Let's recurrect this ancient thread as it does appear to the the Master Thread for this hotel despite years of inactivity.

Having returned to Shenzhen from HK in the middle of August and being trapped here now I've decided to have a few staycations at the weekends. This is the nearest Bonvoy hotel to my home so I booked in here on Saturday night.

Upgraded in advance on the app to an Executive Suite. Arrived at 1pm to check in. Suite was still being cleaned so I went to the lounge on 28th floor (hmm, may have been 24th floor, cannot remember) to wait and got my suite at about 1.30pm. Suite had 1.5 bathrooms, a desk area, sitting room, and bedroom. View looked out over the front of the hotel. It was all well maintained though not the most modern of designs. As Titanium I got lounge access (my primary reason for staying), breakfast, 1000 points, and late checkout proactively offered so let's look at these aspects of the stay bearing in mind I paid just under RMB900 (US$130) for the night on which I will get 5% cashback from topcashback and around 5400 Bonvoy points including the promo points bringing the net cost to around US$70 for the night.

Evening lounge served spirits, beer, and four different wines (not a Great Wall in sight) for three hours and a very decent buffet for two hours from 5.30pm. Absolutely a meal with various hot dishes, roast lamb, dim sum, sushi, salads and cold cuts/cheeses, fruits and puddings. Staff were friendly, spoke good English, and requested a namecheck in any future TA review I may do. They advised me to take breakfast in the buffet rather than the lounge because of the variety and I headed there at 7am. It's a huge and varied spread of western and asian dishes. The only thing missing compared to some of the best equivalents across Asia was sparkling wine.

The hotel has two swimming pools that were both open. The indoors one was busy with families but the outdoors one was pretty deserted and was quite forlorn although it was monitored by staff and would be a nice place to sunbathe. The hotel's gym is managed by a third party and was popular with big gym guys from what I saw as I explored the hotel. It's free for guests. I find the rather sad outdoor pool is quite common at hotels across China. Outdoors pools are clearly not popular and seem to be allowed to deteriorate. The Westin's pool near WoW was a similar experience.

Speaking of which, I think the Sheraton has a minor edge over the Westin across town because the lounge is a better environment with a great view (The Westin's lounge is a windowless space on a low floor) and the food offerering seemed slightly better from my memory of The Westin. Having said that, I had an insane suite at The Westin with enormous fruit basket and view of the Eiffel Tower, and The Westin has a sky bar so there's little really to choose between the two and they are frequently priced around the same rate. Choose based on location. The Marriott Nanshan is much newer than both hotels and has an excellent lounge on a high floor but it's often quite a lot more expensive and I didn't get a suite upgrade there. Compared to HK, the rate puts it in a similar category as the Marriott Ocean Park or the Courtyard HK. Clearly, there's a lot more value here but then we're in Shenzhen where the cost of living is significantly less than HK in general so the equivalent rate should deliver more value.

For a net cost of around US$70 after cashback and points I had a very nice evening meal with alcohol for three hours in a private space with a great view and an excellent breakfast. A great staycation all in all. In the event, I checked out at 10.30am and headed to my F45 class around the corner. Think I'll try the Renaissance in Luohu next and the St. Regis after that.