bcrdukes

tfong007,

Thanks for the details!

My stay is coming up this weekend and I'm looking forward to it. Did you book a club level room? If not, would you recommend I just check in on the fourth floor like you did? I'm still SGP Gold, with 44 nights to date. After this stay, it'll bring me well over SPG Plat.

nongsom

The another good news is GM Janet McNab
Move from westin siray bay to this property and also as area manager

bcrdukes

I just completed an 8-night stay here.

I checked in at the front lobby and luckily, there was no line. Check-in was smooth and while I didn't get a significant upgrade, I got assigned a room with the Cotai Strip view.

Some pros and cons:
- I really like the bed and size of the room is quite large/spacious.
- I'm often lost in translation. Link@Sheraton is not the same as the business centre. Link@Sheraton is located behind the cafe/bar in the lobby.
- This hotel can get really busy and packed with a lot of rude guests. This drove me nuts.
- Newspaper delivery is a bit late in the day, averaging at around 9- 10am.
- If you need to get in to town, head over to the Holiday Inn and take their shuttle. Fewer people overall, and from the ferry terminal, hop on to the Grand Lisboa shuttle.

miloworld

Or take the bus to Macau Ferry Terminal (city side) then hop on to any casino buses. It would be slightly more comfortable, since Grand Lisboa only run minibuses. Or walk to CoD for a bus straight to Sintra(city center).

Or of course, Uber just launched in Macau

tfong007

I would guess that you can check in at the Club Lounge and they would not turn you away. I usually book the lowest rate room and as a lifetime plat the hotels in Asia at least are excellent with the suite upgrades. I have been pretty much 100% in terms of upgrades to suites in the last 5 years.

jpdx

I hate this hotel. I often come to Macau for a respite from the hustle and bustle of Mainland China. The Sheraton is a horrible place for relaxation. Yes, the club lounge is huge and impressive compared to US Sheratons and you're virtually guaranteed to get a suite upgrade (as a Plat), but the hotel is huge and packed with annoying people who're poorly behaved. If you don't gamble, the Cotai strip location is awful (and if you do gamble, the Sheraton is the least lovable hotel around -- the Conrad, Hyatt, even HI, have some redeeming features, but the Sheraton is bland all around).

I had my ~10th stay here last week, and decided not to return. It's just not worth it for a requalified Plat. I went back to the Westin (now: Grand Coloane), which has been through a light remodel, and with rates in the HKD800 rates, it's a much better fit for me than the Sheraton. The location and pool make it great for relaxing, even without the typical Westin upgrade to one of the 8th floor suites. And if I crave chain hotels, I'm happy with the Hyatt/Conrad, or perhaps a few month from now, the SR.

There are a bunch of shuttles that go directly to downtown casinos: City of Dreams has one to L'Arc, and there's one from the Venetian to MGM.

bcrdukes

I did try the shuttle from CoD and Venetian but I could not bear the walk in the blazing heat.

jpdx - I feel the same way about the Sheraton but unfortunately, I had to do chase Platinum status and this hotel stay hit the mark. It's too bad about the former Westin - this would have been ideal for me. I did enjoy my time in Taipa and Coloane as opposed to Macau itself. It was far too wild there. Some very nice restaurants hidden in Coloane and Taipa!

LadyAthena

I stayed in this hotel May 2013. I booked 2 rooms for 2 nights with points, which at the time cost me 48,000 total. My stay was during some Chinese holiday weekend, so the lobby was pretty packed once my family and I arrived. I had ambassador status at the time and so I able to check in at the 4th floor - the staff was very professional, speaks decent english and I had a very personalized experience.

What really made this stay memorable for me was Sheraton decided to combined my reservations and then gave me the ambassador suite. The suite was absolutely massive, around 1700 sq ft, have a living room, dining room (table for 6), media room (cough turns into another queen bed), 1 master bed room with a king bed and a 2nd bedroom with 2 queens. I had only requested to have adjoining rooms (since I'm traveling with a quite a few family members), so walking into the suite had me and my family on cloud 9. It was definitely the highlight of the entire trip! On top of the upgrades, there were no issues with all of us using the lounge for free breakfast or afternoon tea

It goes without saying 10/10 for this hotel, and I really hope I can make it back for another stay before anything happens to our beloved SPG program due to the recent acquisition news...

miloworld

If the acquisition goes forward, we would have 4 properties to choose from. All huge resorts on Cotai Strip - Ritz, JW Marriott at Galaxy and St Regis, Sheraton at Cotai Central.

Too bad the W at Studio City fell through.

uclasfo

We are planning to stay at Sheraton with a 10-month-old baby in January. How far to walk to Galaxy? Is there local street food places close by? Do they provide a shuttle bus to local tourist places?

Thanks!

miloworld

I wouldn't consider walking over to Galaxy, especially with a baby.
It's a 30 mins walk next to busy/deserted roads.

Cotai Central doesn't have a direct bus to Galaxy. You have a few options:

1. Take the shuttle to Cotai ferry pier and take a Galaxy bus.
2. Walk to City of Dreams (10 mins) for Cotai Connection to Galaxy.
3. Walk to Venetian's transport hub (20 mins) to take a Galaxy bus.

There's a street with plenty of local food, although it has now become a tourist spot.
It's called 官也街 (Rua do Cunha), it's walkable from Venetian/Galaxy but most people, even locals, would cab it.

Have fun.

uclasfo

Thanks for the info Miloworld!

Do Sheraton Macau give lounge access to SPG Gold? I was talking to SPG reservations and she confirmed Gold do get access to lounge. Now I'm confused.

tfong007

I will be staying there with my family next week. Maybe we will see you in the lounge.

James Luckard

It has joined the new Sheraton Grand line, it's listed on the website:

http://www.sheratongrand.com/

miloworld

Must say I disagree with the property being labelled to offer the highest levels of service.

Design maybe, facilities maybe but definitely not service.

Concierge is close to nonexistence, bell service is a long queue with rude staff. They don't have a doorman to help with luggage. Even the Holiday Inn next door provides this.

Stayed last week and asked if they have a laptop charger. Operator immediately said we do not offer charger rentals, we will not check and won't make any exceptions.

Business center is within the club lounge, however is unstaffed and only has 4 computers and a printer.

When I was gold, they weren't labeled as a resort yet but insist on refusing 4pm late check-out. It was 'protocol' to reject such request until manager is put-through. Was disgusted by this.

I have a habit of calling housekeeping when leaving for breakfast so I would have new towels upon returning. They would sometimes refuse.

Girlfriend had an injury because of a broken door-stopper in lobby bathroom, took 15 mins to find a first-aid kit and the disinfecting wipes inside had long expired.

So highest levels of service? Far from it.