Sheraton Jiuzhaigou Resort

The staff were hospitable and friendly, though they could use more training. After check-in, they came to borrow our passports so they could copy them again because the first copies apparently weren’t acceptable. The room safe was an old model and needed several visits from maintenance; we couldn’t get it open a number of times. Breakfast was fine but nothing special, with the made-to-order eggs as the best part. The hotel is well located, but it isn’t exactly “just outside Jiuzhaigou Park Entrance” as advertised. It’s a ten-minute cab ride to the entrance. The hardware is worn and dated, though mostly functional. Our room was quite dark and could use more lighting and outlets. We booked a king room, which had only one bedside table. When I asked about the missing one, I was told one-bed rooms usually have one table and twin rooms have two. Staff later followed up to say the table was out for repair and offered to move us, but we were already settled in. Compared with the Intercontinental, the Sheraton is closer to the park, but older and without the facilities the Intercontinental offers.

I joined a packaged tour and stayed here for two nights in mid-January 2015. In the evening, I was the only person using the swimming pool. I remember having a good chat with the public relations manager and thinking I might come back, though the recent M:7 earthquake nearby has made me reconsider.

This was disgraceful, and it wasn’t a five-star experience. The front desk staff were our biggest problem throughout the four nights. They were rude, kept laughing at us right in front of us, and refused our requests. In fact, they seemed to do the opposite on purpose. They repeatedly claimed they didn’t speak English. On our last day, at checkout, I confronted them after seeing them type on an English keyboard and hearing one of them speak fluent English. They apologized, stopped laughing, and spoke perfectly well. After a lot of confusion and messing around, they deliberately charged our deposit to our card instead of refunding it. They’ve ripped us off and made extra transactions on my cards beyond what they should have. There were many other problems too. I didn’t expect this from a five-star Sheraton.

Poor all around.