cruisetrek

I just returned from Zurich and stayed at this sheraton hotel in Zurich for 3 nights.
The hotel is very well located, the staff is friendly and very good
The rooms are very well furnished. I got upgraded to a terrace room at the top floor .
The beds are very confortable, the restaurant has a killer buffet breakfast, we had dinner one night there and it was superb. Prices were expensive but the food is worth it.
I stayed there with my partner and we both loved it.
Just wanted to let everybody know that if you go to Zurich, this is the place to stay and the price is not that expensy like the Hyatt across the street(i went to check it out).
Aaron

DCFFlyer

I've stayed there before as well and really enjoyed it. They upgraded us to the Presidential Suite which was very nice. I thought the location was good, a bit of a walk from the city center. Saw Tina Turner at a restaurant nearby. Would definately stay there again.

dchang1

Definitely did have a great stay there. Had a great terrace room on the top floor. The hotel staff was very attentive and helped us with all of our requests while in Zurich. I agree that it is a little bit of a walk to the city center, but not too far at all.

alamedaguy

Just wanted to echo the comments above. My wife and I stayed here recently using the 50POR (half off points redemption) award, so 10,000 points for 2 nights. Both nights were showing sold out as of the middle of last week; I have no idea how close to full the hotel actually was. We arrived at about 10am and left our stuff while we went exploring. When we returned just after 2, they told us the room would be ready in 30 minutes, and it was. As above, we got a nice room on the 5th floor with a terrace with a constrained view of the mountains in the distance. The room was great with a separate shower and bath. The front desk staff could hardly have been nicer. ^ We requested the "local gift" as our platinum amenity. The first evening, there were three chocolate bars in the room. The second evening, there was a fruit plate and another chocolate bar.

We did not eat at the hotel. It is I think 3 or 4 tram stops from the main train station, and about a block from the lake, so very convenient, though not right in the middle of things. I, too, would definitely stay here again.

Noctilux

Hi All;

I first stayed at the Arabella Sheraton NS in Zurich 4 or 5 years ago and did not think much of it then. Since then I have stayed either at the Widder or at the Park Hyatt; however it looks like my travelling will be reduced this year, so in order to keep my stays up, I booked a night here.

Arrived at 8:30pm, doorman takes my bags out of the cab, shows me to the desk & the young lady there checks me in efficiently, offers me my amenity choice & gives me the key to room 115, I ask if it is a Platinum upgrade & she assures me it is. I wonder up there, open the door & am hit by a wall of tobacco fug. Having asked for a non smoking room, I close the door behind me & leave. In the corridor I re-encounter the doorman who is just arriving with my amenity & my bags. I explain the situation, he pulls out his phone, calls the young lady downstairs & after a few moments declares that room 208 is available. We go up, I enter & see that it is smaller than the previous room but has a double bed and is smoke free. So I tip the doorman & bring my bags into the room. That is when my next set of troubles start, the space between the 'desk' and the bed is so tight that I can not get my bag through it (a 22'' Tumi rollaboard carry on). So I try to sit at the desk & can not move the chair far enough back to actually sit on it.

So, once again the young lady at the desk & I renew our friendship and after a couple of moments tapping at the keyboard she asks if I would mind a twin bedded room. I grasp it & wend my way to room 314; it is nice, same size as the first one (that is barely acceptable) and is smoke free. So, I unpack, pull out my laptop and spend 45 minutes trying to log on to the wireless network. Despite there being an online shop option, it transpires that the only way you can get online is through buying an access card from my new friend at the desk.

After 10 minutes online I need to use the bathroom, I go in, lift the lid to find (there is no nicer way of saying this) a turd floating there. I immediately flush it, take care of my business & go to wash my hands. It is at this point that I notice there is a used bar of soap in the dish, soapy water marks on the taps and a black hair in the sink.

I can only assume someone used the bathroom after housekeeping had made up the room, but I thought that they always checked rooms after guests check out. No matter how late their checkout might be. I have never experienced this in a Holiday Inn Express, let alone a 'luxury' hotel.

This is my very last night ever to be spent at this hotel & if my never staying here again means I might not make Platinum this year it is a scrifice I am prepared to make.

I know that the young lady at the desk and the doorman (who seemed to be the only two people working tonight) did all they possibly could but the heavily smoked non smoking room & the state of the bathroom in my current room are evidence of serious lapses in both housekeeping & management.

Travel well
N

TKG

I have to agree with the negative review of this hotel. Stayed there last month and was not impressed, although the experience wasn't nearly so appalling as Noctilux'.

At check-in, no mention was made of my SPG membership. When I enquired whether I could get a room on an SPG floor, I was told that there was no such thing at the property. However, my question did prompt the receptionist to then ask me for my choice of amenity (I took the local specialty gift of a bottle of Bordeaux (?)).

Getting into the Swiss-style lift, I noticed that several of the floors were marked with "SPG", contrary to what I was told two minutes previously. The room itself, on the first (second if you're American) floor was acceptable, but by no means outstanding. One could argue that it was an upgrade, as it was a corner room and had a small balcony.

Overall, though, the service was not spectacular; nor was the hotel itself. Definitely not to be recommended, especially at those rates.

alamedaguy

Wow, that's a real shame.

Several posters (me included) have had great experiences at this hotel. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=455843

AAmerican_in_London

I'm sorry to hear about your poor experiences.

I used to stay here almost weekly (monthly more recently, and soon to be never), and I've had nothing but good experiences, and that as a lowly Gold.

The staff have always been great and the rooms excellent (albeit small, but good value for money compared to the Widder and Park Hyatt). Oh, and don't forget the excellent selection of free magazines (Time, Newsweek and The Economist) :-)

TKG

Perhaps the experience improves on subsequent visits, but I don't feel tempted to test out that theory. Judging by the many other favourable responses, though, it seems like I might just have been unlucky. Although I didn't notice it when I was there, the availability of The Economist is certainly a point in the hotel's favour.

A couple of remarks that I forgot to add in my original post:

Breakfast wasn't included in my rate, and cost a rather steep 35 francs. On the other hand, you could order some a la carte items, including steak and some other hot items.

Also, the location isn't the handiest, being a very long walk or a short taxi ride from the main train station. Incidentally, the hotel is right next door to the SPG Europe office, which I thought was quite an irony.

cxn

I love this city/country. When I went for a one night trip to Zurich, I elected to stay at this hotel. As a plat, they upgraded me to a room on the top floor with a very nice view and balcony.

The checkin staff was great. I didnt eat at the hotel but did walk to a local store and bought some bread, cheese and butter. Nothing beats this breakfast.

kluau88

So since I mentioned it in another thread I will give a brief run down of what happened during a stay at the Neues Schloss Zurich last month. I was in Zurich for a quick trip so this seemed to be the most convenient SPG option. I booked a basic room and inquired at check-in regarding upgrades. Was told there were none. I inquired with the front desk if it would be possible to check the following morning to see if any upgrades were available and was told this wouldn't be a problem. The original room I was assigned was very very small. I guess this is typical of many of the older European hotels. Well the following morning I checked online and saw that an executive room was available for booking. I then went downstairs and told the lady that had checked me in the prior day that I'd like to see if anything had opened up. I was told no. I then proceeded to tell her that I just saw Executive rooms available on the website. She claimed there were zero, but I said I can show you what the website is showing me. I brought my laptop down to the front desk and showed her what I saw. She insisted nothing was available. I then asked to speak to a manager but was told they wouldn't be able to do anything. They claimed that sometimes the website shows room, but when you try to book it won't go through. She then said if I could book the Executive room they would give it to me. So I then had to go back upstairs and book the Executive room. After confirming the booking I was then given keys to a new room.

I went to Luzern for the day and came back in the evening and there 3 chocolate bars with a note apologizing for the runaround. I went out to grab some dinner and upon returning noticed that housekeeping has entered my room for turndown service even though I put the DND sign on my door.

IMO, if hotels want to be part of SPG they should uphold their end of the bargain. As members of SPG we uphold our end of the bargain to qualify for Gold or Platinum. The thing I really hate about SPG is the runaround that some hotels give when it comes to honoring benefits. I returned home and filed a complaint via the email link posted in the sticky.

I received an email from the Corporate services department telling me that the issues I encountered were unacceptable and would be discussed with the hotel. As a goodwill gesture 10,000 Starpoints were also added to my account. Moral of this story is to stand up for the benefits you work hard to earn each year. Some of you might say that the qualifications for SPG Platinum might be easy compared to other programs, but think about it if you did it solely on leisure stays.

zerbib

Interesting.. I stayed at this hotel too being in zurich ( just to test it) with very similar experiences. It is outragous that you have to book it on the internet whilst you are there to get what you want. I too filed a complain and received points in return!!!

My concern, like you correctly pointed out , is that most of these hotels often do not recognise their top clients during these embarassing issues. I once moved room to a one that was originally reserved for me , only to find a letter addressed to a Gold member, as they had not checked to see if teh room I was getting was really to me ..that was also a joke. As Platinum, I have never got a letter of welcome!!!

Quite frankly the gesture they made on you return is first a confirmation that they were out of line and secondly,a very poor way of showing they really cared.

MKB

I also stayed here earlier this year and was told that no Platinum upgrades were available even though online told a different story. Not only that, the allocated room looked like the smallest standard room they had.

Maybe I should have followed up afterwards to find out if the hotel really did have better rooms.

Because of this, I've discovered the Movenpick at the airport. It's a much nicer hotel -- with very cheap rates on otel.com -- and I've found it's easier to be based at the airport when doing a stopover as the hotel is very close to a train station into town should I want to have a night out in Zurich.

Flying Lawyer

I had the same experiences with this hotel and the Front Office manager (after several reminders) even pretended in writing to Starwood Corporate after my complaint that no upgraded accomodation had been available.

In your case it was obvious that they were lying in your face. In mine it was too as upgraded accomodation could be booked. At the end of the day Starwood apologized with 10k points which were hopefully charged to this hotel.

craz

It seems it worked for most of you people, simply cause you were able to check spg.com on your laptop. There are plenty of people who travel w/o a lp, I guess thats what the Hotel is counting on. As no way to prove what they said was not true.

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