Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel — Hotel in Richmond

This hotel may claim to be a four-star hotel, but my experience did not reflect that. I participated in a conference here and over my three days at the venue, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. Most aspects, especially the decor, the layout, and the rates, were disappointing and do not inspire a return visit.

The decor is reminiscent of a chocolate factory in that it's brown, dark, and monotonous. There's a lamp on the hallway every 10 m. Inside the rooms it's better, but the balconies are moldy and look out onto concrete. Not what comes to mind for a four-star.

The breakout conference rooms are located in many different parts of the hotel, which caused extensive confusion in our guests. Other hotels have all their breakout rooms in one wing, but this hotel has theirs on two floors and multiple wings. Moreover, the only way to get up to the second floor is through an elevator. There are supposed to be two but the other one is "under repair" with no signs of anyone working on it or when it will reopen. There are two elevators to different parts of the building and once you've gone up the elevators, the building is shaped in such a way that you can only go to some rooms and not others. There are no signs indicating where they go to. A simple "to rooms 1xx-1xx" sign would really make this easier. We had to make these on our own -- not impressed.

Finally, before I had ever visited this hotel, I saw the invoice and thought their rates seemed reasonable, albeit a bit high. For example, $5 per person for a coffee/tea setting is what you would expect from a specialty coffee shop, not a self-serve bar with less than ten options. $8500 over two days for five breakout rooms and a large meeting room is outrageous, especially since the AV (for one room only) is another $3700. Each item may only seem a bit more expensive than it should be, but when you add it up and multiply by all the attendees, it gets out of hand quickly. I would be okay to pay this much for four-star quality but we did not quite receive that.

On the bright side, this hotel has nice water. In the lobby there is fruit-infused water and each breakout room gets 30-odd glasses and many pitchers. Considering that hardly anybody drinks it, it isn't the best use of water. I guess hotels waste so much water anyways, so it's literally a drop in the bucket. Maybe they should build on the water inspiration and flush out the current design/pricing schemes and replace them with actual four-star value. Our experience at this venue was mediocre at best and I will not be recommending this to our conference-planners next year, or anyone else for...

I stayed here a few times recently, and my experience with each stay varied quite dramatically.

The good: -Parking is convenient, there is a lot right outside the hotel -Starbucks in the lobby makes morning coffee/tea easy and convenient -Rooms are pretty nice, with comfortable beds -Ernie at the front desk is very friendly and helpful -Internet was free because of a summer promotion - unexpected bonus!

The less than ideal: -I got a parking ticket (which front desk very nicely agreed to take care of for me, since no one mentioned anything about parking to me when I checked in -- this is a big deal since many guests park and get tickets, according to the front desk staff) -Parking charges are around $20, kinda expensive but I'm guessing pretty standard for Richmond hotels -One night, my room REEKED of cigarette smoke. Unfortunately, I couldn't change rooms b/c the other person in the room was asleep when I arrived. When I mentioned this to the lady at the front desk the next morning, she said she would tell her manager, and then she asked if I smoked in the room. Why would I complain of cigarette smoke if I was a smoker myself? Maybe she didn't believe me. Anyway, she explained that the hotel fines guests who smoke in the rooms and they don't book smoked-in rooms for 3 days until the smoke smell is completely gone. Clearly not the case because my room smelled like someone had just smoked in it. It was gross! -I was charged for internet for one night, even though I was told internet would be free. In fact, I specifically called the front desk from my room to see if I should accept the charges or enter a code, and they said yes, they would remove the charges automatically. The charge was NOT on my folio upon checkout. The hotel reversed the charge when I called, but I paid with US credit card, so I still ended up paying foreign transaction fees. Not the hotel's fault, but annoying nonetheless.

The location could be good or bad, depending on where you need to be close to. If you can stay downtown instead, I would...

I recently became a Gold Status member. I travel very often for work and SPG has become my rewards chain of choice. I stay often at the W but not often the Sheraton. I tried this hotel chain for a recent trip to Vancouver.

I was on vacation and decided to check out Vancouver. I redeemed my starpoints for this stay. When I got to the hotel at 11pm, I checked in and received my room key. I headed up to my room and opened the door. Immediately I knew there was something odd. The hotel room smelt like food. I opened the light and to my horror, there was a person in bed! She was extremely frightened and started screaming. Frightened, I as well, started to scream. I immediately ran out of the hotel room.

I go to the front desk very shaken. I told the front desk about what happened and she was genuinely shocked there was another person in the room.

The front desk gave me a different room and allowed me lounge access for evening hors d'oeuvres and compliemntary breakfast for the experience. They had mentioned that the room service claimed that the room was empty, however there was a very real person in that room that night.

The next morning was the last morning of my trip to vancouver. I go to the lounge to enjoy the complimentary breakfast and to my horror, my room key did not work and I could not gain access to the lounge. I was incredibly disappointed and ended up waiting until another person came into the lounge and had to explain myself to the attendant there as my room key clearly didn't reflect the access they had purportedly given me.

All in all, I had saved up my starpoints for this stay, and was very disappointed in the events that had transpired. I don't know if other people have had these experiences at the Sheraton, but this is truly not the service I was used to and was more disappointed when this occurred on...