Review – Four point by Sheraton New Delhi Airport

Entry to the hotel.

Four point Sheraton owns a large campus. You have to enter its premises and then drive up a hill to a point where you reach the hotel lobby. It feels like you have chosen to select one of those hotels in rural areas which have lots of greenery. It gives an optical illusion of a small cottage but which is actually humongous from inside.

Why are you in this hotel in this city?

I have been in this city for giving a seminar. I realized that there is considerably cheaper option available on the date I am traveling here. SPG is running a promotion where you get 500 points for staying with 5 brands or 11000 points for staying with 11 brands. To qualify for this promotion, I needed to tick off one of the properties in the list. With Points & Miles – short term investment pays off in long term.

This is India, so mostly with all properties, it is usually a preferable option to go with Cash payment. But in contrast, there are very few properties where using Points are a better idea. I paid rack rate of 4532 + taxes = Rs 6300. The price kind of stung me as I wasn’t getting much out of it.

I received 125 check-in bonuses instead of 250 Bonus points for Starwood Gold member.
164 points for stay
82 points as 50% gold elite benefit
Total Points Received = 371
Conversion = Rs 816

There were only 2 reasons for which I stayed at this property despite horrible conversion –
A. To review it
B. Qualify for Brand Bonus

There is another reason why this hotel is termed terrible investment. It is supposed to be considered as an Airport Hotel but much to my surprise they charge Rs 900 for Airport Pickup which is insane. All other airport hotels offer free pickup/drop services.

They do have an airport drop option which they never tell you about. The only way to find it out is to read the information on a frame placed at reception. They provide Airport shuttle at following times:

Check in (Photos of lobby, Pictures of any decorative present)

I received a call from Four Point Sheraton (FPS) about my check-in time. I let them know I would be arriving early as I have a meeting next day.  The lady on counter asked me to wait for a while. She asked me to check-in and use one of the 2 queen bed rooms for time being until another room, which has got a king size bed, is vacated. I appreciated her concern as I just wanted to get ready and be on my way to work.

There were no Member amenities here. There is no club lounge or any additional options for Gold Members which is kind of aberrant. This is supposed to be a part of core SPG program. I normally get breakfast as a complimentary service at all the properties but no such thing was here.

Apparently the lobby was cluttered as you can see from the picture.

Journey from Reception to Room

The room is distant from lobby. You have to walk straight from check-in-desk to the end of the hall. Then on turning left, there is café (It only resembled a restaurant by its appearance). You go past the restaurants and then on the left, there was my room labelled room number 309.

Room

When you open the door, You see washroom. On the right there is the bedroom. Due to this design, there felt some separation from the door.

As you turn right, you see the room

The bed was definitely regular King size bed and very comfortable to sleep in. I was definitely had a good sleep.

Just at the entrance is Tea/Coffee maker and drinking water.

Pictures of Entrance, Minibar, Table,Bed, Sofa, Alarm, other electronics

Internet speed

Though a decent data transmission’s speed they provided yet that was fair enough to get some work done. I found a speed of roughly 4 Mbps.

Washroom

Washroom in this hotel was small but a nice one. There was a shower cabin at least. The shower had a substantial water flow that would delight you to take bath in.

The wash basin comprised of large rack with basin fitted in the middle, just the way I like it. Such arrangement usually allows me to keep my toiletries without fumbling around too much. The washroom was exhilarating.

Toiletries

Toiletries were present in dispenser as there was no way to know what brand they were. I found it allegedly cheap. I didn’t feel like I was in a branded hotel for sure.

Food and Beverages

Food spread was alright as per a typical airport hotel. Normally you are supposed to grab a quick bite and be on the way to your connecting flight. I will let pictures speak for themselves.

Service

I believe the staff at this hotel are very new and haven’t been properly oriented with SPG’s hospitality. I asked for Fruit Platter in the room. They redirected me to contact at the restaurant and said it would be chargeable. I know as a Gold Member, I am entitled to certain benefits which are at least above regular members who stay at this hotel. Everything was basically chargeable.

The lady at the counter was a neophyte & tried accommodating my needs but I had to ask her supervisor about everything. I believe she has a bright future here if she works with the hotel till she becomes a veteran.

Bottomline

There are certain positive aspects of this hotel but overall it just doesn’t make any sense to come to this hotel. This isn’t exactly very close to Airport as traditional Airport properties do. If you are an Elite Starwood Guest, you shall not be treated any differently like you are accustomed to. You won’t be getting much in terms of points and bonus unless you have some major offer connected to your account. Staffs require proper orientation and training. Infrastructure is decent as property is a new one.