yossimills

My suggestion:
Call the hotel a few days before your stay, ask what to expect. They have previously told me (even as Gold) that I can expect an upgraded room, and what the probability of this is. If you don't like what they say, then upgrade with points.

This hotel routinely (or used to) offers point-upgrades upon check-in, as an up-sell, along with other point redemption opportunities. But if you can get blocked into something nicer, for free over the phone.....

thomas199023

Just completed a stay at the Sheraton 2 weeks ago. Here is my hotel trip report. With pictures!

ajamieson

One further update: this charge has now gone up to £20 for Platinums and £25 for all other guests. Still a good buy for a great facility IMO but not the discount it was. The main pool and gym are still free for all guests.

During the peak season, the Club Lounge is too tiny for breakfast so an improvised alternative is created in the second floor bar area. You still have to show your Club invite and PIN code to a staff member. There is a mini buffet spread and plenty of cereals etc but everything is self-service which can be a bit of a hassle with long queues for the coffee machine. Mostly excellent service from the staff, but one morning got a grumpy young lady who barked "you're leaving it too late" when we arrived at 9.15am (service finished at 9.30am) and proceded to snatch away food and crockery as fast as we could run around and assemble it. One potential benefit of this 'guerilla lounge breakfast' is that, when the bar area becomes too full, arrivals get shown to the main breakfast area which has a much bigger spread and table service. You can also upgrade to the full cooked hot breakfast there for £3 per person which is an especially good deal if your rate never included breakfast in the first place!

The more I see of the suites in this property, the more I think upgrades are of little value. The building design and decor means all rooms are dowdy and I don't see much advantage in a large gloomy room over a small gloomy one. I'd rather take the ordinary room and get comped OneSpa access. I'd even swap Club Lounge access for the OneSpa as the evening drinks in that tiny Club Lounge are not worth bothering with.

Seattlenerd

Completely agree on the suites comment. We spent five nights there at the end of July (just before things got really crazy for Edinburgh Festival) and were upgraded to the Tay Suite. While it was nice to be upgraded, the Tay Suite has a pleasant small bedroom and a large outer room that is mostly taken up by a huge, worn conference table. A couple of love seats and a TV are stuffed in the corner, along with an old Panasonic CD player/radio on a buffet.

The suite is very dark and worn -- even the few lights in the room don't brighten it up much. And the view is of the ramp on the inside.

If one is given a chance to upgrade, I recommend trying for a different regular room, perhaps one with a castle view, rather than a suite, at least if the suite is the Tay Suite. Unless you plan to have large meetings or a family dinner.

I'll second the fact that the included breakfast for the Club Lounge is quite good, notably with being on the second level in a larger area. Smoked salmon and many other nice selections make it better than the usual cold breakfast. Definitely worthwhile. ^

ajamieson

A further update: I've just returned from another stay and was in the Tay Suite mentioned by Seattlenerd above. I concur that it is a strange suite - much bigger than many of the other suites, but with a giant boardroom featuring a worn conference table lit by a baffling system of dim lamps. I could see no constructive purpose for the extra space in this room, certainly for the leisure traveller...unless you've always had a fantasy involving a boardroom table but were too scared to use the one at work Once again, it is the physical layout of the building that makes the rooms so grim: not enough
windows, little natural light, vast expanses of dull, dead space and a view of the goods ramp which is particularly heartbreaking in such a beautiful city.

More positively, I can confirm that the Club Lounge breakfast will continue to be served on the 2nd floor indefinitely since the feedback from Platinums has been good. ^ This is a vast improvement over the tiny club lounge, and yes the spread is very good. Better still, you can still upgrade for £3 from the free club lounge breakfast to the full, cooked breakfast spread at the main restaurant a few steps away - amazing value. Table service, unlimited hot food, cold food, fruit, cereals, cheese, smoked salmon, pastries, fresh bread, juices...brilliant stuff.

4pm check-out was offered at check-in as a matter of course, along with the Platinum amenity and the room upgrade, and the excellent OneSpa thermal spa access is also still available for £20 (versus £65 for members of the public). So Platinum recognition continues to be excellent at this property. The only drawback, as discussed above, is that the upgraded rooms are nothing to get excited about at all. I'd have swapped the Tay Suite for free OneSpa thermal suite access any day.

ajamieson

One further update to add to my note (above) about the Club Lounge.. The Sheration Grand Edinburgh is to undergo at £15m renovation during 2010.

Source: http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/1...ton.5908003.jp
Source: http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/ne...ion-pound-ref/

Sound like good news, although it is not clear how guests will be impacted over the next six months. Interesting to hear that OneSpa access might become an automatic benefit of the Club Floor access; at the moment it is £20 per guest per visit for Platinums while the regular swimming pool is free.

UKTraveller4Fun

I can see us going for quite a few weekend breaks if that si the case! Hope it all comes off!

Plumber

Stayed at the Sheraton on points for 1 week in August- duirng the height of the Edinburgh Festival. I was with my family (Mrs. Plumber and 4 kidlings aged 16 down to 3).

Firstly, the hotel is in a good location. There are several restaurants within 2 blocks form the hotel, a convinience store adross the street and 2 supermarkets within 2 blocks. You can walk to most places downtown Edinburgh (Princes Street, Edinburgh Castle, Royal Mile) within 20 minutes (Castle and Royal Mile are up a big hill). One day it rained all day (surprise, surprise!) so we bought a bus pass for the day and toured around on the city bus system. There are several bus stops right outside the hotel.

We had requested 2 adjoining rooms, so were limted in being able to upgrade to a suite and they have a limited amount of adjoining rooms. The rooms were fine- there were a decent size and clean. We had a view of Festival Square and Edinburgh Castle. I would consdier them to be a 'regular' hotel room- it was clean, but nothing fancy , but not dark nor dingy.

As a Platinum guest, I had access to the Club Lounge on the Club floor- It was open in the evenings for drinks, but at breakfast we had to go down to the 2nd floor (1 floor up form the lobby) for the Club Level continental breakfast. The breakfast was adequate with cold meats and salmon, breads (and toasters) fruit and cereal. Everyone seemed to have a hard time working the cofffee machine. You also have the option of eating in the main restaurant for an additional fee GBP3.00 (In the main restaurant the Continental Breakfast is GBP16 and the hot breakfast is GBP19 so they charge you the difference). We did this one day and the hot breakfast was very good. In the evenings in the Club Lounge they have free beer, wine, soft drinks and chips to snack on. We went there every day. The Club Lounge is very small and was always full during the free drink period(which I guess is why they did not have breakfast in there).

We used the pool on several occasions. there is a certian time of day that they have for kids to swim in the pool (adults only the rest of the time). I used the well-equipped gym on several occasions. The pool and gym were free to access, but there would be a charge for the other SPA facilities which we did not use.

The staff was friendly and helpful to us, but I would not say that anyone went out of their way.


Overall, a very good stay. I would highly recommend this hotel for its convinience and location.

Sydfly

I've just checked for C&P availability and it looks as if the hotel does not have a single day with C&P availability until September 2011

Has anyone been able to book this by maybe calling the hotel directly? Sometimes there is something wrong with the C&P availability search online.

Shantanu

I see prices here have jumped since the renovations started.....and, also, hardly any availability too!

bizaro86

Does anyone have any experience whether the "upgraded room" for gold members has typically included a club room in this hotel, or is that a bridge too far?

Any experience would be appreciated. Our stay would be in August 2010, unfortunately during the busy festival season, but after the renovation is scheduled to be completed.

Michael

took

Hope you'll post a review after your stay. I plan to be here next May/June (just starting to plan right now) and would like to see what gold benefits exist.

bizaro86

If we end up going I certainly will, but its not a sure thing just yet. Factors include what reviews I can dig up about this specific hotel, as well as how the flight pricing works. With the change to the cheapest itinerary available last night ($200 increase pp) we may end up going somewhere else.

Michael

Seattlenerd

If they have "club rooms," I didn't see one last July; I didn't think this hotel had a "club floor." (The club lounge, back then, was a small and dark converted hotel room with a couch and a few chairs.)

Perhaps that's part of the renovations.

mahasamatman

We have a reservation for next weekend that now shows as "Club Non Smoking, Newly Refurbished, Free Access To Spa Facilities, Club Lounge - Comp Conti Bfast".

BTW, we have one C&P night and one award night. Both nights show the new room designation.