Hotel Review: Celebrating Valentine’s Day Weekend at W Hoboken

Is it me, or is 2012 passing by so quickly? It seems like yesterday that it was New Year’s Day, and now Valentine’s Day has graced passed us with a blink of an eye. Jeez, can we hit the pause button on 2012 for a little bit?

With the year zooming past us lately, Kevin and I have sadly been all work and no play, and believe me, our relationship was feeling the tension. Since our schedules didn’t allow us for a full weekend away, we decided it would be best to dedicate even just a single night away simply for a change of scenery.

Our usual “night out on the town” consists of us taking the 2-hour drive down to Atlantic City where he can get his gambling fix, and I can get my dress-up time. But… our last time in Atlantic City left a bad taste in my mouth.

All I’ll say is that a bad argument lead to Kevin being extremely foolish in the casino, and we said goodbye to lots of rent money. Yeah, that was a bit personal for me to share, but I don’t like to sugar-coat or censor my experiences in life; I was beyond pissed and he knows it very well (proof that women never let men live it down). Hey, that’s all past us now, but AC remains on hiatus for me. :)

We decided that the better option was driving less than 10 miles to Hoboken to impulsively check out the W since we heard rave reviews about it from some of our local friends. Luckily, we happened to get a great rate despite it being a Saturday night on Valentine’s Day weekend, and we were thrilled to have a night out during our first “W” experience.

When we arrived, we were impressed with the location – perfect views of the NYC skyline and located directly on the Hudson River. Parking was a steep $35, but all of the other lots were in the same price range so we really did not have any other options but to park at the hotel. Check-in was quick and we loved how posh and upscale the hotel was. We were given a “cozy king” room on the 16th floor, which would have been breathtaking if we had views of NYC, but our room faced Hoboken, which we didn’t mind either way.

By the time we got settled, it was around dinner time, and we were quite starved so we called downstairs to make reservations at Zylo, the hotel’s steakhouse. The hostess was very rude in telling us that she did not have a table for us until after 10:30 PM. She made it seem like we had the nerve to be asking to eat at the hotel we were staying at. Mind you, it was only 5:15 PM and we had just come up to the room from the lobby and saw that the restaurant was empty.

Her attitude upset me, and had me thinking the rest of the evening at the W was going to be filled with snobby staff. With that said, I nonchalantly tweeted to SPG from my bed saying I was disappointed with the unnecessary rudeness. To my surprise, SPG tweeted back at me within minutes saying they were sorry and would address the problem.

Less than an hour later, a manager of the hotel called my cell phone directly. Never again will I underestimate the power of social media. I was blown away that SPG had called the hotel, the hotel located my reservation by my twitter handle (which happens to be just my first and last name), and a manager called me directly. Now that’s customer service 2.0. Thumbs up.

The manager on duty, Brian, apologized for what had happened and applied a $75 credit to the room, which was very generous and unexpected. That entire act of excellent customer service literally turned our night around. It’s unbelievable how good customer service could reset the tone of the night. We were ready to kick off the night on a new foot! :-)

All in all, we ended up having such a fabulous time together in Hoboken at the W. We had time to reconnect, have dinner (we ended up going to a great Malaysian place near by called Satay), have drinks at the “Library” (downstairs lobby bar), and even went dancing in the hotel lounge/club, “The Chandelier Room”. Many thanks to SPG and all of the hotel management at the W Hoboken for such a great stay!

The lobby was trendy and posh.

“Cozy King” room on 16th floor – Hoboken view.

I loved the decor of the room. It had a very swanky, posh, Vegas feel.

Desk/Mini Bar/TV and gorgeous full window. I love an abundance of natural light.

Close-up of the in-room mini bar. $8 for Oreos, $5 for water. I’ll pass LOL.

Modern corner chair.

The bathroom was very modern and clean. I loved that the mirror extended all the way across into the shower.

The bath products were from their in-house spa, Bliss.

More Bliss toiletries

Kevin and I dancing in “The Chandelier Room” (We tried this photo 3 times and his eyes were closed every time!)

Kevin insists that every great night ends in late-night room service.