Safmar Palace Moscow — Hotel in Tverskoy District

I have been staying at this Moscow Sheraton Palace hotel for 14 to 15 years, and started staying before it became a Sheraton 1997 (after being converted from a Marco Polo property). I watched many changes in the property to its present state, October 2012. The hotel has always had excellent staff that is always helpful to guests, including several staff from the original property change to Sheraton, ranging from a concessioner, front desk/office managers and a bellman. The evolution to its present state has always allowed for input from guests to the staff that is passed on to management. I myself have never held back observations or an irritation and provided comments. They do seem to assess guest inputs and I have seen changes adopted for the better over the years from some of my comments. Today all ‘good’ hotels in Moscow are expensive, October 2012, but this has some extra features beyond normal expectations today not so common in this hotel class which I comment on for new comers, or old timers at other Moscow hotels, trying to decide where to stay. Of particular note, now the internet is free to all which most hotels in this class still like to charge guests as way for increasing their revenue. I am a lifetime platinum so I have this internet benefit but it is important that all guests now have it as a benefit and is a nice gesture that more hotel properties should consider. The hotel seem to have a very good internet provider today where a couple of years ago, I regularly commented that I would’ fire’ the current provider which they seem to have done. The restaurant breakfast buffet has always been very good and remains this way today, October 2012. Breakfast is expensive if not in your rate but it has a very wide array of cold and hot selections of high quality and eggs cooked to order as you wish. There are daily onsite baked pastries and breads/rolls, fresh juices, fresh fruit smoothies and salads, and the Asian dishes place. You have to see it to experience it and can even partake with complementary champagne or vodka if you desire. I being of Platinum status have access to their club lounge which I have to rate as best I visit in world. It may be worth it to others to pay for the club floor room rate if one is spending any time in hotel in mornings or evenings. Lounge has evolved over the years, with some up and downs, but has always been very good and exceeds ones expectations. Today, the food selections are outstanding in quality and quantity as they can and do draw from the excellent restaurant supply downstairs for both breakfast and evening dishes. Breakfast offers a very wide selection of hot and cold items being a subset of the downstairs buffet. The evening selections (2 hours) are remarkable as they offer generally 4 to 6 hot items, 4 to 6 cold items and several sweet deserts of high quality from their downstairs expensive restaurant ( such as fish,beef,pork,chicken, Chinese) and continuously refill them so one can relax. Beer and wine, plus coffee and teas are available all day and evening with some snacks and sweets from club staff. The evening has an ‘open bar’ for 2 hours each evening. This complementary alcohol or wine is now becoming a very rare offering from my travels with Sheraton clubs either stopping them or charging for them as another ‘petty’ revenue generator. Do try this lounge or at least inspect yourself if there. The hotel is very nice as implemented by staff, and if one needs to stay in expensive Moscow do try this hotel and form your own opinions as I have for past 14 to 15 years. It is also close, 5 to 10 minute walk, to metro and airport transfer trains and many restaurants and supermarkets even nearer. Look it up on the Starwood web site for specific...

rior to the stay I met with management and communicated check in times, check out times, simple things like a need for a fan, and hoped they could place the rooms together. Check in went okay, although the young man checking me in seemed a bit lost with some of the notes someone added to the reservation. After returning from dinner we found a note under 1 of the 3 rooms doors stating the hot water would be off from 1-5am for routine maintenance, something that was perfectly fine, as we would be sound asleep. The letter was specific that it was only Friday night for the routine maintenance.

The issue came Saturday night, at 8pm when we returned from dinner. Yet again, there was a new letter at one of the doors communicating that for routine maintenance there would be no hot water 1-5am. I immediately when to the front desk and let the manager know this was not feasible for my guests who would be departing at 330am for catch a 540am flight. I also let them know I communicated this exact time of check out to management the week before when I visit the hotel. If there was going to be a routine maintenance when myself and guests needed to get up and shower before a 28 hour trip home, they could have very easily told me either when I met with them, or Saturday morning, so I could move my guests to a hotel that was able to supply a hot shower. The manager at the desk said it wouldn’t be a problem, and she would take care of it. I assumed they would just delay the maintenance to another weekend and didn’t think any more of it. So 0230 came around, and one of my guests called my phone, and said, there was no water at all, and then after 10 minutes only cold water. I called immediately to the front desk and asked for the night manager, who then shared with me that they had brought my issue to his attention, but he didn’t feel it necessary to communicate to me that my guest’s needs didn’t matter! (my words, not his) I reiterated to him that I had even gone the extra step of coming to meet with hotel management to ensure non-sense like this wouldn’t happen. He didn’t really have a response. I asked that the GM call me the next day, and he communicated that the GM doesn’t do anything with the hotel on the weekend, and he was off.

Sunday afternoon the day manager did call me, but didn’t really have an answer for where the lapse in communication occurred. I again said at numerous times this could have been avoided: they could have told me when I visited hotel management 2 weeks prior, they could have told me at check in, they could have told me Saturday morning, and they even could have told me Saturday night after they said they would fix the issue.

Im not sure what more I can do to ensure when I bring guests to a Starwood property. I sent many emails to hotel management and even came to the hotel before the visit, to ensure check in, check out times, registration issues, and room assignments went smoothly. I would like to know why the hotel felt it unnecessary to communicate with me at any of the times noted above, so I could move my two guests who were leaving at 330am. And even more so, if the night manager knew of the issue, why...

On Saturday, September 28, my husband and I booked room for 8 nights at the Sheraton Hotel in the center of Moscow. At 23:00PM we checked and went to our room. In about an hour later, a tall man with long hair was trying to open our door with electronic device and a long item covered in his hand. We immediately called reception and told them that someone is at the door and that we are not expecting anyone. They said that they would check it. When that strange man left our door after struggling and failing to open the door, we called the reception again, since they never got back to us. The reception desk told us that as if they received a call from our room telling them that we expect a guest, meanwhile we never attempt any phone calls from our room or expected anyone. We immediately packed our luggage’s and went to the reception. The reception told us that they gave a key to that strange person trying to open our door since he was our guest. We began to argue with the hotel reception that they gave a key to someone without our authorization. My husband and clearly saw from the door peep hole that it wasn’t a regular door key, that man was opening the door and that wasn’t a regular door key, it was a strange electronic device.We demanded to reveal the security cameras because we felt extremely insecure with the whole situation, however the hotel refused to reveal the security cameras, stating that they don’t have a permission. We strongly believe that our lives were in danger and that the hotel staff is purposely hiding the truth.We left the hotel shocked and scared from the horrific incident and possible...