Hi there. I am a Malaysian and grew up travelling up and down to Langkawi. I made the fatal mistake of checking in to the Sheraton Langkawi weekend Feb 2013 for what was supposed to be a relaxing getaway. Sheraton Langkawi is deceivingly listed as a 5 Star hotel. This is beyond a joke. The hotel can barely pass for a 3- star. The hotel is simply catering to mass group bookings from tourists across China and Eastern Europe. The hotel is completely run down, with damaged wooden planks around the pool, broken deck chairs and poorly maintained surroundings. Staff are trying their best but are clueless. There are long queues for check in and check out. This is NOT the paradise Langkawi you deserve. Go elsewhere on Pantai Cenang, or Andaman, or Westin Langkawi. Much better.

We received the warmest welcome from the staff! The room was clean and well serviced. The staff at the pool made the day, we enjoyed drinks and food by and in the pool daily! A special thank you to the food & beverage manager who surprised us with many treats, a romantic breakfast on the beach which had everything! We were supported by all the staff when we were wanting a place to dine and things to do, they made all the calls to book restaurants and any shopping we wanted they rang ahead as to not waste a trip. There is an array of monkeys, EVERYWHERE!!! They are harmless but leave an impression when they all come towards you. If you feed them, they want more! We enjoyed our stay, hope you do too!

There is no change from the 2012 comments - don't believe the management response to TripAdvisor complaints.
The Hotel Manager and his Management Team should make a career move ASAP as they are not competent or capable of operating a facility of this size. The one good thing to say about this Hotel is that the views were great probably because the managers had no control over this!
I have visited this Island at least twice a year for the past 5 years and stayed in many hotels with the same star rating, but I have never been so disappointed in the quality of service. The Managers should be ashamed to call themselves Managers with the way they control their staff and treat their guests and the way they treat the environment they are custodians of.
Check in was not a good experience as there was people all around the front desk complaining and the staff lacked people skills. It was only after I checked in that they informed me that my special accommodation requests would not be honoured i.e. a non-smoking room with a double bed. They would not provide me with a room with a double bed and the best they could do was spray a smoking room. This was after booking the room a week in advance and the hotel e-mailing me to tell me my room would be ready on arrival; why they could not have let me know in the e-mail that they had no non-smoking rooms with a double beds makes no sense to me.
The room was $432.00 p/night the mini-bar was never stocked and the condition of the fridge was filthy for the 5 days I stayed at the Hotel and almost all the sockets did not work. The floor and wall tiles in the bathroom looked as if they had never been scrubbed and the fittings in the shower had never been replaced. For the duration of my stay Staff never once checked the conditions of my room.
Breakfast was a disaster; none of the waiters were there to provide a service, if you asked someone for tea or coffee they would either disappear and not come back or if you complained that it was cold they would go away and never come back. I saw several waiters taking food from the buffet and going in the kitchen to have their breakfast. There was no one checking whether food was running out and the Kitchen Staff only started preparing food when they found the buffet had run out which created a frenzy when the food finally did materialise. The egg counter was pathetically slow; they were simply not competent in the service they were providing; the tables took forever to be cleared and then they were wiped down with dirty rag.
The bar in the Lobby Lounge was the poorest I have ever seen (this is a duty free island!), and the barman was rarely behind the bar, when he was he was more interested in phoning his buddies than serving customers and I never saw a waiter serving the tables. The lounge seating was dirty and looked as if they had never been cleaned and the lobby toilets were filthy.
The gardens looked as if they had never been maintained and were reverting back to the jungle and no maintenance performed on the outside lighting. There were canoes and a hobby cat at the pool side that had never been maintained with the undergrowth growing all around them.
Staff was not managed or supervised and quite simply allowed to do what they liked and many took advantage of the situation. There was quite a few Staff, despite the lack of management control, who tried their best to make the guests welcome but this was few and far between.

Firstly: Getting there--it is not that far from the airport so a taxi is ok. This was my first stop on a self-made highlight tour of Western Malaysia. Thanks to research on TripAdvisor I chose Langkawi 1st (by plane), Penang next (by ferry) and Kuala Lumpur last (by bus). I made no plans, booked no tours, so when I got off the plane in Langkawi, I walked over to the first tour provider I felt a connection to. He gave me a good deal: 220 Ringitts for transport to the hotel and a personal car/driver tour guide for the next day for 6 hours. So now you have something to bargain with!I
Secondly: Why Langkawi and why this hotel--I chose Langkawi first to relax and get a tan and the Sheraton because I heard from locals that I knew that it has a REAL beach. PLEASE COME TO THIS HOTEL--YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!! The pool area is wonderful and looks like the hotel pics, and if you are brave and have LOTS of sunscreen, you can venture down to the beach and pull a chair into the shallow water and lay out. BE CAREFUL not to burn! The signs say beware of jelly fish--I saw people swimming so I ventured in, wading fist and looking for trouble, but found none, so I went in the ocean. That does not mean you should not be careful.
Thirdly: the Hotel and restaurants--the rooms are constructed on Malay style "huts" up on the hills with a large open bus as your transport there. Be patient for the shuttle, and once settled in--walk it if you can. There are about 4 rooms to each "hut". I had a snack at the restuarant at the bottom of the stairs after check-in and then breakfast there. First time, I waited and waited for my small order, and finally had to go inside and ask: the result was that the hostess took my order and did not tell the waiter. So lesson there: follow up on your order if a waiter does not take it!! I did not eat at any of the other places, so cannot comment on those.
Fourthly: The monkeys--follow the hotel policy and do not attempt to feed or get too close, but expect them to be brave enough to come up onto your porch, possibly up to your table while you are close by and steal your sugar!! If you have a zoom lens, get as close as you safely can and then zoom in for the shot.
AND THEN: Please wake up early to catch the most amazing sunrise. If you are alone, just breathe and take it in; if you are with someone, take them with you, hold their hand and kiss them when the sun comes up!! Don't forget your camera.
Special shout out to the front desk staff, the bell person at the front where you leave your luggage, and to the nice bartenders. Thanks for a short but great stay!!