vivrant

I'm in Perth now on buisness. I finished up five nights at the Sheraton and decided to switch over to the Hyatt for my remaining six nights.

The Sheraton is a nice hotel, well appointed, nice lobby, and friendly staff. All in all, there was nothing all too exciting about the hotel. I checked in about midnight on a Sunday and as a Plat was upgraded to a club level room (not suite) on the 22nd floor with partial views of Swan Lake. I actually ended up checking in at the same time as the SQ crew on my flight.

The club lounge is on the top floor of the hotel (23rd). Breakfast, which is served starting at 7am in the club lounge, was good. They had an assortment of items including cereals, fresh cut fruit, yougurts, cheese, breads, pastries, juices, scrambled eggs and bacon or sausages ( rotated daily). During the evenings beginning at 6PM, they serve complimentary cocktails and snacks. The snacks offering is slim pickings and annoyingly they would not let me bring a drink out of the lounge.

I did not try any of the hotel restaurants, but found them to be a bit pricey (at Monterey's in the lobby they have a buffet dinner for $43pp). There was a pizza hut that delivered a large large pizza with a couple of toppings for $15 + tip.

There is a small gym on the lower level. It is not staffed and has one TV. No free weights.

Valet service is $23. (all $ is quoted in AUD). My company did not have any special rates here, but I was able to call ahead the front desk to book me a rate of $170/night. Our negotiated rate at the Hyatt where I am at now is $155/night.

All this being said, I've spent one night at the Hyatt and found it more my style. The club lounge on the 8th floor is more robust with very nice views of the lake. They also offer a wider range of snacks during the evening. I'll be checking out the breakfast soon, but I'm pretty sure it will be comparable if not better than the Sheraton.

Brendan

Any recent updates?
In 2006 & now the Sheraton Perth is a Cat. 3 vs. 1 in 2003! What will happen come Feb. 2007?
The Hyatt has just been increased from 1 to 2.

I'm leaning toward the Hilton for March 2007 because my HHonors points are not otherwise committed & I want to be near CBD.

SnoozingWithStarwood

Checking in for 3 nights at the Sheraton Perth next week, so will report back with more info afterwards. Not holding my breath for an upgrade though, the Australia Day long weekend looks like a pretty busy one for them.

Savvy Traveler

I just stayed there for a few nights after the new year. Nice property, well kept and very good door and bell service. The only thing I didn't like was finding a crawling critter in my 21st floor room.

Otherwise, I thought it was worth 7,000 points per night.

SnoozingWithStarwood

Just finished a stay at the Sheraton Perth...

As pervious posters have said, the lobby and main areas are nice, however I found the room to be incredibly disappointing. So much so, I cut short what was meant to be a 3-night stay, and am now investigating other options.

First drama: I booked the Sheraton Perth through the Singapore SPG call centre about 2 weeks ago. Everything seemed hunky dory, however a quick check of spg.com after the reservation was made, and I found a cheaper rate had become available for the same room type. So, I cancelled the first reservation and made a new one. So far, so good!

Anyway, fast forward to yesterday. Long day at work, a couple of bevvies in the Qantas Club, and a hop over to the other side of Aus. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend, SPG style! Have I mentioned I love Starwood??

11pm Check-In - The lady at the front desk said she had no reservation for me, and all she could see is that the original one I had, had been cancelled.

Fortunately, I was able to whip out my booking confirmation, and after checking with the Duty Manager, she reinstated the first booking at the original rate. She wasn't apologetic, but I was just happy they had a room for me, as the hotel is 100% over the long weekend. Whatever happened to the second reservation, I don't know.
I spoke to the Platinum Concierge (Ireland call centre) after I got into the room, and she said everything looked fine from her end, and she couldn't understand why the hotel couldn't see this 2nd reservation in their system. She has filed this with Corporate Customer Service, and someone will get back to me. Stay Tuned!

Meanwhile, now to the room. Well - it's definitely an old hotel. You can tell renovations have been done, however the rooms are tiny, there are issues with the Hot & Cold water pressure, wallpaper is peeling in parts, and I don't think this hotel has ever seen a Sweet Sleeper. The corridors have no air-conditioning therefore smell musty during the Perth Heatwave (40C degrees), and the place has a very early 90s feel to it. This was on a very high SPG Preferred Floor.

On the upside, the bed was comfortable though and platinum benefits were offered, bar the suite but that is understandable at 100% occupancy. I think though, all in all, I'm a bit spoilt coming from Sydney which has 3 great Starwood hotels and travelling through Asia and Europe where I have stayed in some magnificent SPG properties.

All in all, I think this has been the most disappointing Starwood experience to date. The staff were delightful though and exceptionally friendly, and best of all didn't penalise me for leaving 2 days early. After all, it's not their fault this property is run-down.

Lessons learnt from this - always take a copy of your booking confirmation; and don't always believe "recently renovated" means recently. From a visit to this property, this is obviously not the case.

If I was in Perth on business next, I would give this another shot to rack up a few Starpoints, especially if I was not going to spend time in the room anyway, but definantely wouldn't spend a long weekend/holiday here.

jgold

I stayed for two nights this summer, on my honeymoon. I notified the hotel ahead of time that it was my honeymoon, and when I checked in, the front desk manager knew my name and was expecting me. We were upgraded to a very nice corner suite (two-room), and the hotel sent up complementary champagne, as well as strawberries with chocolate dipping sauces. The strawberries is actually one of the options you can receive as a Platinum amenity, but since I'd opted for the 500 *points, it was a very nice bonus to receive them in addition to the extra points. I think we had some problems with one of the two TVs in the room, but it was in the living room, and neither of us cared enough to have it looked at. It's basically a business hotel, not a luxury one, but I found it very comfortable. The rate we paid was fairly cheap (about $200 AUD), so I paid cash rather than with points. I'm sure I would have been happy at one of the other major Perth hotels, but I went with the Sheraton b/c I was hoping for a Plat/honeymoon upgrade (which they delivered).

portishead

I was there in October 2006, and they gave me a smoking room instead of a non-smoking room, and I'm only a SPG Gold, which actually didn't mean anything to them.

I probably wouldn't stay there again.

DCF

Firstly, the Sheraton Perth is an outdated mediocre hotel, but it does now have a club lounge with full breakfast for Plats. I try to stay at the fabulous Inter-Continental instead, although it is ten minutes outside the city.

Secondly, flyco's trip should partly be planned according to the season of travel. (Aside from the fact that Geelong is only worth a 1 night stay as a base for seeing the Great Ocean Road). My rule of thumb is as follows:

1) NZ North Island: visit only between November and Easter.
2) NZ South Island: visit only between Easter and September if you want to see snow at Queenstown.
3) Perth, WA: visit only between October and Easter unless you like cold vacations beside the ocean.
4) Broome, WA, visit only Easter to November unless you like monsoon weather for your beach vacations. (But if you're coming from the USA stop off at Fiji or Tahiti instead, just not during the November-Easter rainy season).
5) Melbourne: visit only if you're an Aussie or Kiwi with an inferiority complex about the lack of culture in your home city. And do so between November and Easter unless you've always fantasised about a cold, wet vacation.

mario33

The new executive club floors are now located on the 6th,7th and 8th floors of the building which are accessed with its own set of lifts except for the 7th floor (where the lounge is located) which is also acessible using the common lifts.

These are new rooms (not refurbished rooms) and are converted from the office space in the building; with some rooms having very odd layout and lacking decent views. The new lounge is huge and offers a "deluxe" continental breakfast apart from evening cocktails with decent hot food and weekend afternoon tea. There are 2 internet terminals in the lounge but wifi connection is erratic.

Now the not so pleasant news; the new executive club rooms are "not" available for platinum upgrade (as if its a "towers" wing) and neither are the standard suites in the main section of the hotel. The hotel insists the type of room for platinum upgrades are determined by them and they have selected the premier rooms (corner city view rooms) as standard platinum upgrade rooms, but not the standard suites or exec club floor rooms. They claim they are abiding with spg t&c which allows them to determine the type of rooms for platinum upgrades, is this something new ?

And if you insist on a "real" upgrade, duty manager "ashley" (who is one of the most obnoxious hotel manager I have the misfortune to meet) will put you in one of those wierd dark rooms and claim he has explored all possibilities even without pretending to look at the system. Fortunately all the other staff at the hotel are more "West Australian" i.e. very friendly and more accomodating.

I have mixed feeling about this property. I like the new lounge and majority of the staff are great (except for "ashley"); but their new policy on platinum upgrade puts me off and I dont like to be brushed off by managers like "ashley" who would probably be more suited at the Westin Times Square !

aussiechris

Late last year, this Starwood hotel had an extensive renovation on floors 5 to 8. Since this occured I have had three visits to this Hotel and each time I have had a suite on the 8th floor which is only accessible from the Executive lifts which are behind the main lifts in front of Montereys brasserie.
Each time the GM has handled my reservation personally and I have had a suite upgrade guaranteed in advance. The new Executive lounge is the best in Perth and I have had 3 great stays here although the GM has spent $30,000 recently on upgrading wireless internet, she has still not solved this issue.








My main points:

1.The best Exec Lounge in Perth. A great breakfast and coffee and enjoyable early evening drinks and eats. Located on the 7th floor but accessible by internal staircase from the 8th floor.
2.Great staff including George in Montereys and Grace in the Lobby Lounge
Wireless internet still erratic although cable broadband OK. The Hotel comped my internet for my most recent 5 day stay.
3.New renovated section ahead of the rest of the Hotel. Make sure they place you on Floors 5 to 8. Best floor seems to be 8.
4.Concierge staff absolutely fantastic. Your rental car is quickly delivered and GPS set.
5.The 8th floor corridor was consistently warm about 24-25C...I hate it when cost saving measures are disguised as "Green initiatives"
6.The suite toiletries are the Sheraton "Pantene" product and not the Bvulgari products of 2 years ago.

I will return soon for another stay.

yosithezet

Thanks for the great review aussiechris!

I'll be there at the end of next week. Was this a Plat upgrade or just because you are a frequent guest?

yycworldtraveler

Fantastic timing for your post! I just booked an Executive Suite at the Sheraton Perth for next month. I've been undecided about the hotel due to all the negative reviews that can be found about the place...but I'm glad to hear that the Club level floors are top notch.

aussiechris

Thanks Yosithezet.
The GM does my bookings (She used to be at the Sheraton On The Park in Sydney). I ask her to book me in and I get a confirmed suite for what is basically a standard room rate.If you PM me I can give you her email and she will look after you.

yosithezet

I am writing this from a suite in the executive wing of Sheraton Perth. Thanks to aussiechris I was able to contact the GM and secure a booking for a colleague when the property was overbooked. I received a Plat upgrade as was able to use the great lounge. I and my status-less-hence-upgrade-less colleagues all received beautiful fruit platters in our rooms. (It is embarrassing, one of them had an SPG card from 2002 for an account which expired. Amateurs...)

I popped by one of the colleague's rooms and it was the same as I'd recalled from a stay last year. A bit old and a bit small. With status I'd stay here again and again.

aussiechris

Thanks Yosithezet,
Glad the trip is going well