The Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village

Great location. Friendly staff. Pool was great and the room was very comfy.
Will definitely go back

Bad smelling room with no way to open the screwed-​shut window. Uncomfortable bed and pillows. Wall unit cranked heat no matter what the temperature setting. We are platinum SPG and we won’t be back to this location. Definitely not befitting of the «Westin» nameplate.

Unbelievable that a four star hotel had such a rude, ignorant, and racist response to my latest inquiry about a wedding. I emailed their catering sales manager interested in hosting my upcoming wedding there. What started as a fair email, I soon realized that she attached a «South Asian Wedding Package.» Since my email was standard and only said, «Would you be able to give me more information on Wedding’s at The Westin Princeton» — I don’t understand where she got the idea that I was throwing a South Asian wedding. I am only going to presume it was because my name starts with an X. Apparently not everyone is living in 2016 where ethnic and original names are thriving, sorry we aren’t all named Jenna! Absolutely disgusted, insulted, and shocked this was even a response.

Just your standard Westin in a business park but I will give it 5 stars for the staff and service. Complimentary managers wine reception is a plus too! They have just a few work out rooms, small gym, and a nice running trail outside. You’ll need a car to get anywhere off property but there are a few restaurants within walking distance (Ruth Chris, Salt Creek Grill, Tre Piani), and their food at the hotel isn’t bad. Mostly a business travelers pit stop. Free shuttle within a few miles/​the Sandoz office but do pre-​arrange night before. What makes this place is the staff; they are so friendly and seem to genuinely care, often times remembering your name when they great you.

Stayed at this hotel with a group of 400+ people from 1÷29÷2016−1÷31÷2016 for a conference and had a very bad experience overall. I wasn’t going to write a review until I read the reply below to the customer JK, who also took part in the conference. The manager states that there were two investigations made after the complaint was filed. These investigations should have been performed immediately while we were still there. You guys had all the time in the world to clean and cover up and this is probably what happened after we left the next day.
There are two possibilities in my mind:
1. Staff members cleaned up the evidence before management and investigators could find it. 2. The staff and management were all in it to cover up the evidence because they were afraid of the consequences.
Either way, Westin Princeton, you guys did not handle the situation professionally. I was standing right behind the conference attendees the night the bed bugs were found. From the beginning, the staff neglected the severity of the problem by simply assigning the affected customers to different rooms. As you can read below, the front desk staff were very unfriendly. There were no apologies or even words of assurance given to relieve the anxiety and discomfort of these customers. What if there were bed bugs in the newly assigned rooms? Bed bugs don’t just infest your beds but they infests your clothes, your body, and belongings. The staff should have been fully trained to handle emergencies like this. I am very upset with the way you managed this problem.
I would not recommend anyone to stay at this hotel. Please take note of the two reviews below that had the same problem with bed bugs.

BED BUG ALERTTT
This hotel doesn’t even deserve one star.
WORST EXPERIENCE IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE. I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE HAD SUCH BAD SERVICE AS I HAVE AT THIS VERY HOTEL. I AM SO TRAUMATIZED and DISGUSTED FROM THIS PLACE.
PLEASE THINK AGAIN BEFORE BOOKING YOUR STAY HERE!!!
I checked into room 419 on january 29 2016 Our group had about 400 people staying there for a retreat. I had three roommates from my church.
I did not sleep well because i was itchy all night. I woke up several times. I woke up the next morning with bug bites on my face and neck. I have never had any experience with bed bugs in my life and staying at a four star hotel that is a part of Starwood I would assume to be clean and safe. I was so wrong. i checked the bed at twelve thirty AM Saturday night because i started to see more and more bites along my body. My boyfriend came to my room to check my bed and flipped the mattress and there was a bed bug plus you can see eggs and the shelling. I immediately take out my phone to take pictures as my boyfriend is calling the front desk agent. Maria the front desk agent told my boyfriend, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT At this point im so disgusted i went downstairs and showed Ethan the front desk agent the pictures i took along with the bites on my face, neck, etc. Leheo the housekeeper went upstairs with me and my boyfriend. Leheo confirmed it was bed bugs a hundred percent. The front desk agent Ethan confirmed it was bed bugs. At this point me and my three roommates had to pack everything and go to the lobby to figure out how we are going to sanitize all of our clothes. NOT ONCE DID ANY STAFF MEMBER APOLOGIZE ABOUT THE SITUATION INSTEAD THEY WERE EXTREMELY RUDE AND TREATED US POORLY. THEY HAD NO SENSE OF URGENCY OR PROTOCOL. THE MANAGER WAS NO WHERE TO BE FOUND, NO ONE IN CHARGE. THE HOUSE KEEPING MANAGER WAS IN THE BUILDING BUT NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. We had to ask for everything garbage bags, everytime i asked if they could santize something Ethan’s answers would be i dont know i cant guarantee anything. At this point I’m extremely frustrated my roomate she threw out her jacket as well as alot of her belongings. The only thing they can guarantee it to wash our clothing and hot boxing my luggage bag and shoes. As we are trying to take everything out in the lobby and get situated MARIA the front desk agent keeps screaming at us to BE QUIET, WHEN ARE YOU GONNA CLEAR THE LOBBY WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO MOVE YOUR STUFF WE HAVE OTHER GUESTS. I mean the type of service and treatment we were receiving was UNBELIEVABLE. I finally got into my new room at 4 am at this point i have no clothes no shoes i had to borrow my boyfriends clothes i had to shower. i slept two hours and i couldn’t even sleep because the place was not being sanitized nor maintained correctly. There were so many people at that hotel. Our room was not the only one on the fourth floor with bed bugs. There were several other people who got bites. I am the only one who took a picture as evidence. The next morning our clothes are all in the same exact garbage bag as we gave them in with the same exact sticker. I am walking around with slippers and a robe because i have no clothes or shoes. They didnt even wash nor hotbox our clothes. It was ridiculous. I left the hotel with no shoes and my clothes they lied they washed it but when i got home to open everything it wasnt even washed. They are refusing to hot box my luggage and shoes and send it back to me because they are lying about there never being bed bugs when i have proof. I HAVE PICTURES, DOCTORS NOTES, CAMERA SURVEILLANCE. TODD THE GM DOESN“T KNOW WHAT THE HELL HES DOING. THIS PLACE IS FILTHY, SERVICE IS HORRIBLE, THIS PLACE IS A NIGHTMARE. They are now accusing us of lying so now we are taking it to corporate. They DID NOT CALL AN EXTERMINATOR RIGHT AWAY. THIS WAS A HUGE HEALTH HAZARD AND THE STAFF ARE NOT WELL TRAINED. I NEVER IN MY WHOLE LIFE THOUGHT A HOTEL CAN TREAT PEOPLE SO POORLY. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS SAY SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR MISTAKES. BUT THEY WERE NOT WILLING TO EVEN DO THE BARE MINIMUM ITS RIDICULOUS. THIS PLACE NEEDS TO CLOSE DOWN.
SOMEONE IS STILL YET TO GET BACK TO ME ABOUT THIS ISSUE. I STILL HAVE NO RECEIVED ANY OF MY LUGGAGE OR SHOES. ITS RIDICULOUS.

Bed bug! We had a conference there last week and there were bed bugs found in at least three rooms for sure!!! Omg!!! Avoid this hotel for sure!!!

I come here quite often and I have to say this is the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at, especially the bar and lounge. The bar has exceptional service, always friendly and eager to please. Mo and Ricardo are the best bartenders you can even imagine. And Nii, the manager, always makes sure my stay and services are met and exceeded to perfection. Definitely recommend this place to stay!

Overall it is a pleasant hotel with nice staff. The common areas were fine and the hotel is very nice and well run at the conference facilities. There is free wifi with upgrade options. The room I stayed in, however, needed better attention to the details. There were a few housekeeping issues such as a spider web and dead ladybugs in the windowsill, the toilet base needed cleaning, dust and hair under the sink and in the closet, and some walls and doors have fingerprint smudges. The lack of attention was noticeable. Overall the room was ok and pretty standard, but the level of cleaning could be much better.
For dining options, there are only a few restaurants and a small food court within walking distance and not much more. There is a Starbucks and restaurant in the hotel but the hours are limited.

this is the email I sent to the hotel manager still no response.
Good afternoon,
My name is T****I was a guest at your hotel. Friday September 4^th. I check in at 8ish and checked out around 1ish (am). Checking in was a relatively pleasant. The staff was very inviting. The room was well-​kept. After a shower in the room, unfortunately the tub did not drain. Which I made the staff aware of upon checking out. Overall I would say the experience at the hotel was good. It is when I left and checked my account later that I see that I have been charged twice. I book this room through Expedia and then charged again through the hotel. I called back, spoke with Amber. She told me it was incidentals and it was common practice for hotels. The person who checked me in never mention anything about that. If she had it would have been fine. I told Amber that it couldn’t be an incidental because it was the same amount charged twice. She had a bit of an attitude and was very non-​apologetic .Naturally I asked to speak to a manager. She told me there was no manager available. One would be in at 8am and she would have them call. No one called. so I called around 9– 10 am. Got Marie. I explain again what happen she apologized. Said a Manager should be on duty around 1 to 2. She would try to fix it. If she can’t the manger would
of course I wait .I see there is no call .it is now 3:30. I call back I get Marie. She apologizes said that she did give him this message a while ago. She got me to the front desk manager (Terrices??). This guy. Wow non-​apologetic whatsoever very nonchalant! Tells me straight out that he didn’t get back to me because he had other customers are in front of him and that he was going to get back to me basically at his earliest convenience. Then started to tell me that he had to review it. (you mean to tell me that my complaint went un-​reviewed since 4 AM this morning? nobody knew how to reverse this mistake?) Then to top it off 5 – 10 days until I get my money back. ok which I understand because at that point it when the bank clears it and it’s a holiday weekend. but where is the apology from the head of staff? Leadership? Where is the compensation for now my inconvenience for now my holiday weekend? For the screwup that the hotel did? If this was handle different it wouldn’t be such a big deal. And for the life of me I couldn’t understand how two of you three staffers were just so nonchalant, non-​apologetic they could give a care less about my issue. When I spoke to Marie she’s the only one who apologized for the inconvenience! When I first arrived the experience was very warm. Really I’m baffled. I need to know why this is taking so long. I would like a call back from someone higher then the 3 people I spoke to.
I am requesting a prompt response as this is now the fourth time I am contacting somebody about this issue
Thank you,
T^*****

We are here for a family function. Nice facility, but a comedy of errors. First room had a smoke smell, second room safe did not work, pool had no chairs or towels.
Maria and James helpful.
Bedding nice
Family great.

I recently joined the Starwood preferred guest program after staying at several Starwood hotels in a row and having great experiences at each of them. This hotel was a total disappointment by comparison.
I opted to book this hotel via the phone, for 30 $ more than the hotwire rate because the person on the phone assured me I would be placed in a corner room with a queen bed. I did not get a corner room, or a queen bed for my stay and so wasted this additional money, next time I’ll just book through hotwire thanks.
As my wife and I got close to the hotel, we realized we were nearly out of baby wipes, it was late and our kids were exhausted so we went straight to the hotel because the Westin has the kids club program, they advertise on their website, and in the hotel book in the room that they can provide diapers, wipes, cribs etc. Unfortunately this hotel had none of that, and was totally unapologetic about it. I was told by hotel staff to drive to Wal Mart for my baby wipes.
After getting settled into our room, we got the kids dressed, and went to have dinner at the hotel restaurant, which is listed as being open for dinner until 10pm. Imagine my surprise when it was CLOSED at 7:30. So at this point we have to drag our exhausted, travel-​weary children out to a nearby restaurant, and take them shopping.
In the hotel room I found the fixtures barely attached, or not attached at all, screws that are meant to hold the curtain in place are hanging loose on the wall. Great for small children Westin Princeton! How you can leave detached screws just hanging out of the drywall in a «4 star» hotel is utterly beyond me.
The next morning we ordered room service, after calling 3 times to verify the temperature of my wife’s steak and eggs, they sent it up over-​cooked by several orders of magnitude. Additionally they failed to send up half of our breakfast order, which after tasting what they did send up, was actually perfectly fine with me. I will say that the gentleman at the front desk was kind and removed most of the meal from our bill which I did appreciate. What I didn’t appreciate was having to go to breakfast twice in one day.
The housekeeping staff apparently doesn’t believe that guests in this hotel will use the facilities too much, as there was a single roll of toilet paper available to the 4 of us. This led to a rather uncomfortable situation. I’ve never in my life encountered a hotel room as poorly stocked as ours. There were 2 full sized towels, a single hand towel, 1 robe, and 1 roll of toilet paper. Again, for 4 people.
The pool was dirty, full of leaves and bugs. My son was so excited to go in the pool, and he was so upset when it turned out to be so unpleasant. We have stayed in 6 hotels with pools in the past 2 weeks, this was the only one I encountered, indoor, or outdoor in this state. It was a disgrace, green muck all over the sides, clogged and overfull filters. I tried to distract him from his disappointment with the foozball table. Unfortunately it had pieces missing, and no foozball. Similarly there were ping pong tables, but alas no ping pong balls. What a joke!!!
Over-​all, I’m very glad that I had such great experiences at the Meridien in NC, and the Westin in VA, because if I hadn’t, I would almost certainly be soured on the entire hotel chain after this tremendously disappointing experience

I had my daughter’s wedding there. They did a wonderful job with catering. They were very cooperative, and amenable to any requests that I had. The room was beautiful, and the wedding was perfect.

I was at the Westin in Fort. Lauderdale, FL last week and despite the power outage for a day, that hotel out ranks this hotel both staff and food.
After being ignored as the only guest in the restaurant and making an issue because the server was literally sitting on the steps and playing on his phone the manager sent the following to my room and had a conversation with me.
I will give the hotel another chance since I recently am a SPG owner.
In my last 6 years I travel as often as 200 days a year and this was the worst: this site needs to tAke a class from their Ft. Lauderdale site.
Don’t get me wrong the attached is a great gesture.

We booked a room at your hotel for ⁸⁄₇ & ⁸⁄₈ to attend the 2015 ishinryu world championship being held at the hotel. My wife arrived at 11:00am on ⁸⁄₇ to attend some meetings and inquired about early check-​in. She was told there were no room ready and to come back in an hour. She came back at 12:00 and was told he same thing, she came back at 1:00 and was told the same thing. I arrived with our two children at 3:30 and we went to the desk to check in. At this time we were told they are overbooked, have no double bed rooms and probably would not have any for the weekend.
The extremely rude front desk manager explained they overbook the hotel to ensure its sold out. He also suggest my party, as well as the six other parties at the desk in the same situation «Relax», as he was just starting his shift and the people before him should have told us… UM aren’t you the manager?
At this time the front desk manager suggested our names should be put on a list, first come first serve, except platinum members would take priority. I asked the manager what his plan was… He said he would give us a king room and two roll aways. I told him this was unacceptable as I wasn’t going to have a room all weekend that had no walking room due to having to roll aways. His solution was to ignore me and go help someone else, and eventually disappear into the back office. The front desk clerk who was much more equipped to handle this issue, informed me two roll aways would be a fire hazard and agreed that it wasn’t a viable solution, there was even some talk of this being illegal… He gave us two king rooms, even though they were on different floors on different sides of the hotel a least we had beds. Later that night two roll aways were delivered to each room… We turned them away as we no longer needed them.
Saturday we competed in the karate tournament all day, and returned to the room to get changed for the pool… At this time we found a note saying there were no clean towels, but some would be brought to our room. We went to the pool so the kids could swim, which also had no towels. When we came back to the room to shower for the banquet we had paid $ 50 a person for, we still had no towels. We called them desk and they said they would bring towels… An hour later they brought two towels… For four people. So we shared towels and arrived at the banquet almost an hour late due to this.
So you overbook the hotel to ensure it sells out. yet the staff can’t handle a sold out hotel? The irony is unbelievable.
I found most of the management staff incredibly rude and unhelpful, thankfully people such as James at the front desk and a few other staff people did their best to ensure people at least had a place to sleep.
Plain and simple worst hotel ever.

My stays at Westin had been great till some recent unpleasant experience. Most staff I met were very friendly and helpful.

Oh, the Westin. Oh you. I’ve only spent like thousands of dollars there over the years and I have only ever been very very, exTREMEly happy with those purchases.
Ricardo and Mo. You are both efficient, devastatingly handsome bartenders. You both make extremely delicious drinks, you are complimentary, professional, and extraordinarily prompt.
Tuna tartare. Please discover a way to make yourself and fly over to wherever I am. Basically I order tuna tartare everywhere and I compare it to the Westin and it just never compares.
Wings. Blue cheese dressing. Thank you.
The lounge is such a great place to chill. No one is all up in your shit and the bar is small but, as mentioned, extraordinarily efficient. Basically everyone should go to the bar to hang out with… me.
Ricardo and Mo should get a raise. They do a lot to make the place enjoyable. If they didn’t work there then I wouldn’t go there. Seriously.
Bring back the piano. Like where did it go? Who moves a grand piano? Did you get it tuned? Or are you just using it for furniture? Bring it back and I will sing to you. Promise it won’t be less than awful.

Mixed.
— The décor is very old and dated and the rooms feel like Marriott Courtyard rooms
— Very friendly service
— The food is pretty bad
— The customer service is very good
— The rooms are clean
— The closets and bathroom are very small
— The TV is 10 years old and very, very small
Like I said, mixed.

Very lackluster for the Westin brand. Small rooms. bathroom set up is bleak. I would say it is like a worse version of a Sheraton, but without the lounge access.
This particular room’s hot water was not there in the sink, and barely there in the shower/​bath. It was not comfortable at all.
No wine glasses standard in the room.
The tv is an old, small flat screen!!! BLECH! And, they couldn’t even provide HDMI cables for hooking up laptops.
This property over a decade ago I would say was a Marriott. By the interior architecture and some design, it is still evident (outdated key door, awkward bathroom set up)… I find this place, overall, undeserving of the Westin name.
Also, simple things, like
As a platinum member, there wasn’t much of an upgrade amenity offered either.

Back in my road warrior days, I stayed at this hotel a lot. In particular, I stayed here off and on for about 8 months in 2006 – 7, and then a number of times from 2008 – 2010. Needless to say, I am very familiar with this property.
The hotel has been well maintained and the staff are fantastic and knowledgeable. I was definitely treated well, but didn’t get some of the customary items like a «best available room» (or even a room on the SPG floor until I requested one), even though I am a 9-​year Platinum.
The fitness center at this property is a decent size, has good equipment, and is open ²⁴⁄₇.
I am waffling between 3 and 4 stars on this one. On one hand, the hotel was in good condition and the staff treated me well. Unfortunately there are a number of things the hotel no longer does that they used to do, but had I not stayed here before, I would not have known that.
Prior Platinum perks that have gone away since my last stay in 2010 :(
— Welcome letter with a piece of fresh fruit and a truffle in the room (every week)
— Full Platinum lounge (seating, hot breakfast, and hot appetizers in the early evening), now replaced with a snack bar open ²⁴⁄₇
— Formerly always booked on the SPG floor. This time, had to request it even though the property was not full.
— Not offered a room upgrade of any kind.
I decided to go with the 3 star because it was good, but not the way it used to be. The staff are wonderful people. For Platinums who have traveled here throughout the years, you should know some of the former customs are no longer in place.