My spouse and I have always enjoyed this hotel and gave it a rave review earlier this year but this visit has changed our opinion. We booked a room on the Club Floor as we have before but there have been many changes which are not for the better - my partner noted in August that things seemed to have changed but thought we should give it another try.
The room was lovely, clean and comfortable as always. Front desk check-in took a long time even though we had booked several months in advance - it is the slowest check-in we have experienced here - close to ten minutes with someone who had difficulty understanding English, and there was no queue to start with.
We do need to give credit to the concierge - he was most helpful with respect to buses on Saturday and going downtown. Kudos to him.
It was the lounge and lack of restaurant downstairs which disappointed us. The lounge in the past always had fresh fruit and biscuits after breakfast and through the afternoon and evening but not anymore! Crisps and nachos are the order of the day. For those of us who are not crisps (potato chips) and nachos with sauces fans this is a real disappointment. Coffees, cappuchinos, English Breakfast tea as well as some fruit teas were available (I was looking for Earl Grey and there were four packets at any one time compared to 20 of each of the others). I was looking for fresh water but could not find that either. Dirty dishes seemed to be picked up once in a while and rarely was there an attendant present in the lounge. Where there used to be a good assortment of excellent quality wines, now there are two very poor quality wines both of which give headaches after the first couple of sips. My partner and I gave up after the first few sips each night regardless of colour.
There was also much difficulty in accessing the internet in the lounge - many people with ipads, tablets, and myself on a laptop were not able to access internet/wifi although it is supposed to be complimentary. At one point on Sunday evening the IT gentleman was called for to assist a guest. He arrived in the club lounge and after two minutes he gave up and told the guest that he would have to do without internet access. That is not service! There are reasons people do not wish to use the computers in the lounge e.g. banking!!!
The lounge has become noisy as well in the evenings with guests turning up the televisions and raised voices in the absence of attendants so it is no longer a pleasurable place to spend an evening.
Lastly we enquired about having dinner elsewhere than the very noisy American Sports Bar. While the Garden Restaurant advertises that it has evening dining, during our three night stay, it was not open at all! In the past two years we have stayed here, the restaurant has only been open once!
We dined in the Sports Bar on Friday night and endured noise and lacksadaisical service, went to downtown London for Saturday night after friends invited us to join them and we were advised the Sheraton restaurant would not be open, and went next door to the Marriott hotel for Sunday night after again being advised that the restaurant was not open. We had a wonderful meal in the Tuscany Restaurant, Marriott Hotel.
Will we come back? Not sure at this point. Will look at our other options on the airport strip and see if there is something else which offers better.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
January 23, 2013
Dear hushed_presence
Thank you for your feedback, we are sorry to read about your disappointment with the check-in and club lounge experience. Our club lounge offering and operating hours remained unchanged since the opening of the facility in 2006.
Having investigated your comment with the staff in the club lounge they cannot recall any day with shortages of fresh fruits or earl grey tea, we can also confirm the wine offered is purchased from a reputable UK supplier, meeting all our brand requirements and we haven’t had any negative comments considering the large volumes consumed throughout the company. Following your comment, we already proceeded to re-instate our offering of biscuits.
In regards of the outlets openings at Sheraton Skyline, we ensure that our offerings are sufficient based on the business needs, however we are always pleased to personalize any meal experience to accommodate guest requests.
Thank you again for your constructive feedback, should you wish to review more in detail any of your comments, do not hesitate to contact us directly.
Regards
Marco Di Tullio
Director of food and beverage
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.