A Review of the Westin Peachtree Plaza
I’ve stayed at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta twice recently. The Westin is the second-tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere. On the first trip, I had a breathtaking view from the 52nd floor. On the second trip, I brought my four-year-old Jacob along and we had a less-spectacular-but-still-good view from the 22nd floor.
In both cases, I took Greyhound from Birmingham to Atlanta. On the first trip, I took a cab from the Atlanta Greyhound station and then walked back a couple of days later. On the second trip (with Jacob) we took the much wiser approach of taking MARTA from the Greyhound station to Peachtree Plaza as it’s only two stops north.
This is probably one of my favorite hotels. I held meetings in the lobby on both trips; it gives off an “important things happen here†vibe (to me, anyway), and it’s a very easy place to get into “business mode,†even when you have a four-year-old in tow.
The hotel has a very nice gym with a bowl of apples and oranges available when you enter. I’ve not spent a lot of time running on treadmills (or running, period) but I’m learning that hotel gyms are great places to stay focused.
This could largely be availability bias, but I’ve noticed some basic maintenance issues with a lot of the places I’ve stayed in recent months, from a toilet that didn’t flush to power outlets that didn’t work to sinks that had issues with drainage. I would expect this at places costing under $50 a night, but it’s a 
mild annoyance at pricier hotels (Embassy Suites, Westin, etc). On my most recent stay, the drain stopper on our bathroom sink was broken. Again, not a terribly big deal, but still annoying.
The major drawback is that the glass elevator to the revolving restaurant on the top floor is closed for renovations. This was disappointing given my older son’s love of elevators, but there were plenty of other interesting elevators to ride at the Westin and at other nearby businesses. I look forward to returning after the renovations are complete. It’s also a great location for proximity to dining and entertainment, and there’s a  Joseph A. Bank across the street in case you forget to bring a dress shirt (like I did on the most recent trip).
