Here goes, my massive review for my stay at the end of June... Enjoy!
khabah
***
As a devoted Starwood fan and SPG Platinum member, I decided that Sheraton Bucharest would be my nest for my four-night stay and first visit to Bucharest/Romania despite the hotel being marked as a little out of the way based on reviews I’d previously come across.
LOCATION: The hotel is located on Calea Dorobanților in Sector 1 of Bucharest [1 of 6] to the north of most of the city’s main sights. Despite previous reviews of the hotel being somewhat out of the way, mobility is extremely easy for those of you inclined to walk; sights like the Athenaeum and National Museum of Art of Romania are within a ten-minute walk, the Lipscani pedestrian street and the National Museum of Romanian History are twenty-odd minutes away and the Palace of the Parliament within forty minutes. The immediate area has a few restaurants as well as a supermarket. Uber exists in Bucharest and provides very easy, quick and extremely cheap transport; a twenty-minute ride from the airport set us back seven dollars!
That being said, Henri Coandă International Airport is within fifteen to twenty minutes away by car.
ENTRANCE/LOBBY: A former and total conversion of the dowdy Howard Johnson Grand Plaza, the Sheraton’s lobby is your traditional Sheraton fare - something which is in no way a dig. The lobby is a three-level open space decorated in dark woods with light furniture, lots of beige and pops of orange and purple. It is a very high-quality space befitting of the brand and of Starwood’s high standards, so there was no feeling of worry here.
Check-in took five minutes by a professional associate and her colleague, where both members acknowledged my elite status and produced the keys to a pre-arranged upgraded suite.
ROOMS: Three elevators serve the guest room floors and require keycard access for that extra bit of security.
I was given a Club Suite on the fifteenth floor of the eighteen-story hotel. Although the suite is obviously two standard rooms with the walls between them knocked out to create a separate living room and bedroom, the suite was spacious and very well-furnished in grey and beige to traditional, modern Sheraton standards. It was obvious that the suite was recently refurbished as all the furnishings and details were holding up in excellent shape.
The living area included a couch and armchair with a coffee table, full desk [with a fruit platter and the general manager’s card], television, two sets of recessed shelves with the minibar and a half bathroom with toilet and sink. The bedroom was separated by two sliding doors and included a plush, massive Sheraton Sweet Sleeper king-sized bed, full desk, another television and - my personal favorite - a cushion on the deeply-recessed window platform to create a window seat to peer over Bucharest. Lovely, lovely touch, especially as our suite had a view towards the magnificent if garish Palace of the Parliament.
The bathroom included a sink with very generous counter space and a wooden shelf beneath it, a toilet with shelf above it where the flush buttons were and a bathtub with adjustable showerhead. Water pressure was a bit on the softer side of things and the step up to the tub is a bit high, so be warned.
Wi-fi is free for SPG members and was very fast with good connectivity across the property.
FOOD/BEVERAGE: Being in a Club Suite meant I had access to the Club Lounge on the eighteenth floor [also accessible by keycard]; this is where I consumed all but one meal at the hotel.
Breakfast was available from 6:30 AM to 10:30 AM during our stay and included a great spread of staples like scrambled eggs, bacon, cold cuts, pastries and fruits/vegetables. Everything was freshly prepared and replenished as need be by the frankly incredible and very attentive staff on duty.
After breakfast was cleared, snacks like nuts and cookies come out at 11 AM… Along with a fridge of complimentary beer and white wine. Beer and wine! At 11 AM! I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this level of generosity anywhere else. Happy hour begins at 4:30 with a delightful spread of savory items like salmon tarts, sandwiches and a sushi boat, desserts and beer as well as red, white and sparkling wines [all of which were Romanian products], lasting until 10:30 PM. I’ve never had six hours of happy hour so this hotel gets two very high [and possibly sideways] thumbs up.
I had breakfast once in the hotel’s main restaurant, Avalon, located on the first floor above the lobby. Although it was packed with guests and package tourists, we found the spread there to be a bit bigger than in the club lounge but if I could do it again, I’d stick to the lounge purely for its quieter atmosphere and to deal with the awesome staff. There is also a Benihana restaurant onsite and part of the main Avalon space for the Japanese cuisine lovers among us.
LEISURE: The hotel lacks a pool [sadly - how perfect would that have been?] but does offer a keycard-access fitness center on the second floor with a gym and separate saunas and steam rooms for men and women. The gym was of a good size with a great selection of relatively new equipment. The separate men’s and women’s areas also included rooms for massages and beauty treatments, all of which are very reasonably priced.
FACILITIES: The hotel offers several meeting rooms and a business center; these saw frequent use during our stay but were never detrimental to the quality of the stay itself. The hotel also offers a casino in the same building; this is accessed from the mezzanine inside the lobby or through an external side door just to the right of the entrance.
SERVICE: The service at this hotel was a major standout - what a wonderful and well-run show. The staff are all clearly highly trained and enjoy their jobs, something that reflects in the cheerful and helpful way they interacted with my friend and I as well as other guests during our stay. For example, Andreea spoke to the Palace of the Parliament by phone to arrange a tour for us due to our inability to speak Romanian while the energetic Magda provided a lot of tips for us to see things around the hotel [as well as constantly resetting our demagnetized keycards]. The ladies in the club lounge, Adina and Florina, deserve a particular mention for their attention to detail including memorizing our drinks orders and constantly keeping the glasses full, providing excellent service and for just being downright wonderful to talk to. All these associates deserve the best and they get my biggest thanks for making this stay a success.
OVERALL: As you can obviously determine by this point, I found my stay at Sheraton Bucharest to be truly enjoyable in every respect: being in a secure location that encourages on-foot exploration, enjoying a very comfortable room, consuming high-quality food and drink and dealing with excellent staff. I cannot recommend this hotel highly enough and will easily use it again on any future visits to Bucharest. Job well done.