It had been a long while since I had stayed in a Sheraton so was looking forward to seeing how it went this time. I had originally booked at a Radisson down the road but with a free night certificate expiring and a bunch of suite upgrade awards, I decided to give the Sheraton Stockholm a try!
Review: Sheraton Stockholm Hotel
Link: Sheraton Stockholm Hotel
Location
The Sheraton Stockholm Hotel is very conveniently located just down the road from the Central station in Stockholm. This is where you can get various buses, any of the metro lines, and the very efficient Arlanda Express which will transport you from the airport to here and back in just 18 minutes each way.
In the surrounding area, there are plenty of different shops and even various restaurants for you to try out. I had not tried any of them since I was in town just for one night and that was for the marathon (so I ate at the pasta feed at the race location). I did try their continental breakfast the morning of the race and will have more on that below.
Price
It appears that average rates during this month (June) are around €159 per night for a basic room. When it comes to points, thanks to Marriott’s variable award pricing, it is hard to say exactly what price you will find. I can say that the night I was looking for put it at 38,000 points – or just 3,000 points over what my free night certificate would book.
Fortunately, Marriott recently allowed you to use points on top of those certificates (up to 15,000 points) to book award nights so this is exactly what I did! Plus, as a Marriott Platinum member, I also got 1,000 points back as my welcome gift so it was a net of 2,000 points and a shortly expiring certificate for the free night.
I also have a number of suite upgrade awards available so I went ahead and tried to apply one of those. Take note that these do not book only to actual suites but also to upgraded rooms with various features – higher floor, balcony, club access, view (city or lake). In the end, I had a Superior King Balcony room with a Lake view (which was awesome!).
Check-In
Here is the one area where the hotel really flopped. I had checked-in via the app the day before and requested a 2pm check-in. I know full well that this is based on availability and having a specialized room can make the early check-in not work. But, I figured I would try.
I actually arrived at 1:45pm so figured I would check and see if it was available and, if not, leave my backpack while I wandered around for a bit. No surprise – the room wasn’t ready but they “put it into the queue” so it would be ready early. They suggested I come back after 2pm.
I came back at 2:40pm and waited in line (I will make mention here that though they had a single agent position with “Marriott Elite” labeled, they actually didn’t follow this and just took anyone that was in that line or any other line – so I had to wait behind a tour group). When I got up there, they said it still wasn’t ready but “normal check-in isn’t until 3pm so that’s ok.” And, I was told that this agent would “put it into the queue” so it would be ready quicker. I quickly learned that this really didn’t mean much and since both agents had put it into the queue, it may actually not have done anything anyway.
I was told I could wait in the lounge area so he keyed me in and I waited. After 3:40pm without being contacted, I went up again. At this point, I was frustrated. It was now 40 minutes past check-in time and I had an appointment and had been hoping to catch a quick nap and freshen up before it – now there would just be time to clean up.
The agent (a different one) said it still wasn’t ready and I told her that, had I realized it would take this long, I would have just taken a regular guest room but she said they were not available either (the hotel was sold out). She said she would talk to her manager. About 8 minutes later, she was back and said the room was ready.
If you are visiting this hotel during any busy season, I suggest not trying for an upgraded guest room if it is important to you to check-in on-time or early. But, if you don’t mind waiting, the upgrade could be great! 🙂
The Room
Again, this was an upgraded room due to the balcony (very small but still nice to step out on – plus it had a small table and chairs) and being a high floor room. I was on the 8th floor (top floor) with a city view.
The surfaces showed some wear and you could definitely see that some of the woodwork and such need an upgrade. But the bathroom was quite spacious and bright and the room had a couple of sitting chairs, a desk, a large screen TV and the king sized bed.
One thing I really liked was that the desk had a power panel that had receptacles for EU plugs, UK plugs, and US plugs. I always have a US and EU plug with me so didn’t need this but I thought it was a great addition for anyone that may not have an adapter plug with them.
The bed was very comfortable as were the pillows provided. There were light switches on both sides of the bed that controlled both the lights right near it and the lights for the whole room.
Speaking of lights for the whole room, if you aren’t familiar with this, many European hotels require you to put your key card into a slot near the door to turn the electricity on in the room. If you are visiting this hotel (or any European hotel that does this) during the hot summer months, I suggest getting at least two keys so you can leave one in there to keep the AC on while you are out (btw, the weather was very pleasant – mid-50s when I checked in).
There were reading lights over both positions on the bed as well. All in all, it seemed that they thought of just the things that people needed with easy access to lights for the whole room, power outlets, a nightstand, and reading lights – all without getting out of bed.
The balcony offered some spectacular views of the city. I just couldn’t help but take a bunch of photos from the balcony. The crazy thing about visiting Stockholm in June is that the “blue hour” (that time shortly after sunset/shortly before sunrise when the sky has a nice deep blue in it) doesn’t really go away. Sunset is after 10pm and sunrise is just after 3am. So, I was taking some pictures after midnight and the sky was still a really nice blue.
My view of Stockholm from my balcony – this was after midnight!
If you want the best views from the hotel, definitely opt for a lake view room.
There are two complimentary bottles of water in the room and the refrigerator comes empty. You can tell they used to have it stocked but they now prefer people order from room service and they leave the refrigerator for your personal items. As someone who never uses a mini-bar, I like having an empty fridge for my own stuff.
A daytime view from the balcony
Anytime anything was written or said about water in Sweden, it seemed that there was a sense of pride in the taste and purity of tap water. So, after polishing off both bottles of water (glass bottles which if broken or taken will add a cost of 25SEK to your room, about $2.80) I kept refilling them from the tap to hydrate before my race and I have to say – they were right! It was very good and fresh!
Lounge
If you have access to the lounge, whether through room choice or elite status, that is just across from the check-in desk. They have free snacks and drinks throughout the day but there were only 3 bottles of Pepsi left (and nothing else in the fridge) when I was in there in the afternoon. They did have a coffee/espress/capsule machine. For snacks, it was like chips, some fruit, and some gummies.
Breakfast
Some rooms come with the lounge access with the continental breakfast and if you have certain elite status (Platinum Elite or Titanium Elite), you can get it as well. I was told I had free breakfast in the restaurant or could do the regular continental breakfast.
As much as I really would have liked to try the restaurant’s breakfast, this was marathon morning and I knew the kinds of food I would want would be in the continental breakfast area so no reason to get fancy hours before a race!
I was honestly surprised at how great the continental breakfast spread was! I did not get any photos of it because there were a ton of people in there and the food was constantly blocked by guests getting their food.
But, there were several kinds of eggs (hardboiled, fried, scrambled), a bunch of fresh fruits as well as fruit cocktail, many cereals to choose from, a whole table loaded with several kinds of breads and pastries and things like oats and oatmeal as well. There were also several coffee/espresso/cappuccino machines to make your own drinks at as well.
They also had flat pancakes that were much better tasting than I had anticipated as well as the toppings to go on them. There were potatoes, peppers, a fresh section full of meats and cheeses and juices. In short, the continental breakfast offering here was awesome and had pretty much something for everyone.
The only issue here was seating. There were so many people all throughout this area that they were having people sit in the restaurant as well. I was a bit surprised that it was like this at around 8:15am on a Saturday morning and can only imagine it was much worse about an hour or so after that!
Bottom Line
I found the Sheraton Stockholm Hotel to be a fantastic choice for my one night in Stockholm. While there were some upgrades that could be done and they could definitely do better when things are busy, the staff was very friendly, the room was comfortable, and the breakfast was fantastic.
Given its convenient location, I would definitely recommend this hotel for anyone that either wants to be centrally located or is just coming in/leaving out of the airport, thanks to the Arlanda Express.
Featured image is from the hotel website
As a Platinum at this hotel during the fall and winter, more often than not, I’ve managed to get upgraded to a proper one-bedroom suite with the bedroom part having a view toward the water and Gamla Stan/Old Town. But I’ve also at times had to sort of push with reception to get upgraded, and then it’s been a bit of a push and pull at times — sometimes with me even going back down to the front desk. And when it’s spring and summer, they are often either less able or less willing to give the best applicable complimentary upgrade for my stays. Most of my stays in Stockholm hotels are one night stays, and same for this Marriott propert.
Of all the major brand hotels in Stockholm, only the Nordic Choice hotels in Stockholm have some properties that are consistently very good at upgrading me without hesitation to the best available room or suite per the loyalty program terms. I wish I could say the same thing about the Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt program properties in Stockholm. Swedish hotels generally seem to be pretty miserly with upgrades, and sometimes I get the sense they value more the business of those perceived locals on “date nights/romantic weekends” than that of the solo business or leisure travelers from beyond Europe.