Review: Sheraton Grand Dubai (Deluxe and Executive Suites)

Nightly rate: AED 373 nett (S$134)
Nightly rate after BRG & Marriott eGiftCard: AED 242 nett (S$87)
Length of stay: 5 nights
Membership level: Titanium Elite

Sheraton Grand Dubai opened in early 2015 and is one of 4 Sheraton properties in Dubai, UAE.

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Location

The hotel is located right at the northern tip of the straight section of Sheikh Zayed Road. It is across the road from Dubai World Trade Centre and about 10 minutes’ walk from the metro station.

I tried taking the metro from this hotel to Dubai Mall one day but could not recommend it, especially if you are a tourist spending a few days in the city. It wasn’t a pleasant walk to the metro station under the scorching sun and I couldn’t imagine how it’d be like in Summer. The ticket costed AED 6 each for my partner and I. The train was packed, even at 1pm on a weekday. The walk from the metro station to Dubai Mall took another 10 mins in a sheltered walkway.

If I had booked a taxi using the Careem mobile app, it would have costed me about AED 22 from door to door within 10 mins (instead of 30), just AED 10 (S$4) more than what we paid for the metro ride. Of course, having weekly/monthly metro passes would lower the cost of the ride.

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Arrival

A few days before arrival, I was pre-upgraded to the beautiful Executive Suite as a Titanium member.

Unfortunately, on the day before arrival, Community Manager Ms Dwi Utari informed me that the guest from the night before had extended their stay. To ensure my flawless arrival, she had upgraded me to a Deluxe Suite instead, 1 category below the Executive Suite.

There really wasn’t anything for me to complain about though. I had only paid for a room in the lowest category and did not apply any Suite Night Awards (SNA) to the booking. Besides, the Deluxe Suite was beautiful!

Upon arrival, I went to the dedicated check-in counter for Gold members and above. What happened next blew my mind. Ms Dwi came out to greet and told me that she will complete my check-in in my suite! There was a box of fresh roses, some desserts and a welcome note on the dining table of the suite too.

As if that’s not enough, she offered to move us to the Executive Suite the following day, once they have cleaned and sanitized the room! I couldn’t say no to that.

Sheraton’s Community Manager

Community Manager is an experimental position started by Sheraton earlier this year. The role of the Community Manager is to assist with reservations and improve relations within the community (staying guests, public spaces for events, F&B etc.).

Ms Dwi Utari is the only person holding this role in a Sheraton at the moment.

I have gotten Ms Dwi’s permission to share her email address here. Be sure to reach out to her before your stay. I’m sure that she will do her best to make your stay a little more special.

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Deluxe Suite

Room 3103 felt very luxurious with premium furnishing. I loved the design of the bathroom but wish that there was a proper work desk in the room.

This suite is conveniently located on the same floor as the Club Lounge.

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Executive Suite

Ms Dwi assisted me in moving to Room 2220 on the second day of my stay. This suite has a huge living room! Probably twice the size of the one in the Deluxe Suite. It reminded me of the Executive Suite in Sheraton Istanbul.

The bedroom of this suite is exactly the same as that of the Deluxe Suite.

Despite having prepared those lovely welcome gifts on my first day, she sent a fruit platter to this suite for a second welcome. 🥰

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Best rooms

In general, I always ask for a room on the highest floor possible and it must not be a connecting room (less noise).

Because of the hotel’s U-shaped building and the close proximity of other buildings beside the hotel, the best rooms are the corner ones, facing Sheikh Zayed Road.

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Breakfast

The hotel offers complimentary breakfast for Platinum members and above. Breakfast was served as assisted buffet at Feast Restaurant from 6.30am till 10.30am. As I always have my breakfast late, there was a long queue outside the restaurant on all five mornings.

it was disappointing to have observed some guests jumping the line when staff weren’t watching. They would then help themselves to empty the seats in the restaurant. It happened every morning that I was there.

Food quality was good. However, the Cold Cuts and Bakery stations ran out of items (on some days) towards the end of the breakfast period.

The restaurant looked slightly understaffed too. I had to wait about 10-15 minutes to get a cup of coffee every day. I’ve raised this issue to the management and was told that Platinum members and above will soon be offered Continental Breakfast in the Club Lounge instead of the Restaurant. This should ease the crowd in the restaurant and Elite members can enjoy quieter, albeit smaller breakfast in the Club Lounge.

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Executive Lounge

The Executive Lounge was a joy to be in. Amazing views, extremely polite staff and delicious snacks during afternoon tea and happy hour. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Afternoon tea runs from 3pm to 5pm and happy hour runs from 6pm to 8pm.

I appreciated the variety of menu offered on all 5 days that I was there. Although I enjoyed the lounge at JW Marriott Marquis, this one at Sheraton Grand is the surprise overall winner for me. When it comes to snacks offered during afternoon tea, it wasn’t even a close fight!

P.S. You could probably tell from these photos how my partner and I love carrot juice!

Food offered during happy hour was of high quality too.

One evening, I arrived very close to the end of happy hour and the lounge ran out of desert. The staff then sent 4 chocolate pistachio cakes to my room to make up for it! Outstanding service recovery. It wasn’t even a huge issue in the first place.

On our last evening, just as we were about to leave the lounge, a couple of staff gave us a ‘farewell’ carrot cake that tasted as good as it looked!

Just when I thought that they couldn’t have done anything more, Ms Dwi sent a box of festive chocolates that evening.

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Other facilities

The swimming pool is located on the rooftop. There is a bar and a lovely area to lounge near the far end of the pool.

The gym is located on level 53, just one level below the pool.

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Ratings

Breakfast: 8/10
Service: 10/10
Location: 8/10
Room: 10/10
Facilities: 9/10
Executive lounge: 10/10
Elite member recognition: 10/10
Value (for what I paid): 10/10

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Bottom line

Over the years, Grosvenor House has been the most discussed hotel in Flyertalk forum as it offers great value and Elite member recognition. I’ve stayed there in 2018 and it was hard to argue against that.

However, its popularity has driven nightly rates of that hotel way up. Even during this pandemic, the lowest rate that I could find was AED 991 ($357) nett. That is no longer good value, especially when some members of the forum shared that rooms are showing signs of ageing.

Rooms in Sheraton Grand usually go for about a third of that! And here’s the kicker, I found service and executive lounge at this hotel better than those of Grosvenor House! Although I enjoyed my stay at JW Marriott Marquis a few weeks ago, my experience at this hotel beat that too.

The only reason to pick those hotels over Sheraton Grand is if you absolutely have to stay in Dubai Marina or Business Bay. The revamped management at this hotel is treating Elite members like superstars and it’s hard to say no to that!

I had a lovely chat about the current hospitality industry with Ms Olesia (Executive Assistant Manager) and Ms Dwi (Community Manager) on our last day. I’ve also shared my concerns about the not-so-ideal situation at breakfast and I could tell that they genuinely cared about improving guest experience in that area.

I may be staying at this hotel again next week and will update the breakfast section of this page if there are any changes/improvements.

Of course, Ms Olesia brought even more delicious festive chocolates for us. 😍

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