W Hotel Verbier Reward Redemption [review]
SeatLink Chief Travel Officer (Dan)Published Updated
One of the best mountainside hotels you'll find anywhere
With Christmas and NYE in Europe, so why not a little skiing in Verbier while staying at one of the world's premier W properties at the bottom of the Medran gondola midstation? Well, because rooms for this period start at $1100 USD/night, which is crazy talk. Also, FYI NYE for 2016/17 is already sold out...but back to this stay. By some miracle around the 19th of December we spotted two rooms available for SPG redemption at 30,000 points/night, which is a lot of points, but that meant I'd be getting > $0.03/point, which is usually my target point value with SPG. Given that I'm Platinum 75 and have been using the SPG credit card from Amex, I had the points in my pocket to spend and so did my friends, so we went for it...and it was a near perfect stay.
What's awesome:
- excellent attention to detail as far as design on the interior (rooms) and exterior of the hotel
- the ski concierge was incredible - that alone might be worth all the points I spent!
- great location steps from the gondola
- easily the best W hotel I've stayed in (out of 12 or so worldwide)
- my only gripe is that even though this hotel is beautiful, the service (aside from the ski concierge) was not what it should have been - still very much "W" level service where this hotel could have blown me away if it had been St Regis level service
- also, everything here is very expensive (the room itself was 30,000 points/night...), but you gotta pay to play I suppose, and I have to say that this hotel is definitely worth the points spend...
The Gallery
The Bottom Line:
If you have the opportunity to stay and ski at this hotel, do it. A truly excellent example of a W in one of the most beautiful settings you'll be able to find a Starwood hotel. If you've got the cash to throw at this pricey hotel then by all means, otherwise this is a great use of SPG points if you've got the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and/or stay at Starwood properties a lot.Maximizing SPG points for crazy hotels like this
Amex Membership Rewards can be transferred to SPG at a 3:1 transfer rate, but the better way to earn SPG points is via the SPG Amex card and, if you're a business owner, the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express. The Personal card earns 25,000 bonus SPG points after spending #3k in the first three months, while the business card has a spend requirement of $5k in the first three months to get the 25,000 SPG point bonus. Credit Card Rewards values SPG points at anywhere from $0.02 to $0.10 per point!What else?
Have you stayed at the W Verbier before? Did you like it as much as I did? Let us know in your comment below!Photo gallery
29 photos from this trip — click any shot to view it full size.