ACfly

Hi,

Just came back from South Africa a few weeks back on business. I stayed at the Sheraton Pretoria and the Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel Cape Town. A review of the Arabella will come later.

The two hotels couldn't be anymore different.

Sheraton Pretoria:

The Sheraton Pretoria (SA) is located right across the street from the South African government assembly. The 7 storey hotel is located in a rather residential part of Pretoria.

I had reserved a Tower room (Club Room) - which entitled me to the Tower Lounge, which offered free breakfast and afternoon snacks; and free internet access in the lounge. Tower rooms (even though there was no tower - let's just call it club rooms) were located on the 6th and seventh floor of the hotel.

The tower room that I stayed in was rather dated, and relatively small – a queen size bed, small marble working table and a love seat and coffee table. The tv was housed in the dresser directly in front of bed. The bathroom was quite large - all green marbled (floor to ceiling) with a separate all glass shower (which leaked water onto the bathroom floor when I used the shower) and a fairly large deep soaking bathtub. There were 2 complimentary bottled water located in the bathroom (I was a bit leery of drinking it - it was the "Sheraton" branded water (since when did Sheraton branded its own water). A bathrobe (not the most comfortable) and a pair of slippers were in the closet.

Be warned – don’t get a room facing Church street, which I got. It was very noisy. Even on the 7th floor, I could hear the cars and truck moving by.

There was no high-speed internet in the room. I had to used dial up via phone to access my email. The hotel just installed high speed internet in the lobby and the club lounge - but one had to pay for a internet card at the front desk which cost about $25 US (135 Rand) for 2 hours (Rather expensive for South Africa). The wireless did not extend to the room so, one had to be using the computer in the Club lounge or lobby. I could not imagine a lot of takers for the service.

The club lounge was located in the lobby of the 6th floor. There were two extremely slow Internet dialup computers. I was very disappointed in the food offerings. For breakfast there were cold cuts, all sorts of breads (although not that fresh), a small selection of cheese, smoked salmon (which wasn’t all that fresh and rather fishy for my taste). The only thing I liked about breakfast in the lounge was the prepress coffee. The evening houvre d’ wasn’t any better – A collection of soft drinks. A rather limited selection of alcohol and one cake and one selection of pastries. They had the same cake for the three nights I was there. It was a coffee cake that was not worth eating. The pastry was awful – it tasted like a stale bun with whipped cream on top. Service tended to be rather slow.

Two of the three nights, I ate in the hotel restaurant. They have one formal restaurant and one informal (Cant remember the name). The first night, I ate at the formal restaurant – I was the only one in the restaurant that whole evening. The food was not that great. I had the lamb (and it was way too fatty for my liking). I ordered sparkling water (thinking maybe they would bring me Perrier), but to my surprise, they brought “Sheraton” branded sparkling water! Who knew Sheraton had their own collection of branded water.

The second night, I had dinner at the informal restaurant, which turned out to be an all buffet. There was a variety of hot and cold food to choose from. There was also a carve beef roast. Again, I wasn’t quite impressed with the taste of the food – blackened chicken tastee more bland than blackened. Overall food was rather bland. I nearly threw up on the seafood salad – it was beyond fishy.

Overall, not a great hotel in my mind. I probably won’t stay there again.

rhetor

Any updates on this hotel?

Oh, and any other information about getting to/from the hotel from the airport?
Any other experiences with treatment of Platinums?

bigbrownboy

I was there last month and was really pleased...

It was a relatively cheap SPG50 rate and was upgraded to a nice and huge room at check in (I'm Gold). We were there the night South Africa won the Rugby World Cup, so it was expectedly noisy at night!

We rented a car and drove to Pretoria--first time driving in SA and was just fine for us. Parking was 80 ZAR/day with in/out. Wireless internet in the room was also 80 ZAR/day and plenty fast. With no remotely clean clothes for the long flights home, we had some laundry done--giving it late at night and receiving back early in the morning with no problems.

Nice folks/stay all around for us.

TravelTil

As a Platinum, I was upgraded to the Executive levels, with access to the Executive Lounge.

This was just on two years ago, but again hiring a car at the airport in Jo'burg and driving to Pretoria was fairly painless (even as a single female!). You get to drive very fast, and it's very easy. Having a car made it fairly easy to drive to the local sites as well.

rhetor

Thanks, bigbrownboy and TravelTil!

NHFL9

Any recent experiences with this hotel? Thanks in advance!

ajnaro

As a Platinum-level SPG member, was upgraded to a 'junior' suite, i.e., one room with a king bed, a sofa, and a desk. I was told that all of the real suites were occupied, but that they are available for Platinum upgrade. I was invited to have breakfast either in the club lounge or downstairs in the main restaurant. The downstairs buffet was fantastic -- nothing like the above descriptions of the club breakfast. I was also offered free mini-bar and free wireless internet in the room. The internet was slow, but usable for e-mail. There is no valet parking, but paid parking is available in the hotel basement with in-out privileges.

ajnaro

Back at the Sheraton Pretoria again, and everything is exactly the same as last time. In particular, no suite upgrade even though a suite was showing as available on spg.com and the Platinum concierge called the hotel and confirmed the availability of the suite. The duty manager, who is an extremely personable and delightful person, came up with some wild story about the suite being cleaned and available, but nonetheless not ‘perfect’ and so not really available after all. As it was already late at night and the manager was so pleasant, I did not push the point. She offered some nice-looking edible amenities, but I am unfortunately not really into that sort of thing. The moral is that if you have SPG Platinum credentials, and are looking for a suite upgrade, this is not the hotel for you. The best they offer is club-level upgrade to a sort of junior suite with a queen bed and complimentary mini-bar and internet (download speed extremely slow at 0.11 Mbps). The breakfast in the restaurant downstairs is spectacular, but the club is mediocre. The location is fine if you have a car, take taxis, or want to visit the Union Buildings, but not otherwise.

Guava

You should have told the manager on the spot that if the Suite is good enough to be on sale (through spg.com), then it must be good enough for upgrade as well. Failure to do so is simply non-compliance and the hotel should refund you the cost equivalent to 1 night stay there at the property. You should give the manager two options: 1) Refund the value of the 1 night stay or 2) pay you in SPG points equivalent to 1 night at the category of the hotel, which is a Cat. 5 in this case.

I was considering staying there but based on your review, I think I'll stay at the Hilton just north of J'burg instead, it is still close enough.

stimpy

I tried the Sheraton recently and did not get a suite. I got upgraded to a top floor Club room which was OK, but nothing great. The Club itself was pretty soulless, although the decor and space is good. Decent happy hour drinks, but so-so food. It isn't open for breakfast or any guest services now, but Plat's get free breakfast in the restaurant which is ok.

To me the Intercontinental in Sandton is the best choice and with the new train extension to mid-Rand and Pretoria about to open up, I doubt I will stay at any hotel in Pretoria again.

ajnaro

Right. In order to prepare myself, are these alternatives stated somewhere in SPG rules, or are they traditional compensation in a case like this? It is absolutely true that the suite was available on SPG.COM, its availability was confirmed to the SPG Platinum line, and the SPG Platinum concierge told me that it had been assigned to me. Yet the Duty Manager, who did not speak personally to the SPG Platinum concierge, denied the upgrade. I let it slide by but I suppose I could complain to some higher authority.

jakpot

The last time I was in Pretoria, Gautrain wasn't in full operation to Hatfield and had used a taxi from ORTambo. Gautrain now available to ORT-Pretoria.

Does anyone have experience getting from the Hatfield Gautrain station to this property?

Cheers

jakpot

Hotel would only tell me that their car service is the best option, R100.

I've discovered the route is quite walkable.....

Exit Hatfield Station onto Grosvenor St. Walk 2 blocks north to Chruch/Kerk St. Turn left and head west 11 blocks Wessels St. Union Buildings on the right Sheraton on the left.

cheers

jakpot

Just completed a stay at the Sheraton Pretoria. Excellent experience.

My Ambassador set up a great welcome from the Manager and I was upgraded to a nice suite overlooking Kerkstraat and the Union Buildings.

Great Platinum recognition, small bag of welcome goodies and bowls of Biltong and nuts etc....

Great lounge at this property, very spacious and well stocked.

Had taken Gautrain from ORT to Hatfield station, only 30 minutes and ZAR140. Grabbed a taxi at Hatfield to hotel, ZAR60. There is a taxi rank across the street from station, I asked a Gautrain staff member for help and they walked me over to the taxi.

Sheraton Pretoria is one of the best Sheraton's I've ever stayed.

Cheers.

xolinlevh

Random question about this hotel, looking at staying here for a few days sometime in Feb, and while scouting out the rooms, i noticed that the top suite features bulletproof windows..........Is the area the hotels in shady? Should we be worried (first time in SA also....)