I stayed at the Sheraton Mofarrej Sao Paulo, Brazil and despite the friendly attitude of everyone I talked to and their attempt to be helpful, I have to say I was disappointed in the results, but not in their attitude and effort.

I paid for the following room [1 KING, SUITE NON-SMOKING ROOM LIVING AREA BUTLER SERVICE, LARGE ROOM WITH KING SIZE BED, LIVING ROOM AREA AND WORKING DESK WITH HOOKUP FOR PERSONAL COMPUTER. NON SMOKING..] for the nights of December 14th and then again for December 15th.

So after arriving in Sao Paulo, the cab drops me off at what appeared to be a largely empty hotel early Saturday afternoon. I get out of the cab and get my luggage from the back, and although there are some people standing around, no one offered to help me with my luggage, and no greeting from anyone. [Not a big deal since I don't travel heavily encumbered and don't expect an acknowledgement when obviously arriving for the first time, but a disappointment nonetheless for a hotel that had fairly decent ratings in the past.]

Went to the front desk and check in was done courtesously and efficiently and got the king-bedded suite that I paid for and selected online, with a view of Trianon Park. I presumed the Starwood gold upgrade got me the view, but it is possible that all the suites in the hotel have the same view as layout seemed to be the same on each floor basically, and the hotel was quite vacant. Nothing was mentioned about the butler service, so I presumed it would work like it did for me in Singapore where the butler comes and introduces him/herself.

The room was nice, well furnished, although the TVs are relatively small in both the bedroom and living room.

Butler service? Don't know what that is at this hotel, even though I know it was mentioned in the rate that I paid as pasted above. Whenever I called for the butler service, the butler service was "finished for the day" or the butler could not unpack or press even a pair of clothes. Laundry-related facilities were not available both times I inquired for same day. I called twice to ask for the butler service on the 2nd day of my stay, and both times I had to call back to say I had not received a call back regarding the butler service, despite the fact that they told me that they were paging the butler and they would get back to me.

Concierge at this hotel? Certainly not present at the what appeared to be the concierge desk, until 4 p.m Sunday.

This hotel appears heavily understaffed on weekends and service levels are a disappointment. Business center is closed on the weekends and you have to ask to have it opened, which they will do. [Note that it is an expensive business center charge of nearly 10 U.S. Dollars for 30 minutes of internet access.]

Bathroom toiletries were not replenished completely every day, and I had to call to get wash cloths on the second day.

For all the cab rides that dropped me off at the hotel on my 3 days and 2 nights there, someone was there to open my cab only on 2 occassions out of about 10. [On Saturday and Sunday, it was 0/8, with one on Sunday night and once on Monday.] When I went to the area where one would normally have the hotel staff hail you a cab and/or communicate with the cab driver for you, there was no one there to help on all but one occassion.

I thought someone mentioned this is a category 4 hotel. I would not use 10,000 points for a free night here ever. I would just book a room for a $120 to $145.00 internet rate or consider other properties in Sao Paulo, especially on weekends.

As an SPG Gold, I got some photocopied newspaper clippings on Saturday night/Sunday morning, but nothing on Sunday night/Monday morning.

Does the Sheraton Promise apply to any of these things and what does it mean exactly on such occassions?

*** Edit: The Concierge and some other hotel staff were excellent in getting my painting (which was protectively packaged earlier) get additional (cardboard) protection despite the lack of cardboard boxes. Their creativity here was admirable and I tipped them well. ***


[This message has been edited by GUWonder (edited 12-18-2002).]