LftMn

SPG Plat
Room:
2 Room suite with kitchen/washer area
Flat screen bedroom & living room
Fruits and nuts, Turn down gifts, 6 complimentary waters per day
Shower stall leaked (did not bother reporting)
Washer drain was plugged and water drained onto floor (did report it and was promptly fixed)
Asked for instructions in English for washer and was told they were not available. Online search for instructions came up empty. Finally some uniform lady With a radio came up and pointed to one of the settings and yelled "Just use that one!" Ok whatever.
Exec Lounge:
Self serve liquors, wine, beer of average quality
Good coffee machine. Have one before going to breakfast downstairs
Fresh cooked-to-order hors d'ourves (pasta, sliders, hot dog, sandwich)
Hot food + cold food + desserts all restocked promptly
Friendly staff in lounge, staff talks to guests
Local Area:
Excellent dumplings next door at restaurant with cannons out front, barbeque is down the street to the west and around the corner, good Chinese (pork) hamburger place to the west on same street, Vanguard is a close walk to west. Restaurants seem less expensive out near Sheraton than those inside the wall or near the large pagoda.
It is located far away from wall (30 min walk), although taxis are cheap.
The #300 bus line goes east-west for 2 quai. This is helpful in case taxis are all full on return to hotel. This can be a problem at certain times of day or if it's raining.
Restaurants:
Did not try except for buffet breakfast, which is pretty good. Fresh cooked eggs and noodles. Otherwise decent selection. Coffee not so good
Service:
Friendly and efficient.
One big gripe - a few times I was speaking with Hotel concierge when some Chinese person simply burst in and started talking right in front of me. The Hotel staff would then ignore me and attend to the Chinese interrupting party to the conclusion of their business. Did not comment to hotel (why bother?), seems like this kind of thing or similar happens with regularity around China. Just would have hoped for more professional conduct from the Hotel staff.
Overall Hotel experience was fine though. Better (albeit more expensive) than the Chinese hotels I've stayed at.
There are a few other Western hotels in Xian, closer to the center of town where there are more interesting sights and activities within walking distance. Xian will be getting more hotels soon so the selection should get better.

ajnaro

I had exactly the same sort of room in April 2011! Spectacular, and newly renovated too. At that point the washer worked and there were printed instructions that seemed to have English words but didn't really help very much. Maybe they're working on a revised edition.

Condition One

The Westin is scheduled to open by the end of the year. Not sure of the location though, but I don't think it's central. I'll be visiting Xian in March, so I'll have to decide between the two. But it seems that the Sheraton is decent enough.

ajnaro

The Westin is being built near the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It's just about the same distance from the Great Mosque as the Sheraton, but in a better area from the tourist point of view.

jaejaez

Welcome to China!

moondog

While I'm by no means referring to you (after all, I wasn't there), I've noticed that, on the whole, foreigners tend to hog up quite a bit more concierge attention (often with really general questions) than Chinese people.

rendezvous

I think LFTmn was alluding to the general perception that many Chinese people do not follow the western standard of waiting in line.

Steve M

I would imagine that foreigners, on the whole, are less familiar with China than Chinese people are, and therefore need more assistance from the concierge.

Braindrain

Not sure which "western" standard you're talking about as I run into this all the time in Europe.

ajnaro

For whatever it's worth, the concierge at the Sheraton Xian treated us very nicely and was very patient in explaining tours and restaurants. She even presented us with a reproduction of one of the terracotta generals when some little detail went wrong (can't remember what it was!). I guess its one of those 'your mileage may vary' situations.

mlasser

What an ignorant remark. I noticed tourists here in Denver "hog up" more of the concierge's time than do Denverites as well. Awful.

Condition One

Fantastic hotel in Xian! The only downside is that it’s not central – the city center is a 10 minute cab ride away, which ran me $2-3 each way. All the staff I’ve dealt with have been extremely friendly and accommodating. I was upgraded to an Executive Suite, and check-in was performed in my room. The room is spacious and despite some spots in the carpet, pretty clean. It wasn’t renovated, but it’s still much better than your average Sheraton, so I had no complaints. The toiletries are the usual Sheraton items, and I’ve got at least half a dozen bottles of water scattered throughout my room.

Unfortunately, my Executive Suite smelled of burning plastic/rubber throughout the night. The next day, I was moved to a renovated apartment suite. No smell, but the layout is absolutely baffling. It’s a very small suite, and has no desk. A round table in the living room is placed near the window, but the power sockets are several feet away. So unless you have a long cord for your laptop, you’re out of luck. Trash cans are not very well located either, but after rearranging the furniture, I was good to go. Still, I found the room to be a bit cramped – these rooms could use less furniture.
The Executive Lounge puts out a very impressive evening spread. Salad bar, cheese plates, about a dozen different types of food, and a good alcohol selection. You can easily have dinner here. Plats can have breakfast in the lounge or downstairs in the restaurant. Afternoon tea consists of two jars of cookies. Was expecting a bit more there.

The gym is well equipped, and is open 24/7 via keycard access. It is staffed during daytime hours. No problems with Internet speeds. I booked a massage downstairs, and it was excellent. Prices are high though – about the same as that in the US. Despite the location, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this hotel to other travelers.

I walked past the Westin, and it still doesn’t look ready for opening. All the windows are still covered on the interior. Once it opens, the hotel will beat out the Sheraton location wise for tourists. It’s right next to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and is in an area that’s being renovated with lots of wide boulevards and Western brand name shopping. It basically gives you a modern city feel as opposed to the area around the Sheraton. You’ll still need a cab ride downtown though.

Srisarin

Any updates on this prop ?

As a Plat have a 5-night reservation upcoming at both this and Hilton inside the city walls and can't decide on which prop to stay.