My husband, son, daughter-in-law and myself spent four nights at the Westin starting April 1. When we arrived we were greeted by the bellmen that were happy to take our luggage. They gave us the offer to valet or self park. At this hotel you do not need a car, it never left the parking space. You are perfectly located in the center of everything. The furthest thing is about a mile away.
Checking in couldn’t have been smoother nor could they have been nicer. Karen checked us in with a smile and she remembered us by name each time we saw her. As for the rooms yes they could use some freshening, which the general manager told me would take place this summer, but remember this is Key West and it is supposed to be laid back and kind of rustic. After all Key West is a party town, otherwise you would not stay at Mallory Square. As for the people who complained about the ships, we all thought it was pretty neat to see them dock. It was the only time I ever saw anyone on the balconies. It was a bit of a surprise as I opened the bathroom door only to look into a window on the ship. I just called my husband and he closed the drapes while I got dressed. It is a little annoying, but how much time do you spend in the room and watching them load and unload could be pretty funny. The ships are required to be gone by the time the sunset celebration starts.
Speaking of the celebration go see Jimmy, the bartender, in the antique truck for a Mojito or the Green Thing. He makes a great drink and always serves it with a good story and a smile. He’s also at the outside bar for the lunch trade. Tell him Rich and Lynette from New Jersey said Hi.
Jeffrey and Jena is the concierge that we worked with. They always listened and helped us pick out just what we wanted to do. They know which are the best of the choices and have been on most of the outings. They sent us on one of the ghost tours, set us up on the pub crawl, gave us restaurant ideas, and explained the differences between tours.
Again, like a lot of people have said to go to lunch at Sunset Key. It is kind of expensive, but worth every penny. The food and service is fantastic and the view breathtaking.
The restaurant in the hotel is nice, we didn’t eat there often, usually just breakfast on the patio. The food was quite good. One person that wrote in loved the Starbucks coffee in the room. We hate it. It would be my only complaint about the whole hotel.
I felt that my room was kept in tip top shape the whole time I was there. The maids were always pleasant and greeted you in the halls. As a regular traveler for business I know this doesn’t happen often. Also don’t forget to tip these people, its how they make their living. The maids, bartenders, servers, and concierge all work on tips and I only found one person that did not deserve more than a 20% tip.
We did not get around to using the pool this trip, but it is a very pretty area, even to just sit and relax. I should say though that it was even warm enough for me to get into and I like my water on the warm side.
All in all, would we return, you better believe it. It is well worth the trip.

No complaints - had the best suite in the hotel. We'll definitely go back! Perfect location, great staff though the pool could be a little larger and not surrounded by the hotel itself. You dont get as much sun and have no view other than that of the surrounding rooms.

We recently stayed at the Westin Key West Resort & Marina, from April 20-26th.

We had booked online at spg.com for Starwoods Preferred Guests and had booked an Oceanfront Room and specified, "true Oceanfront Room with high floor"

On arrival we received a fairly friendly welcome, once we arrived at room we ventured out onto a puny balcony for our "Oceanfront "view of a marina and view of a large berthed Yacht and an even larger Cruise ship, no Ocean View and definitely not Ocean "Front".

A quick trip back to the front desk, resulted in being offered an alternative room, that was truly oceanfront, Suite 163, that while on the ground floor, provided a superb Oceanfront View, twin rocking chairs on a large patio and a great vantage point for the daily "Sunset Celebration".

The pool area and pool are quite compressed, but we never had difficulty in finding chairs to hang out there.

We had breakfast twice and dinner once at the Oceanfront Bistro 245, and both the food and service were very good.

We took advantage of the Sunset Key Island on three occasions across the Harbour and accessible by launch. This is an excellent guest feature that you should check out and is well worth the $20 per person fee. Although the description of the fee as being "nominal" (dictionary defined as: "being trifling in comparison with the actual value") is not really accurate. Twenty bucks is a lot of dough and I encountered several guests at the concierge desk who were "sticker shocked" at the fee. Get to concierge desk before the 8:00 opening. I discovered showing up at 9:00 that they had already sold out the beach passes that are apparently capped at 40 per day. Even then you should take the first boat out to the beach at 9:15, as after that time the lone beach attendant is scrambling to secure chairs for everyone.

We had both lunch and dinner at the Latitudes restaurant at the Sunset Key Island, which featured outstanding food and service, and an unbelievable setting. You must check this place out.

The overall staff experience was top-notch, very friendly, courteous quite attentive and responsive.

The only exception was a very negative experience when we made an inquiry at the front desk of the Sunset Key Island adjacent to the Latitudes Restaurant on last Wednesday after lunch.

Given that we were essentially paying a daily $40 premium to visit the Beach there, we were curious on the price differential between an Oceanfront Room at the Westin and a One Bedroom cottage at the Sunset Key, if it was minor we would've upgraded and stayed there for the balance of our stay.

The receptionist there, dismissively babbled out the Westin website address and suggested that we check out room rate availability and pricing there online and advised that she did not have any pricing information as they were in the process of changing the rates.

None of this response rung true it appeared that we were getting the "not subtle at all" brush off by this brusque individual. When I advised that I was well aware off the website and we had booked our reservation there initially, and I was quite serious in my inquiry.

She responded that if I we were "really, really, really, serious" that she would look into this. Finally, she quickly advised that there was no room availability on the Friday in any event. Her unpleasant treatment was the only exception to otherwise excellent customer service that we had encountered. This particular employee is better suited to a back of the house role, versus front of the house role -- one far removed from direct guest interactions.

My other observation would be on the housekeeping, that I would describe as a cursory "once over" only versus a thorough room cleaning process.

Also, our room was near a staff lunchroom and we had to, on more than one occasion, run a gauntlet of staffers hanging out in the hallway adjacent to it, and once immediately directly in the alcove in front of our door blocking access to our room.

While obviously staff need to have their lunch and rest area, management should advise and attune the staff on the poor guest optics of congregating and loitering in spaces adjacent to guest rooms.

We also once encountered a staff person having a post lunch siesta in the shade of a palm tree immediately adjacent to our room patio.

Advice: Be insistent on getting a true Oceanfront room at the time of check in. Management's definition of this and a reasonable guest's expectation vary greatly. During our short stay I overheard numerous guests complaining about this fact. Westin should differentiate between an Oceanfront and a OceanView/Marina View and price accordingly. Their current pricing practice is quite dubious at best.

Overall though an top-notch vacation and the Westin Key West Resort is clearly one of, if not the best, properties in the Key West area.

We spent a week @ the Westin 4/9 to 4/16/08. An early check in was possible and went smooth with no problems. The staff was friendly and courteous. This was our seventh visit to Key West and are familiar with most of the hotels. The rooms at the Westin are nice and comfortable and above average for Key West. They are however in need of minor updating which we noticed was ongoing. Cruise ships do block the view of the Gulf when they are in port, but we spend little time in the room so this did not concern us. Starbucks coffee in the room was a plus. Room service was quick and polite. The bars are also staffed with courteous and attentive staff. If you get a chance visit Sunset Key for lunch or dinner. It's expensive but worth it if nothing else other than the view . All in all a fine experience.