Wow, What a Room!
May. 5th, 2024 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerLos Cabos Travelog #3
Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos - Sat, 4 May 2024, 2:30pm
We arrived at our first hotel in Los Cabos, Mexico this afternoon. Yes, first because we are staying at multiple hotels on this five day trip. ...Though in this case "multiple" is only two, not 4-5. 😅
We opted to stay at two different hotels because we found an opportunity that was too good to pass up. President's Club is Mon-Thu and is at the Viceroy hotel in San Jose del Cabo. The Viceroy a decent enough looking four-star resort. We could have extended our stay there for the extra two days we're arriving early. The rate would've been a bit over $500. That's more than I've almost ever spent, cash, on a room, so we decided to look at options using the many points I have with hotel chains.
With Hilton I also have two certs— free night award certificates I have from my two Hilton Honors Amex cards. I found an opportunity to use them at a Hilton Hotel resort near the Viceroy. And getting around $400 value for the certs seemed like a pretty good deal. It's definitely more than I've redeemed Hilton certs for in the past. But then I checked Hilton again two weeks after making the booking and found a way better opportunity had opened up: the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos.
The cash price on rooms at the Waldorf is $1,300++ a night. And I got two of them on free night award certs from my Hilton Honors credit cards.
When I booked at the Waldorf I knew that we were headed to a four and a half star, maybe even five star, resort. We've stayed a supposed four and a have star resorts before. But I was not prepared for what happened next.
After passing the main gate (first picture) and rolling up to the reception area (on the other side of the mountain!) we were greeted as we exited the car by our concierge. The concierge had been emailing me for the past few weeks. I mostly ignored his messages, figuring they were just semi-automated spam. Except here was the concierge, in person, greeting us by name.
Oh, and on a whim, late last week I admonished the concierge that my spouse is "Hawk", not Mrs. Her-legal-name or Mrs. My-last-name. "Just 'Hawk', like the bird," I wrote. And when the concierge helped her out of the car he addressed her as "Ms. Hawk". As did the porter who took our bags. 😳 At first I wasn't sure she heard it, but later I checked that she did— and was suitably impressed.
Being addressed as Mr. Walker and Ms. Hawk wasn't the big surprise, just a cherry atop the surprise sundae. The surprise was how totally swank the place is. It's so swank they took our drink order as we stepped out of the car. The drinks appeared when we were at the check-in desk. ...Which wasn't like a traditional check-in desk but was literally a beach club restaurant/bar overlooking the ocean (second photo above). And the check-in process was less like checking in to a hotel room and more like buying a car, witth the sales manager explaining all the options.
Then there's our room. The check-in clerk escorted us to it and gave us a walkthrough showing all the features. Here's a video walkthough I made after he left:
O-M-f'ing-G, this room is amazing! It's an upgrade from the basicm $1,300 room type I booked. Yay, elite status! The biggest selling point is the private plunge pool ouside, on the balcony, overlooking the ocean. We quickly decided we're probably not going to make much use of the hotel's the next two days, we'll just stay in this amazing room!
Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos - Sat, 4 May 2024, 2:30pm
We arrived at our first hotel in Los Cabos, Mexico this afternoon. Yes, first because we are staying at multiple hotels on this five day trip. ...Though in this case "multiple" is only two, not 4-5. 😅
We opted to stay at two different hotels because we found an opportunity that was too good to pass up. President's Club is Mon-Thu and is at the Viceroy hotel in San Jose del Cabo. The Viceroy a decent enough looking four-star resort. We could have extended our stay there for the extra two days we're arriving early. The rate would've been a bit over $500. That's more than I've almost ever spent, cash, on a room, so we decided to look at options using the many points I have with hotel chains.
With Hilton I also have two certs— free night award certificates I have from my two Hilton Honors Amex cards. I found an opportunity to use them at a Hilton Hotel resort near the Viceroy. And getting around $400 value for the certs seemed like a pretty good deal. It's definitely more than I've redeemed Hilton certs for in the past. But then I checked Hilton again two weeks after making the booking and found a way better opportunity had opened up: the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos.
The cash price on rooms at the Waldorf is $1,300++ a night. And I got two of them on free night award certs from my Hilton Honors credit cards.
When I booked at the Waldorf I knew that we were headed to a four and a half star, maybe even five star, resort. We've stayed a supposed four and a have star resorts before. But I was not prepared for what happened next.
After passing the main gate (first picture) and rolling up to the reception area (on the other side of the mountain!) we were greeted as we exited the car by our concierge. The concierge had been emailing me for the past few weeks. I mostly ignored his messages, figuring they were just semi-automated spam. Except here was the concierge, in person, greeting us by name.
Oh, and on a whim, late last week I admonished the concierge that my spouse is "Hawk", not Mrs. Her-legal-name or Mrs. My-last-name. "Just 'Hawk', like the bird," I wrote. And when the concierge helped her out of the car he addressed her as "Ms. Hawk". As did the porter who took our bags. 😳 At first I wasn't sure she heard it, but later I checked that she did— and was suitably impressed.
Being addressed as Mr. Walker and Ms. Hawk wasn't the big surprise, just a cherry atop the surprise sundae. The surprise was how totally swank the place is. It's so swank they took our drink order as we stepped out of the car. The drinks appeared when we were at the check-in desk. ...Which wasn't like a traditional check-in desk but was literally a beach club restaurant/bar overlooking the ocean (second photo above). And the check-in process was less like checking in to a hotel room and more like buying a car, witth the sales manager explaining all the options.
Then there's our room. The check-in clerk escorted us to it and gave us a walkthrough showing all the features. Here's a video walkthough I made after he left:
O-M-f'ing-G, this room is amazing! It's an upgrade from the basicm $1,300 room type I booked. Yay, elite status! The biggest selling point is the private plunge pool ouside, on the balcony, overlooking the ocean. We quickly decided we're probably not going to make much use of the hotel's the next two days, we'll just stay in this amazing room!
no subject
Date: 2024-05-06 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-06 10:34 am (UTC)My brain did a record-scratch there for a moment. Because one of my friends (and, in fact, a former boss!) is literally named "[your firstname] Walker".
Very cool that they pay attention to actually getting your wife's name correct! That's way better service than we got when Da Boss got us a few days at (an allegedly) five-star place around here!
Whoa
Date: 2024-05-09 06:58 pm (UTC)Have a great time, you guys!