an awkward and slightly confusing floor plan. Everything isn’t just stacked vertically. It’s like two buildings connected on the 2^nd floor, I think. There’s a pool on the second story that gets fairly crowded.
The rooms themselves are quite nice. Our room looked modern and clean. We had a huge TV! However, the HDMI inputs weren’t easily accessible so I gave up on hooking my laptop to it. They need to make it accessible like other hotels!!!
The bathroom is fairly spacious and has an «open» design with «windows» built into the walls. You can close the shutters built into them but sound still travels through like there’s nothing there. The bathroom doors themselves don’t offer total privacy either because they are made from the same type of shutters. Keep this in mind… everyone in the room is going to hear you playing Battleshits in the bathroom. But, you can compensate for this by humming your favorite Taylor Swift song really loud right before you «drop a bomb». It also has the traditional «Westin» light bordered vanity mirror… which makes it a great place to take a selfie because it acts like a huge catch light. Shower heads are above average, there’s a rain type and a hand-​held type.
The room also has a few convenient charging ports and outlets but no where near as many as a Disney Resort hotel. It’s fine for one person, but no way this would pass for two or more people. This is where they’re falling behind the times. You’ll definitely want to pack your own power strip or they need to step up their game.
If you’re lucky enough to get a partial ocean view room, you can open the balcony window to let in the fresh ocean breeze and have an unobstructed ocean view. Otherwise, your view is an inlet which is meh.
The complimentary water is in the fridge, to stay cool. Good job on the details!
Overall, it’s a great place to stay if you need to get in one night before your cruise. Prices fluctuate wildly, so be patient and keep checking back. Our target price was hit literally a week or two before our trip date.

this was my second stay here and it was just as great as the first! we checked in early, around 10, and they didn’t have a king size bed available (that’s what i paid for). however, they had two doubles available if i was okay with that, and i agreed since i wanted to get settled in and start exploring fort lauderdale.
our room was nice and clean. the double beds were a bit small, but fine for one night. my complaint is still about that weird window that separates the bathroom from the bedroom, but not a big deal if you’re traveling with your significant other. if you’re traveling with others — it might be weird with the lack of privacy.
this location is in a perfect spot as the beach is literally across the street. you can even use the bridge (by the pool) that connects the hotel to the beach if you don’t want to go downstairs and cross the street. if you want to use the sun trolley ($ 2 per person for all day and they have an app) you can just go outside the hotel or across the street (depending on what direction you want to head towards) to wait for it. we took the sun trolley to las olas blvd and walked back to the hotel which only took like 30 minutes. if you need an umbrella you can also get one from the check in desk if needed — it’s good to have in case it rains or in case you need to protect yourself… lol =P
overally a nice and clean resort that’s in a great location. i’d come back again when i do another cruise.

The hotel itself was… ok. Fort Lauderdale was… meh. The awful customer service was what really ruined my weekend.
Customer Experience (Dismal):
Traveled to Fort Lauderdale for a wedding over MLK weekend. Prior to arriving on the property, I spent almost an hour on the phone trying to clear up the logistics of my stay (booking one night using starpoints, ensuring that I was guaranteed the promotional rate that I booked the rooms at, and confirming early check-​in).
Needless to say, when we arrived at the property for our scheduled early check-​in, it was as if my entire previous conversation had fallen down a dark hole. The reception was confused by my reservation («But why did you book two times for one weekend? We will have to give you separate rooms.» «Don’t you know check-​in isn’t for three more hours?») When I calmly re-​explained the situation, the reception actively claimed that I was wrong and did not do anything to accommodate me. I was stuck sitting in Fort Lauderdale for the next 3 hours (waiting for their call) with nothing to do, despite the scheduled early check-​in.
That evening we were locked out of the room for several hours due to dead battery in our door lock. This should have been a quick fix, but was compounded by slow service, miscommunication between the hotel staff, and communications being ignored.
The management reported that they would fix the lock the next morning when we were at breakfast. I came back to the room at almost noon and was still locked out. It took another 45 minutes to get someone to help me in. It took another 20 to badger them into having someone actually come fix the problem so I didn’t get locked out again.
When we complained to the hotel, they were relatively accommodating. Promised us 15,000 starpoints and a $ 100 dollar credit, and that they would turn the experience around.
Needless to say they did not. Three subpar interactions followed:
1. We called reception to schedule us a cab to the wedding: when we came down at the scheduled time there was no cab, the valet’s could not hail one in 15 minutes of waiting, and we finally had to commandeer a shuttle to get us to the wedding on time.
2. We called to schedule a room cleaning, room was not cleaned. Reception made excuses.
3. Checkout was a mess. None of the points or the $ 100 credit was noted and we were forced to pay and leave, because a manager was not on duty at that point and we would have missed our flight had we waited. I have been trying to follow up since and have received no contact from management after multiple calls from my end.
Facilities (meh):
1. Cloudy Pool
2. Weird bathroom window (see other reviews)
3. Persistent musty/​moldy smell
4. overpriced food, not worth it
TLDR: The staff at this hotel are all part of a conspiracy to thwart you from feeling even one ounce of relaxation during your stay.

Officially been here for a few days now. Here for a business conference.
Parking: Valet only and $ 36/​day. Boo! Parking in this area is terrible. Really no other option for parking. However, they do offer you cold water every time you pick up your car.
Staff (reception, lobby,): valetVery very helpful, professional, nice, courteous! Can’t say enough positive things about them!
Room: Standard 2 full beds, chair, desk, etc. my only complaint is that there is a strange window in the bathroom that opens up into the room. No glass — just an opening covered by shutters that open (see pic). No privacy, doesn’t keep the steam from the shower in. Doesn’t keep much of anything in. Might as well just be open.
Pool: Great pool. Warm & clean! Towels available for check out. No fee as long as you return them by 8pm.
Beach: right across the street and they have the only bridge-​walkway that directly connects the hotel to the beach!!!
Exercise Room: According to the husband «it was fine».
Conference Center: Excellent rooms — spacious. Comfy chairs, good tables.
Dining: n/​a never ate at their restaurant downstairs or ordered room service.
Overall, very nice hotel. Good place for a business conference. Nothing to do in the immediate local area. You’ll have to drive out for nightlife.

It’s a huge hotel, containing a convention center, spa, Starbucks, restaurant and more. This is listed as a 4 star. I think it’s overrated. The lobby is nice and gives a modern, updated impression. I’m not sure if some of the rooms are more updated, but ours definitely could have used some work. We had an ocean view, which is always good, but we also had double beds. That posed a problem, since I was there with my husband and infant and we prefer not to sleep in separate beds.
When we asked about a king, the staff said there were none available. I found that hard to believe since the hotel didn’t seem to be very full. The beds were fairly comfortable, although they didn’t feel like the usual Heavenly beds. The carpet had a few stains, which was kind of gross. The bathroom was clean, which was definitely a plus.
The housekeeping staff did a really good job maintaining the place. Wifi was $ 9 per day. Overall, it was okay, but I wouldn’t stay here again.