Starwood Preferred Guest - Sheraton Metechi Palace, Tbilisi - any views?

Planning a weekend away with a twist for the Spring. Tbilisi looks to be pretty interesting and the Sheraton appears to be the best place in town to stay. Does anyone have any views, experience either good or bad?

Thanks!

Swanhunter: Did you ever go to Tbilisi?

Since there don't seem to be any reviews of this property, I thought I'd write up a quick one. I stayed there last week in connection with a business trip.

I had a very pleasant stay at what I'd characterise as a good but not quite top-end Sheraton property. (The price was top-end, though: USD 245 for a Club Room.) On the advice of colleagues (and Flyertalkers) who have been to Tbilisi before, I arranged for the hotel to have a car pick me up at the airport. A very nice man met me (sign in hand: Mr Canuck) and took me out to a new model town car in good shape, with a DVD player playing a jazz concert (he asked first if I wanted to listen/watch the show). It was about a 10-15 minute ride and cost USD 25, billed to my room (which meant I didn't have to worry about getting Georgian currency).

The hotel is not particularly lovely to look at from the outside, nor are the immediate surroundings.

Check-in staff were friendly, professional and efficient (a good thing, as it was about 11:30 pm).

It is an atrium-style building, with rooms opening up onto the interior atrium. I was concerned about noise, but there weren't any problems. They had no non-smoking rooms left (the room was booked for me and I hadn't been able to make a request), and I was worried that a smoking room would reek (as they often do). No worries. The room was very clean, refurbished within the last few years and pleasant-smelling. It was rather small, though. There was no room for a desk, but there was a comfortable arm chair with footstool. The bathroom was reasonably large but nothing special. Note that the water takes about 5 minutes to get really hot, so you need to be careful to either wait for it to reach peak temperature or monitor it carefully if you hop in early, or you'll be scalded.

The best features I experienced at this hotel were the breakfast (included in the room rate) and the view from the restaurant on the top floor where breakfast is served. (There is also some kind of breakfast in the Club Lounge.) The terrific view of the old town served up with my cooked-to-order omelette made me wish I had an extra day to spend in the city.

I stopped in at the Club Lounge after our meeting and before dinner. It is pleasant enough, but nothing special. Snacks and alcoholic beverages didn't appear until a little after six, but coffee and tea were available at all times on request. There is a narrow balcony, albeit one wide enough for chairs, so you can sit outside. There is also one free internet terminal and a printer. No one asked for my room number or other verification that I was entitled to use the Club Lounge.

After our meeting, we went out for dinner as a group to a well-known traditional restaurant about 0.5-0.75 km down the road from the hotel, on the other side of the street (sorry, don't know the name). Do not even think of trying to cross the street (crazy drivers) except at the stoplights, which are about where the restaurant is located. We were walking with two Tbilisi businessmen who attended our meeting (big strong men who didn't seem the type to be worried about jaywalking), and they insisted that we cross at the light (or risk getting mowed down). Dinner was terrific; hint - do not eat more than 50 grams of any single dish, or you will have to crawl out of the restaurant.

One other cautionary note: I wouldn't feel comfortable walking alone at night in the area of the hotel. This view is based partly on the fact that I saw rather a lot of "underemployed youth" loitering in the streets on my way from and to the airport. It's also based on the fact that someone attending the meeting who used to live at the Sheraton (it has some apartments) told me that a few years ago a nanny was grabbed off the street in front of the hotel while waiting for a minibus in early evening, dragged into the bushes and raped by a gang of youth while he lived at the hotel. That's only one story - but one story like that is enough for me.

Not Sheraton-related, but you might also want to know that a new international terminal has opened at TBS, and it's quite spiffy. It looks like a mini-IST, which is not surprising since it seems to have been built by the same company. Budget lots of time for check-in because check-in staff and passport check staff are slow (albeit professional and pleasant). It's possible to pay USD 60 for "Primeclass" service, where you're met at the door of the airport, whisked through check-in and passport control and then deposited in the very stylish Primeclass Lounge. (Several of the airlines flying to TBS have a contract with Primeclass but some don't, such as Air Georgian, so you might want to check with your airline whether you have lounge access before flying.)