JD623

Quick question. I booked a room at the Sheraton Athlone as part of the European sale and the room with the lowest rate was a 'family room'. Anyone been and have any idea what this means? The website didn't give any info.

Thanks!

JD623

To answer the question in my previous post, a family room had two beds and was a bit longer than an average room.

I take it that not too many people on the forum have stayed here as there really aren't any posts talking about it. I've stayed three times over the past few months, so I'll share some info about it.

Pros:
Location is great. It's in the center of town and adjacent to a shopping mall. The food in the main restaurant is pretty good and the prices for both food and wine are pretty reasonable considering it's a hotel. It's about a year and a half old and still looks pretty new. Some rooms have a view of the river and all the rooms we've been in have had refridgerators. Also its relatively easy to get to from Dublin, as the Athlone train station is less than a five minute walk from the front door of the hotel and there is underground parking, making it a good hub if you're looking to explore central Ireland. My wife has gotten massages in the spa and gives it the thumbs up.

Cons:
Athlone is not very exciting during off peak as the castle is closed and there aren't too many other attractions in town. Despite good food and reasonable prices, service in the restaurant hasn't been great. Their system was not recognizing me as gold, and instead showed me as preferred plus, and staff weren't overly helpful in trying to sort that out. General service has been spotty. We stayed for a couple of value added weekends where some extras were meant to be thrown in and weren't all honored. For some reason it feels like there's a lot of foot traffic through the lobby.

Verdict:
I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this place, but there are very few Starwoods in Ireland and the location isn't too bad if you're looking to explore outside of Dublin. Service hasn't been great and despite being a Sheraton, I haven't felt like I was a Preferred Guest.

SanDiego1K

Has anyone stayed here with platinum status? How were you treated?

Is there a charge for parking? internet?

Has anyone also stayed at the Conrad Mount Juliet who could compare them? The latter is certainly more expensive - which actually might drive me to chose this hotel even the Conrad is superior.

The above post was very much appreciated, as would be additional information.

tommy777

I stayed at the property for 1 night in July.

It's located right downtown and at check in we were assigned a "junior suite" for both rooms I had booked. It was pretty much a larger hotel room and nothing special. I called down and asked if they had anything available in the tower (which is featured on all marketing material). The manager came up to our room and handed us the key to the Purple suite, (room 482 on the 10th floor). The suite had floor to ceiling windows and an amazing view of the castle and all of Athlone. Huge bathroom with separate shower and a modern jacuzzi. Very cool, great upgrade.

As a platinum, we got offered the points and access to the club for both rooms. The club had a coffee machine and plenty of soft drinks, but nothing was served there. Full breakfast was included for plats (served in the restaurant), free parking in the garage as well. Wireless internet was free for everyone

The pool area was good. There was a steam room and sauna plus various water gizmos around the various pools for massage etc. Very strange, but cool. The jacuzzi was cold while the pool was warm

They did charge us 2 Euros for a bathing cap, required for the pool.

All in all a very solid property with good plat recognition, would definitely stay again.

RAPC

Thanks for the update tommy777

It is one of those properties that I've considered for a weekend break, but never quite get around to booking. Might be a bit higher up the list based on your report.

IrishStephen

I recently had a visit to the Sheraton Athlone and I have to say that I was very surprised. I had been told by a friend of mine who is also Platinum that on his visit when the property opened he did not receive any Platinum recognition. This kept me away from the property which was a shame as its only a few hours drive.

I recently spoke to my Platinum Concierge on the phone making another booking and she raved about the place so I thought I would give it a try. I am glad that I did.

I contacted the hotel before making the booking and spoke to a wonderful young lady by the name of Sarah. While all the staff that I met are fantastic at the property I would suggest possibly making Sarah a point of contact. I asked her straight out how the hotel dealt with Platinum guests and she assured me that if there was a suite available they would have no issue whatsoever in placing me in it.

I was given a fantastic suite for two nights and when I extended my stay I was moved to another amazing suite due to a bride and groom checking in and needing the suite I was using.

When I arrived there was a full information pack awaiting me from Sarah complete with a map, a 10% discount card for the adjoining shopping centre and other little useful items. I had my young daughter with me and I must say little things like providing two bottles of orange juice for her everyday to the room along with water for myself made me feel like a very valued guest. There has been a GM change here who is closely connected to the property and things are running very well. Name recognition at the property was outstanding with almost all the staff knowing my name.

Breakfast for Platinum's included and its very nice. The chap that greeted me every morning for my breakfast was fantastic and took special care for anything we required. I used the spa while there and I can say that its one of the best I have used in quite sometime. It's up there with the Bliss Spa at the W Hong Kong and the spa in the Sheraton Grande Bangkok.

Overall I have to say that this property will most likely be my new home away from home in Ireland when looking for a break. I used to do about 15 stays at the Sheraton Fota, Cork before but since it has left SPG I think that the Sheraton Athlone will be its replacement.

Any issues I had at the property were quickly dealt with and apologies made. Problems arise in every property sometimes but its always interesting to see how they are dealt with and this hotel offers a very solid team. Long may it last.

I have already made a booking for a return trip next month and will probably visit again in September/October.

If you are in the area, check it out. Athlone is a little gem of a town.

I am rarely surprised let alone blown away but this hotel could teach a few Starwood Properties a trick or two.

Say hello to Sarah for me if you visit.

Stephen

YEG USER

IrishStephen,

Thank you for posting your report. I'll be visiting Ireland in a few weeks and have been considering booking a night at the Sheraton Athlone, but was undecided. I know that as a gold I won't have nearly as good of an experience as you, but since you have given the property such a good review I think I'll have to go ahead and book!

catharsis

Just a quick update - I'm a more regular marriott and Accor stayer but have been a member of SPG since '06 - probably referred by Delta or some such IIRC.

In any case, having no 'chain hotel' available for my recent stay in Athlone, and based upon the fact I absolutely had to stay in some Sheraton properties early in 2011 I thought I'd book into this property for the weekend and give SPG a chance to win some business.

Imagine my surprise when we arrived to be greeted by a very courteous FD clerk (or possibly manager) who explained that "'you had been upgraded (to the same 'purple suite' mentioned above, room 482) and thank you for your membership of SPG."

My assumption here (I know the hotel was fully occupied on both nights) is that the hotel followed the airline policy and upgraded the SPG guests before the ordinary punters. In any case it was a pleasant surprise and gave me a very good impression of the Sheraton brand.

Other comments to add... FD staff were VERY helpful - when we initially arrived our suite was still being cleaned and we were given another room in which to freshen up and change for an event. Our bags were then taken by the hotel and placed in our suite awaiting our return.

Room 482 is of course lovely, with a particularly good bathroom including standalone jacuzzi placed in front of floor-to ceiling windows with a wonderful view of the town and river beyond.

Breakfast was fine - although I could not see any 'egg station' I'm sure i could have had an opmellete or other 'special order' eggs if I were so inclined (which I wasn't) - apart from that it was very much the standard hot and cold buffet items i would expect in a Sofitel or Marriott.

Parking was in the common shared car park with the shopping centre with which the hotel building is co-located, the hotel desk will validate your parking whenever you wish and there is no limit on the number of visits per day. (My only issue is that the Sheraton is VERY well signposted on all the roads right up until the point where you find yourself driving into a shopping mall parking garage - where there are no signs to confirm you have not made an error somewhere ... but that's my fault and not the hotel's - you have all been warned)

In the end, I would stay there again, the 'basic' room we saw when freshening up also had a strong bathroom and overall was of good standard and the suite was lovely.

If you are looking for a hotel in Athlone it beats the nearby Radisson comfortably, and the hotel 'does what it says on the tin'

In my own particular circumstances, while my existing loyalties remain pretty much intact, I will now move some 'flexible' stays to sheraton (in fact I'll be booking another 3 nights in a Le Meridien property as soon as I send this post) based solely upon this hotels courteous approach and the upgrade received as a lowly 'preferred member'.

YEG USER

I'm actually writing this post from the lobby of the Sheraton Athlone right now. I wish I had been able to read your post a few hours ago as it would have saved me much confusion. I followed the signs (which were great) and then backed my car out of the garage ramp because I thought I had taken a wrong turn.

I'm going to hold off on making any other comments until I check out in the morning.

catharsis

LOL, we did EXACTLY the same

IrishStephen

Stayed at the Sheraton Athlone once again last weekend and had a fantastic stay. I had Sunday Lunch in the restaurant and found the food/wine/service to be excellent. The service I had on the day was very attentive and I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to trying their evening restaurant when I return. The only thing I didn't like was when eating Sunday dinner there was quite a large overflow of people from their cheaper restaurant next door which made a nice relaxing dining room into somewhat of a cafe towards the end of the meal. I can understand the financial necessity of it but when paying a premium it would be an idea to possibly locate in house guests further away from this entrance or split the area in some way.

YEG USER

So, it has been quite some time since I stayed at the Sheraton Athlone. But I'm finally making time to post about my experiences. I held off posting the day after I stayed because I wanted to be able to compare this property to some other chain hotels I had booked in Ireland (plus I was disappointed for another reason, discussed at the end of this post, that I wanted to be able to reflect on things rationally to avoid having this other item cloud my judgement).

Getting there: as previously posted, the hotel is well signed, but they really should do something to let you know that the underground parkade is the proper place to go.

Check-in: I was greeted as a gold member by a very courteous person. Received the room that was booked. AFAIK we did not receive an "enhanced" room at all. The hotel did not seem very busy during our stay, so I find it hard to believe that there was no enhanced room available.

Room: new and modern; quite nice.

Other service: I stopped by the front desk to ask if there was a connection fee, etc. for local calls (the hotel I stayed at the night before had one). The girl I spoke to had absolutely no clue what I was talking about. I used my calling card from the room, and there was a room charge. IMHO the front desk staff should be knowledgeable regarding things the hotel charges for. That being said, the connection charges were the most reasonable of any property I stayed at in Ireland.

Late check-out: I did not want or ask for late check-out as we needed to leave early the next morning. I phoned the front desk to ask for a wake up call, and the response was that I could not have a late check-out. The guy I spoke to did not speak English very well. I had to explain that I didn't want late check-out and that I only wanted a wake up call. I really didn't know what to make out of being denied elite benefits that were not requested in the first place.

Dining: I can't comment on evening meals. We wanted to get a light snack in the bar as the posted menu looked good, but it turned out that they only served food for limited hours, even though the bar was still going to be open for a few hours. This is something common in Ireland, so I won't judge them too negatively on this. That being said, I do think that it is kind of ridiculous that you can't get a late meal at a higher end American chain hotel such as the Sheraton when they are still serving drinks, etc. We ended up going to the Chineese take-away place around the corner. We did enjoy the breakfast in the morning.

Fitness centre: Did not use the exercise equipment, but it looked like it was a good place to work out.

Pool facilities:

- Nice pool(s). I only wish that the whirlpool was a hot tub. There were a few Irish people in the whirlpool at the same time as me who made the same comment.

- I loved the steam room. This is probably the best steam room I've ever been in. I liked the lower light level with the "twinkling" lights on the ceiling. Also, the whole time I was in the steam room there was a nice level of steam. I find that many steam rooms go through a phase where they pump in lots of steam to the point of making the steam room unbearable; this was not the case here as the room stayed hot but at a level that could be tolerated for an extended period.

- Staff were very friendly, but we didn't like the procedure at closing (I'm not sure if this is a hotel thing, or is common place in Ireland). If closing time at a hotel pool is 9:00pm, I'm used to be able to use the pool until 9:00pm. Here we had to be out of the change facility by 9:00pm.

- Check-out - very efficient.

- Other - I had a few Euro traveller's cheques from a few years ago that I wanted to use up (well below the gold benefit limit). I was able to cash these without any problem.

Overall rating: B (our stay was good, but far from being great). I tried to not have the following item cloud my judgement with respect to the items posted above.

And now for my rant...

So, after I made my first post in this tread I received a PM from a person claiming to be the GM of the Sheraton Athlone. Prior to responding, I googled his name and things appeared to be legit (and his name is posted in numerous places around the property). Do date this person has 0 posts on FT (and appeared to join after my post); if this PM was not actually from the GM of the hotel, then please accept my appologies for the following criticism.

The PM I received read as follows:

So, of course I send an email off to this guy but never did hear back. I was really hoping for an upgraded room. When I checked in, as far as I could tell I didn't even get a better type of room that my gold benefits should have provided. I was really disappointed and somewhat PO'd. I wouldn't have minded if he replied and said that there was nothing he could do, but to get my hopes up and then not deliver (without any communication) was a very bad customer service move IMHO.

Yes, I realize that perhaps I should have sent a follow up email, but I didn't want to hound this guy as if I was suddenly entitled to an upgrade.

catharsis

I would sort of hope given the several typos within the message you posted that it was not from the GM of the property

(... to be fair I'm often a lot less careful to check for typos when sending PM's on a BBS than I would be in email or making a public post)

IrishStephen

Hi there,

It is sad to hear that you had some bad experiences at the hotel. I have at this stage had several stays and look forward to returning again soon. I would not at all be surprised if the GM did email you but there might have been some sort of breakdown. I have the email address of the GM and have spoken with him before. If you want to PM me your details I will happily provide you with the contact information that I have. I am sure that he would love to hear about any problem you had.

On one occasion I had a problem and once I brought it to his attention it was fixed very quickly.

Cheers

S

YEG USER

Thanks for the offer, but I don't think it is necessary for me to contact him. I likely won't be back in Ireland for a few years, and IMHO it was partly a case of me getting my hopes up for something I wasn't entitled to anyways. I did complete the SPG survey and gave the hotel good marks where it was deserved, and poor marks on Gold recognition. It was one night over a month ago (and it wasn't bad, "B" isn't a bad grade), and I don't really want to be bothered to write about it anymore (beyond the feedback I provided earlier for the benefit of my fellow FT'ers).