A square doughnut with a delightful centre!!! (Sheraton Skyline Heathrow)

Member Name: andymcf

Product:	Sheraton Skyline Heathrow
Date:	02/08/03 (251 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly, Elegant, Comfortable

Disadvantages: Total cock-up at reception, Not all of the check-in staff were up to the job. Sorry, but that's true.

Let's get one thing straight, right from the start. You would only want to stay in an "Airport hotel" if you were flying off early in the morning or if you were arriving reasonably late at night. The Sheraton Skyline finds itself nestled amidst a plethora of London Heathrow airport hotels and I'd find it hard, I imagine, choosing between them. We were flying into Heathrow from Glasgow and decided to book a hotel through Priceline. I made a ridiculously low bid of £35. The rack rate is a lot higher! The Sheraton Skyline accepted it, much to my amazement. It was to be my first experience of the Sheraton brand. After two nights on the Executive floor of the excellent Glasgow Hilton, this was a tall order to follow. To be honest, I was getting cold feet and was starting to wish I hadn't been committed to the Sheraton in the way that only Priceline can. I could have driven home. This was a luxury. In the end, I'm glad I stuck with the original booking. The hotel was certainly not faultless, but it was a very enjoyable experience once we'd ironed out the minor problems which, to be honest, would not be problems to the Josh-less guest. Here we go!!

We arrived and parked the car in a convenient parking space. The car park is large and, I imagine, is set up for travellers who are flying away for a couple of weeks. I'm sure that this hotel offers special "Flyaway" deals including two weeks' parking to challenge the outrageous airport parking fees elsewhere. We, however, were just spending the night here and overnight parking cost us £7. It wasn't unreasonable, and I've paid more! The airport hotel business competes with the airport parking business, and it's interesting to watch.

Having unloaded the car, we made our way to the hotel reception. It's clearly very popular and there was consequently a long queue. I was finally dealt with by the very efficient Rachael - recept

ion supervisor, no less - and was checked in quickly and very efficiently. "You've got a smoking room" I was told. "Josh's cot" (as requested) "Should be in the room; if it isn't, please dial 0 and I'll sort it out"

We caught the lift and were soon in our room on the top floor (3010). There was no cot. These things happen. Often, in fact. I returned to reception. The receptionist advised me that the cot, though booked and confirmed in advance, might not actually be available. She 'phoned Housekeeping and eventually gave me a totally vague answer - in essence: you might get one; you might not. I'm British. I don't complain for a living. We trundled out to the car to collect a few more things and discussed tactics. After an "Are you a Man or a Mouse" type of conversation with Amanda (who is Scottish), I presented myself once more at reception. I felt bold, and said that, if no cot were available, we'd simply have to check out. We were now talking to Rachael, the supervisor. At last, we were talking to an intelligent manager who clearly recognised the gravity of the situation and who was prepared to "kick ass". It did surprise me, however, when she directed us to repair to our room. "I'll 'phone you as soon as possible", she said. Yeah, right!

We returned to our room, as instructed. Note: instructed. Not requested. We waited. And we waited. Then, there was a knock on the door. Hoping that it was Josh's cot, we answered the door, to be told that a cot was available and that it would be delivered within 10-15 minutes. We decided to stay. It was a nice hotel, after all, even if we were wasting time somewhat pointlessly. 15 minutes passed. No cot. The evening was starting to slip by. 30 minutes later, an extremely helpful man delivered the cot. He was very friendly and very helpful. He was just too late. And i
t rea
lly wasn't his fault. The sad thing about the whole experience was that we ended up sitting in our room awaiting the arrival of a cot, knowing that if it didn't happen, we'd be checking out. There was no opportunity to enjoy ourselves. You are unlikely to find yourself in a similar situation, but - I'm telling you - it really spoiled our stay. A decent hotel would have been able to (a) confirm the existence of a cot and (b) deliver it in our absence. I'm sure you get the picture. I won't go on and on about this. It was the only irritation. It won't annoy most of you. It did, however, go some way towards spoiling our stay.

The hotel has several restaurants. They sound great. If you're Bill Gates, they'd seem like a bargain, but they are incredibly expensive. Sorry if this makes a bad review but I just wasn't prepared to pay the prices to eat at this hotel. Vote with your feet! Turn right and you'll find a (wait for it) McDonald's. Keep turning left and you'll find a great Indian restaurant, or a kebab bar, a chip shop or a Chinese. I'm sorry, but the in-house prices were ridiculous and I'm not on an expense account. If only! One thing I WILL say is that "Red Bull" is available as part of the breakfast menu. Respect! Yo! High five!

The room, at any rate, was absolutely superb. The hotel is, essentially, a square building. I'm something of a 'plane spotter, and there were clearly rooms with superb views of Heathrow airport. I didn't get one of those. Others offered a disgusting vista over the car park. Again, thankfully, we were spared that. Our room had an internal view, over the hotel's beautiful free-form swimming pool and "Sky Bar". I loved it, and so did Josh. Once he went to sleep - and it took a few hours, Amanda and I sneaked down to the bar for a quick drink. Heaven! An oasis with a fully enclosed free-for
m pool, palm trees, vegetation and relaxing and unobtrusive piped music. It was the tonic that we really needed. We felt that we were on holiday.

You're unlikely to suffer the cot problem and I'm aware that I've gone on about it. The pool area makes up for anything else - it really was superb. We managed to unwind spectacularly. We soon returned to our room.

The room was superb. Lovely bathroom with great toiletries. Strangely enough, just one towel for two people. There was a TV with plenty of multi-lingual channels. A minibar was there, but I couldn't see any prices, so didn't dare to touch it. There was an extremely comfortable sofa and a glass-topped coffee table. The bed was at least seven feet wide and could have accommodated four rather fat people, at a guess. We didn't put it to the test. We had a nice view and, once Baby Josh was finally settled, we had a really great time.

In conclusion, I'm actually going to recommend this hotel. The rooms are superb. The bars are great. We got an absolutely superb rate. The location is superb if you're looking for a Heathrow airport hotel. That said, the staff seemed over-stretched and it was only Rachael's professionalism that prevented me from saying - and I apologise - "Sod it; we're going home". This hotel has a lot to offer. I recognise that I caught it on a bad day. If I'm wrong - and it turns out that every day is a bad day - please let me know. It's with some trepidation that I endorse a hotel that clearly has huge amounts of potential. I don't do that lightly.



Andrew

Summary: