TravelinSperry

Agreed, 80 Euro is a great rate. But it's great for a reason... the hotel is not in walking distance to where you want to be. So you are stuck taking taxis and public transport to/from every time you want to leave the hotel. If this doesn't bother the OP... then the rate is great (and yes, pay cash - do not use points, 1.7 cents redemption is terrible). You want a minimum of 2.7 cents per and likely over 3 cents. Wait.

But personally it does bother me and as such I recommend looking for a hotel on Avenida da Liberdade, which is quite central to the goings on. Perhaps the Sofitel or other nearby property has a similar deal. Worth a look.

Land-of-Miles

Many good properties in Lisbon are in a similar location to the Sheraton even the Four Seasons. Since the tourist sites are pretty spread out you are going to need to take cabs at some point anyway unless you are prepared to walk for a while. From the Tower of Belem it is possible walk back (plus use the Metro a bit) and cover all the core tourist sites as you do so (if you don't mind a long walk). Taxis are reasonably cheap and plentiful in Lisbon, I wouldn't worry about the location which is effectively on the edge of the business district.

slocouple

We just returned from 4 nights at this property, and loved it! The Metro stop at Picoas is literally across the street, and you can get there very easily by Metro from the airport. We walked into town, but you can Metro or taxi easily. Buses are also cheap and plentiful. There is a nice spa and outdoor pool. Club lounge snacks were nice. As Platinum, we were offered a choice of breakfast (which included caviar, salmon, champagne, and all of the usual suspects, including a very good plain yogurt) in the main restaurant or in the lounge, and also received our amenity points. Staff was extremely helpful -- I don't see how you could go wrong, especially at the rate you have. Use cash, not points!

jaejaez

Can you let us know whether they are still charging guests to use the pool?

slocouple

I am sorry, but it is outdoors, so we did not use it during our stay.

If anyone with a US address would like to PM me, I would be happy to mail 2 Metro cards to you. There is no stored value on them, but it would save you a Euro for the two of them and you wouldn't have to buy new cards -- just recharge these. (I had trouble using the ticket machines with my US credit cards, even the ones with true chip and PIN. However, a 5 Euro note will get you 5.15 in credit when recharging. Bigger discounts for bigger purchases. Also, IIRC, single-ride tickets are 1.40, but it only takes off 1.25 when using the refillable card.

carpetbagger

We are planning to stay at Lisbon Sheraton july 25th until july 28th, 3 pax, 2 rooms, with one plat card. SPG page offers 112 € or 10 K. Is the club level interesting? We will not be able to get the breakfast as we sleep long and the lounge in the evening is not tempting as we have dinner in the town. Which other hotel in the center would be good for us, same price range (so no Ritz)?

nologic

Enjoy your stay. People have been putting down the breakfast in the lounge. I recall fresh juices and made to order omelettes and/or pancakes...seemed quite nice and away from the hustle and bustle of the main dining room. Also, recall a nice bottle of port in the lounge for happy hour. Are these now not benefits of the lounge?

Oxon Flyer

I stayed earlier this week. The evening offerings in the lounge were a couple of hot items (bacon wrapped prunes and a chicken dish), canapés, peanuts, olives, potato crisps, fruit, cheese, beer, wine, soft drinks and 4 bottles of Martini of varying dryness (and all sampled ). No port IIRC.

As I was offered full breakfast in the main restaurant as part of the plat recognition package I didn't take breakfast in the lounge, but did pop in to see what was on offer : a reasonable, but limited selection of items - didn't see any facility for cook-to-order items though. But anyway, the selection in the main restaurant is really good and the ambiance is nice too, so I would recommend the main restaurant over the lounge.

nologic

In my experience, the cooked to order items in the lounge are prepared in the kitchen on the lounge, not by someone at an omelette station in the lounge, of this is something they are still providing. But this was before the Plat breakfast benefit, but do non plat Club lounge guests get the option of a free buffet breakfast downstairs? Doubt it. Definitely used to have an open full bottle of port in the lounge too.

micksgirl

I was basically overnighting in Lisbon en route from Morocco, so needed somewhere easy and inexpensive. As mentioned, because of location of the Lisbon airport, I pretty much could have stayed anywhere and got in and out.

Booked a room with points - 10,000. The staff greeted me warmly and welcomingly, offered me a gold amenity (I took the wi-fi), and explained that they were not putting me on a preferred floor because they were giving me the large bed that I'd requested.

The hotel is much nicer than any Sheraton I've stayed in in the States. I was expecting nothing much but a waystation. Was pleasantly surprised. Room was well designed, with a GREAT tub (and after two Moroccan taxis, a train that the air conditioning broke down on, a flight-with a wait in a nonsmoking area in which people were smoking, and another cab and 10 hours of travel, I needed). The usual crappy sunshine products (my perennial complaint about sheratons) but it was one night. And I could wash my clothes, etc. because my big bag was checked through to home - even though I had clean clothes for the next day, it was nice to put clean things into the bag and not schlepp around travel ugh. Minibar with water (didn't get the usual free water b/c I wasn't in a preferred room and had I pushed it I probably could have).

Would normally have gone out in Lisbon but was tired so relaxed in the room, caught up on email (Morocco was SPOTTY on internet) and other things, reprinted my US boarding passes so I could have the precheck indicator. Everyone lovely.

Ate in the expensive restaurant upstairs with a great view. Service was amazing and incredible selection of wines by the glass and they were very happy to have a discussion of what you want, what's best with what etc and because I have some experience with local wines, they were very accommodating about making sure I got what I wanted. Very fresh, innovatively prepared seafood. Quiet and lovely.

Slept like a baby in the room. No sounds from other rooms at all. Checkout super easy, in a cab, and to the airport in less than 20 minutes.

Because it's not downtown, if you want to get a true feeling for Lisbon, this isn't the place. I'd definitely recommend it for work or for a situation like mine, or if I were staying for a longtime because it's easy to get to the fun stuff. And I thought it was a great deal for the points.

nologic

I don't know how you can comment on the location if you don't know Lisbon?

I think this is a great location: it is across the park from the Ritz Four Seasons and Lisbon's only Michelin 1 star restaurant named "Eleven," (so maybe they have a bad location too?)...high floors have amazing views of Lisbon and beyond.

I'm not sure what you consider "downtown" but Lisbon has numerous districts that one would want to go to, from Bario Alta, to Alfama (old town w castle), to the central waterfront and the Docas...and they sort of each are a long walk or taxi or trolley (Docas are further), but taxis are cheap...everything is EUR 3-5 away. All in all, I think this is a very convenient location.

steppie

Stayed there last year and thought it was lovely, with a nice club room.

They were very helpful in getting two handbags as a surprise for my daughters (twins) 40th birthday....handbags that they had been waitlisted (yes, waitlisted) for months is the U.S.
Loved Lisbon, took public transportation all over and when lost someone walked with me to get where I was going. Very friendly people. Have fun and enjoy the Sheraton.

FozBoy

I have been staying at this property an average of 30+ nights per year for the last 6 or 7 years. Overall, I have a good opinion of it and think it's a very nice price/quality ratio if you are SPG Plat (with lounge acces, lobby restaurant buffet breakfast, free parking and free access to pool and spa, all of which are for a fee if you're not Plat). Recently, however, rates have been going up, probably due to an increase in demand (standard rooms used to go for 100/115 EUR, with some promos for as little as 90EUR; nowadays it's hard to get a standard room for less than 140 EUR, especially on weekdays).

My big issue with this property is that they simply DO NOT DO Platinum Suite upgrades. It's basically an untold hotel policy. No matter how many suites are available and idle they will not, in any circumstance, upgrade Plat guests to a suite. They will voluntarily and automatically upgrade you to a club room, but it seems that hotel management feels like they're beeing ripped off if they upgrade their Plat guests to suites. I guess if you take the trouble of arguing this with FD and call the MOD and complain a bit they would relent, but it takes a lot of hassle.

So I feel this strikes this property's VERY POOR SPG RECOGNITION... in reality, all the amenities one gets by being SPG Plat at this hotel are those that are mandatory (lounge access, spa access, gym access) or included with a club room reservation (lobby restaurant breakfast buffet, free parking). Where it is left to the property's discretion (for instance, suite upgrades) they simply, out of hotel policy, choose not to acknowlledge one's Plat status, and refuse to go over and beyond to reward customer loyalty to Starwood (and in my case, to that very property).

Oxon Flyer

Welcome to FT and the wonderful world of the spg program.

Based on the comments here on the forum, this issue is probably the biggest single cause of confusion, disappointment and dissatisfaction in the whole SPG program.
The platinum benefit is an upgrade to 'Standard Suites'. The suites at the Sheraton Lisbon are all 'Executive Suites'. SPG do not make public whether Executive Suites are classified in the Standard Suite pool or not, so we have no way of knowing whether you are being denied an upgrade under the terms of the SPG program or not.

FWIW, I also was 'only' upgraded to a club room, when suites were available, on my last visit.

One extra datapoint though : a Suite Night Award, which is under the terms of the SPG program is also only applicable to Standard Suites, did clear for the Executive Suite.

nologic

This hotel is extremely Platinum friendly to random guests...and even more so to returning guests. I have been UG'd to a terrific suite prob 2 out of 10 times. I always feel they try...I discussed this with them recently and they have more Platinum guests than can accommodate...but they care and try their best. The on-site guest services ambassador also tries hard for the hotel's elite guests. I think this is a really terrific hotel. My only complaint is the club lounge food and drinks are poor, IMO. Also, the bathroom amenities are standard Sheraton...but overall, I think it's a terrific hotel in terms of price/value, and Platinum recognition.