quinella66

I had two rooms at the hotel for a couple of days last December, and as a Gold I received a call from the hotel manager who told me that he wanted to upgrade us to the Presidential Suite and give us the room adjoining to it. It worked out very well for us and I was more than happy with it.

Having stayed at the Diplomat as well as the W Ft Lauderdale which are nearby, I would say that the advantage is that it is right on the beach and significantly cheaper, and the beach is not shaded in the afternoon. Certainly the Diplomat is a nicer property and more expensive, but the building is so high that the beach is shaded in the afternoon after the sun passes to the inland side of it. You will notice that newer buildings in Ft. Lauderdale (like the W, which is not directly on the beach BTW), have the upper floors slanting to prevent this. Of course, if you are visiting in June, you may prefer the shade to getting sunburned :-).

I would return to all three properties mentioned above, depending on what I was planning to do.

marlee1421

I am aware that both of these properties are converted and recently renovated. Has anyone stayed at both within the past year who can give a comparison of beach access, pools, restaurants, rooms, proximity to nearby restaurants, etc.

mendy7511

Has anyone had issues with this hotel not posting stays?
I stayed here last week and when I try to fill out the missing stay form, it does not show up on the list of Hotels. It also does not show as an option now if I try to do a dummy booking.
When I lookup the stay by confirmation number the hotel name has now changed to "null". It is as if this hotel no longer exists!

dcstudent

Any recent stays? Trying to decide between here and the Diplomat. I've been to the Diplomat and did enjoy it, but with SNAs I'm nervous that regular plat upgrades won't be as easy to come by, and the Ft. Lauderdale Beach is quite a bit cheaper with $$$ or points.

mendy7511

For what it's worth, after my wife called in the day before we arrived, we where upgraded to the honeymoon suite.

id9795

Stayed recently on a 2 night award stay. As a plat, was upgraded pre-arrival to a suite in the main building, with 2 balconies.

It was the edge (or tip?) of the "cruise ship" if you are familiar with the shape of the main building.

greenlotus

Any recent stays? Can someone comment how the renovations are coming? Also, what do they provide for Platinum continental breakfast?

Thanks if you can help.

bizaro86

Shared this hotel with the U of Northern Illinois band during Orange Bowl weekend. We were a gold couple on a points redemption, and got upgraded to the "Beach" building. I found the layout of the buildings a bit of an inconvenience, as it typically took us trips on 4 different elevators to get to our car.

We waited quite awhile at check-in, and no separately staffed gold/plat line was in evidence. We stood in it behind 3 young men who wanted two separate beds on their priceline reservation. The check in was efficient once we got to the front of the line, and we took the free internet as good value on a 5 day stay. The one downside was their billing, as someone else's drinks got charged to our room, and it took a good 20 minutes (fairly rudely spent) to get it corrected.

All in all we were happy with our stay, and it was good value over new years for a 5th night free points redemption.

BFG

This is my first time back since it was closed down for the renovation. I guess I had higher expectations. The renovation looks no different than any other old hotel that got some touch ups but didn't completely shut down. I can't quite figure out why it needed to be completely shut down to give it some "fluff".

I was given a platinum upgrade to a balcony room which I'm enjoying. I'm in the building that looks like the ship. The room is mostly clean and comfortable. The walls, tubs, tiles around the tubs, baseboard, a/c venst are all still old. The doors and walls are old and dirty in some areas.

The exterior of the building Is pretty grungy! The doors are filthy. It's hard to imagine they may have just paint painted a couple of years ago. Maybe they didn't!

The new infinity pool is nice and the lobby has some comfortable looking areas to relax in.

The staff has been friendy enough....until this morning. I pretty much set my self up for disappointment. I went to bed thinking I'd sleep in as late as I could (after 8 would have been nice), wake up, enjoy a cup of coffee on the balcony and just enjoy a lazy morning with a view.

Not so much! The radio alarm BLARED at 7:20am. Yes I should have checked it last night but so should have housekeeping. Went to make the coffee, 3 decafs and no regular provided - sigh.. I thought "no big deal i'll go get some from housekeeping". I peeked into the hall and there were no carts nearby so I called the front desk and advised I wasn't given any reg coffee and asked if the housekeepers were on duty yet so I could run out and get some. I was advised they won't be in until 8-8:30. I asked how I could get some and was told I could get some at the Lynx. When I asked if she was going to comp it her reply was "oh no, I can't do that"!!! She offered to email housekeeping and have them send it to me when they got in between 8-8:30. It's 10:30 and I have not recieved the coffee yet. Of course I knew better than to wait. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, fixed my hair and went down to get some coffee.

The hotel offers coffee in the rooms. If your going to set your guests expectations then you should follow through and provide the ammentity. It's the small things like this that can brew and give a hotel a bad reputation. The front desk NEVER offered a resolution. One small simple gesture and all would have been. 1. She should have offered to have someone go to housekeeping and bring me some. 2. Offer to send me some from room service. 3. Follow up and be sure it was sent to me.

Because of the small but unresolved issue I'm annoyed at several other little things that would typically go unnoticed.


This hotel should be in the 3000-4000 points range not the 7000. It's sub par to other hotels I've stayed at in the lower category.

RNE

Location. Location. Location.

DeirdreTours

Mr. Tours, the youngest Tours and I are checking out today after a two day stay. We are here on points- spent 8500 per night for an ocean view king with balcony (as gold, I have little chance of being upgraded past a beach tower standard).
The service has improved a bit since our last stay here 14 months ago. The weather has been flawless and the location of this hotel on the best part of the beach is spectacular. Rented a beach umbrella (loungers are free) for the day for $15.90 (and $5 tip). Lunch poolside was ok food with very good service. Dinner is the Mexican restaurant featured excellent service with a mix of yummy (the guacamole and chicken quesadillas) and disgustingly bad ( mole that tasted like unsweetened hersheys syrup). Doesn't feel crowded though the place is running 90% occupancy).
Overall, this hotel is about location, location, location. The rest is just good enough.

cfpmcleo

Does anyone know if there is a club lounge at this Sheraton since the renovations?

Cleo

Vuelos

Nope. Sure this is an allowed SPG cop-out without compensation.

Property wasn't bad but isn't great.

NoSevens

We stayed there last year and echo most comments regarding great location and pool, just ok rooms. Until I read this I had forgotten about the Mexican restaurant, yes the guacamole came recommended and it was extraordinarily good. The rest was decent as well, much better than the previous seafood themed incarnation.

cfpmcleo

What was the plat breakfast amenity?


Cleo