Neo --
Thanks for the incredibly comprehensive review of the property -- your comments are most helpful.
I have booked an endlees weekend rate at the property for 154 Euros including breakfast for 2. I am not sure if breakfast is included in other rates as I have seen some sites say it is included as a perk of the hotel, and others have reported otherwise. Do you have an remeberance of same, and how was it if you recall?
I am being upgraded to a newly renovated deluxe room with Sweet Sleeper bed due to my Gold status, and the fitness center is brand new, as well.
I have corresponded with the hotel and have been fortunate to have received e-mails from an employee in perfect English, as well, although others probably do not have her command of the language.
I have learned from her that there is free "street" parking in front of the hotel, but that it might not always be available. I am driving a small Smart 4-4, hatchback (not the mini car that looks like a mini Gremlin from the old AMC) so I am hopeful that theft will not be encouraged by that car.
They are allowing me to bookend my stay around my wife's intervening one -- while staying in the same room, so I will get 2 stay credits, mulitplied by 2 during the current promotion = 4 stays for me and 2 for her. In addition, it will contribute to earning extra SPG bonus points, as well, during the promotion period.
Given that Hilton's rates that approximate these require a non-refundable advance purchase, SPG with these renovations beats the new Hilton, or the Siracusa Scandic, hands down, esp. since it is newly renovated and has a promotion that SPG offers me -- unlike Hilton.
We do not plan on visiting Catania. We will use the hotel as a base to visit Piazza Amerina and the Villa Casale as well as the baroque cities of Noto and Ragusa, and hit a bit of Siracusa, if there is time, althought the majority of our time in that town will be at the Scandic there.
The other major day we plan on visiting Taormina up the road from the Sheraton and walk around for the day and perhaps see some of Etna by driving around near the summit.
Given that Catania is between Siracusa and Taormina, it is better placed than the new Hilton Portorosa (and cheaper too), and it is certainly more luxurious than the Scandic Siracusa.
I am just glad that they now offer SPG points for the stay.
By the way, were you on an award stay or a paid stay while you were there?
Again, thanks for the great trip report and pointers and pitfalls at the hotel! ^