Spent 2 nights at the Sheraton Rio in Leblon.

The common facilities look relatively nice like a 4-star property should (though it bills itself as 5-star).

We arrived at 1pm on a Friday, and all 4 front desk stations were manned. All stations had customers at them, and there were about 3-4 people in line ahead of me. They have a marked "Gold/Platinum" station, but they were not prioritizing gold or platinum members. Took a good 15 minutes for me to get to an agent, and about another 10 minutes to check in - both steps took far too long.

I was not automatically offered a gold upgrade as I expected, but I did ask for one. The most the agent offered was an "upgrade" to a club room, but without club access. Club was US$70(!) per day extra. I smiled and made nice in hopes of either getting a jr. suite or free club access, but my efforts were fruitless.

My friend stayed in a classic room. The primary difference between the two rooms are that club rooms are on floors 2-4 and face west directly at the ocean with Leblon/Ipanema beach to the left. The classic rooms are on higher floors but face north, which is decidedly less interesting. The ocean can be sufficiently seen and heard from both rooms. Interestingly, I found my friend's classic room to be remodelled to a higher standard than my club room. The classic's bathroom was much nicer and included a tub. The classic's desk & mini-bar were also nicer. The club rooms are decidedly remodelled, but just not as nicely.

On closer inspection, one can find chipped tiles, cracked wood, messy paint jobs, mold growing in corners of bathrooms, and other signs of generally poor maintenance throughout the property. It looks nice from a distance, but get up close and you can really see the difference between a proper luxury hotel and this Sheraton.

Breakfast buffet was average in selection and quality. Service was non-existant. Price was about R45 IIRC.

Spa was far below average - perhaps the worst hotel spa I have ever visited. Common facilities are straight from the early 80's or whenever this place was built - and never remodelled. Massage quality was on the low end, yet priced at around US$150 per hour.

Concierge is manned with 1-3 agents depending on the time of day, but it seems like between the hours of 8am and 8pm there are hordes of people attacking the concierge desk. I regularly had to wait 10-15 minutes to ask simple questions. They provided good advice, so at least there is some positive here.

Location is a mixed bag. I rather like that it's right on the beach and somewhat far from all the noise and traffic of Leblon/Ipanema. However, it is a really long walk to get to the shops and stores...you're looking at at least 1km to get to the edge of Leblon. We found ourselves using a taxi to go anywhere.

Bottom line: for the very low points and cash redemption price, I think it is one of the best deals in Rio. However, at the normal price of $300 - $400 per night, I must believe there are better places to stay. Starwood calls this a 5-star property, but I believe it is more like solid 3-star based on US standards.