Here's a quick hotel review from our recent trip to Lisbon.
The taxicab from the airport to the hotel is relatively short and inexpensive at 11 Euros. As we approached the hotel and I got my first glimpse of it I had an anxiety attack as the exterior of the hotel is dated Sheraton look and I started to ask myself "What have we gotten ourselves into? This picture is from the poolside of the hotel which in IMHO looks better than the arrival side which I forgot to take a picture of:
Once we got into a lobby and we headed up the elevator and onto the floor my anxiety quickly subsided as I was amazed how the interior was so much nicer than the exterior. It was also so much nicer than the usual Sheraton look:
I took the Platinum amenity of 500 points and that included breakfast in either the Club lounge or the restaurant. As the lobby restaurant was being remodeled we were told another option was the Panaorama restaurant which was open for breakfast during the remodel and had a full buffet breakfast. We were told there were no room upgrades available as there was a convention staying at the hotel and they would put us into a Club room. We were also told that the spa and pool would be included as we were in a Club room.
Our room was surprisingly nice for a Sheraton:
with a small sitting area:
a desk and small-ish TV:
The bathroom takes a decent percentage of the overall square footage of the room although we were fine with what remained as usable room space:
The bathroom privacy blinds are embedded between 2 panes of glass and there is an electronic switch to move them up and down in the bathroom:
I am not a fan of a bathtub for showering. Also you needed to be careful about pointing the shower directly downward or else water would get on the bathroom floor. If I had an elderly parent here I am not sure they would be able to get into and out of the bathtub without assistance:
The pool areas was typical Sheraton pool however the spa area behind it was nice:
The gym is available for all guests however the pool is part of the spa and not part of the hotel so there is a fee if you don't have a room that includes access to it:
There was a question at the spa on whether we could use the pool and spa for free but after I went down to the front desk they called the spa and told them they should grant us access with no charge and we did not have any issues after that.
We hit the Club Lounge after 5pm each day. I can happily report that the port bottles are back. There was a red and a white port.
As we are taxi-averse after our experiences with taxi cabs in Santiago, we used the metro for everything except getting to the airport and heading back. The metro is right around the corner from the hotel and was extremely convenient, frequent and inexpensive. Downtown is a short ride.