Staff Report
The Westin Hotel in Providence has inched closer to regaining the coveted four-diamond rating, which the Automobile Association of America (AAA) pulled from it in September 2001.
Internally, AAA inspectors are recommending the upgrade, Westin officials learned this week.
AAA officially downgraded the Providence Westin to a three-diamond rating in December 2000. Since then, the hotel has been training its staff to enhance the hotel’s service.
In November 2001, the Rhode Island Convention Authority, embarked on a $3 million to $4 million renovation of the 25-story hotel’s lobby, common areas and 364 rooms.
“We’re ecstatic,” said Sheila Westerfield, the Westin’s director of sales and marketing. “It’s really been due to the renovations here…and the service standards have been upheld, per the requirements of AAA.”
Earning back the coveted four-diamond AAA rating is crucial because market research shows that corporate convention planners, business travelers and top-tier leisure travelers pay close attention to the rating system, and will pass on three-diamond hotels in search of better service.
When it was built in 1994, the hotel was designed to attract such upscale travelers and contribute to the city’s urban renaissance. Located at One West Exchange Street, the hotel has a glass-domed rotunda, heated indoor pool, full-service business center and top-of-the-line restaurant and fitness center.
Substantial media coverage and public outcry resulted from the Westin’s downgrade by AAA, in part because the hotel is a taxpayer-funded building, having relied on a public subsidy to get off the ground when it was built in 1994.
