My standard hotel reviews include a breakdown by the following topics. Feel free to skip to whichever section you find most interesting.
- Highlights
- Lobby & Check-in
- Room
- Hotel Space / Ambiance
- Food & Drink
- Fitness
- Miscellaneous
Highlights: Westin Convention Center, Pittsburgh
This Westin, as all Westins do, meets or exceeds expectations. From the beautiful lobby, to the thoughtfulness and flexibility of service, this hotel was a great experience. Highlights include their service (more detail later), and the amazing quality of their breakfast and room service. This conveniently located hotel nestled in the heart of downtown made for a great time in Pittsburgh.
Lobby & Check-in
Lobby is off to the right, past the beautiful hanging chandeliers and through the remodeled seating area. Apparently they remodeled several years ago, and it looks chic and modern that I like. We arrived at a brisk 7am after a redeye, but they were flexible enough to get me in 8 hours earlier than normal checkin time of 3pm! This hotel also has smart elevators – something I haven’t seen in a while. Just type in your number, and it tells you which lift to take, optimizing efficiency.
Additionally, they were flexible on upgrades – I was able to get a ~500 sq ft Corner suite, and all of my platinum amenities, despite booking through a third party (shame). However, the $320 rate on another site was not matchable by Starwood (with their ~$430 rate), and while I love Starwood (as you may know) it made no sense to pay $100+ for the same room.
Granted, I previously was confirmed for their 2000 sq ft Luxury suite, but once I canceled my previous reservation and rebooked with a cash rate they were sold out.
Room
This corner room was of interesting design, as if a lounge area was built and tacked on to your standard hotel room. It was very convenient, so that my lady and I could work from separate locations and field client and work calls without any difficulty.
Hotel Space / Ambiance
This was work-city, with consultants everywhere, even at 7 in the morning. Also, the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh was hosting a plethora of weddings, so plenty of guests were milling about in the evening time.
Food & Drink
This is the highlight of my stay. First, the platinum breakfast amenity includes $20/person towards the breakfast menu, rather than your basic continental. Unfortunately, that includes tax and auto-gratuity of 18%, so you’re left with about $16 per person, enough for one entrée and nothing else.
I highly recommend the Breakfast Quesadilla. Filled with breakfast sausage, egg, and cheese, and lightly fried, it was so amazing I got it twice.
Also, I was facing a super early flight on Sunday, making it impossible to get breakfast that day. I appealed to the night manager, who allowed me to use the breakfast towards $25, and then $40, of room service credit! This was above and beyond service I did not expect, and I was grateful. I used one of my Thank you certificates, from How To Say Thank You. This $40 credit represented about $30 before a $2.50 delivery fee and 18% gratuity. We enjoyed a delicious pizza – seriously, this was amazing, enough for us to consider coming back – and some berries.
Fitness
There is a lap pool here, and a decent fitness center with good views of the outside convention center area.
Miscellaneous
This cash rate at Westin Pittsburgh of roughly $320 made more sense than paying the category 4 price of 10,000 SPG. $320 for 20,000 spg made for a paltry 1.6cpp redemption value, which was well below my target of at least 3cpp. Indeed, that was close to my 1.15c cost, so it made more sense to use a cash rate. Granted, I don’t get the ~5-10% back from paying a 3rd party as compared to Starwood direct, but their Best Rate Guarantee does not qualify for corporate rates.
Regardless, this was an above average experience, thanks to their service. I would highly recommend staying here and will consider doing so should I come back. Lastly, in case this was not clear, their breakfast and room service pizza are phenomenal.
Featured Image is of the beautiful skylight in the hotel lobby. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links which, should you click through and/or make a purchase, grant me a commission. Also, I only post in the best interest of my readers. Lastly, thank you for supporting my blog and my travels.
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