Review - Sheraton Grand Hotel Esplanade Berlin
Paul‘s Hotel Review for the
Sheraton Berlin Grand Hotel Esplanade
General Impression: 
Details:
Duration of stay: 2 nights / City Trip
Check-in / Check-out:
Check-in Process:
Check-out Process:
Concierge Service:
Staff @ Front Desk:
Bonvoy Recogn.:
Room / Bathroom:
Bed, quality of sleep:
Bathroom, Shower:
Room Atmosphere:
WiFi / Internet:
Cleanliness:
Food & Beverage:
Breakfast:
Bar:
Restaurant: N/A
Lounge:
F&B Staff:
Paul‘s Mix:
Pool: N/A
Spa: N/A
Hotel Location:
Mojito Rating 
:
:
General Customer Care:
Staff attitude, interaction and responsiveness:
Social media interaction:
—-
= bad, a lot of work needs to be done
=not good, you will be busy with corrections
= good & normal, nothing special
= high level, but the icing on the cake is missing
= topnotch, leave me here!
= Half a Point/sheep
—-
Spoiler: A hotel destroying the Sheraton Brand and Standards.
We haven't been back at this property for a little less than 3 years.
The hotel should have closed in March 2024 but really last second the owner decided to keep it open. Huge mistake!
Staff wise, as well as the currently offered quality is below any standards.
The property feels dead, no more soul and life. A Deutsche Bahn waiting hall has more charm and atmosphere compared to this Sheraton.
The lobby as well as the Elipse Lobby Bar & Restaurant are now illuminated with horrible neon tube construction site light.
The outside area of the hotel, the curbside, which is covered by a roof and also serves as a Bar & Restaurant is not even lit in the evenings and at night and it is dark when you get to
the hotel. As if it is closed.
All the hotel and the owner wants is your money but the hotel does not offer anything in return.
The era of the Sheraton Grand Esplanade Hotel is over, the glamour has gone and the last bit of pride has faded.
Every Moxy, Motel one or Ibis Budget offer a better service.
About the Property:
The hotel is located very close to downtown Berlin.
Lots in the vicinity can be reached by feet.(shopping center, restaurants & bars, museums and most of the famous sights).
A walk to the Kurfürstendamm takes around 15 minutes and to Potsdamer Square around 20 minutes.
The property has a total of 354 rooms and 40 suites spread over 7 floors.
Check-in:
The check in was absolutely basic. The agent was friendly and helpful but did not seem to have big clues about what he does.
The
Welcome Water was always empty and no one seems to care.
Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite recognition:
Less than basic actually no recognition, not mentioning anything, nothing.
The agent wanted to tell us they have upgraded us, which was absolutely not correct, as I used nightly upgrade awards which cleared already 3 days prior to arrival. Breakfast is offered at the
regular restaurant as the lounge is closed in the morning. So we could choose the points as welcome amenity.
Nothing in the room. No card from the hotel, no welcome amenity not even a bottle of water. Simply nothing.
You could not feel anything that you are a returning guest alone holding the second highest loyalty level.
Check-out:
Check out was a disaster and a disgrace to be called check out.
The agent did not even talk to us. He didn't told us our final invoice price, nothing. At least he took the same authorisation code used for the block at check-in. It was a super poor
underperformance.
All agents had no idea what they were doing and the queue was massive. It took them 5 plus minutes per party to check out. The queue were up to the entrance door at one point.
No question if the stay was okay or anything alike. At the end he said "auf Wiedersehen" and I responded, "no not really". He said "oh" and I said the stay was a disaster" and all he did was
smiled. Nothing else!
Oh well, what did I expect from an untrained temporary contract worker. He couldn't care less about the property or anything around him.
Front Office Staff:
Staff at the front desk was a disgrace for a Sheraton Hotel.
More than 50% of the employees come from temporary employment agencies and have no idea what they are doing, let alone Sheraton or Marriott standards. They are not interested at all about the
property and they couldn't care less what is going on.
Concierge:
There is no more concierge or bell boy service at this property. They have left the thinking boat. No idea if they will be ever reinstated.
Room:
As said, our nightly upgrade awards brought us to an executive suite.
The suite consists of two rooms, one living room and a bedroom as well as a bathroom. The suite has a size of 56 sqm.
The rooms at the Sheraton in Berlin are of bright, light colours and oak wood style furniture.
You have massive windows which allow a lot of natural light to come in and you also have the possibility to open the windows to get some fresh air.
The aircon was already switched off and the first day it was super warm in the room. Luckily you can open the windows a little bit, which gave us the chance to cool down the room a little
bit.
The king size bed was okay. One of the mattresses was heavily worn out but I think they will never change it again as the hotel should have been closed. A comfortable bed is something
different.
Pillows and duvet were good.
Bathroom:
The bathroom also is bright in color and offers a shower and a bathtub. The water pressure in the shower is simply wow. Otherwise a regular hotel bathroom.
WiFi:
WiFi was a disaster. It kicked you out the entire time and you had to log back in every 20 minutes.
Sometimes it did not work at all.
F&B outlets/ Lounge:
Ellipse Lounge / Lobby Bar:
The ellipse lounge is currently the only F&B outlet which is open as Bar as well as for lunch and dinner. (all other outlets are closed). Unfortunately the atmosphere is the same as a train
station waiting hall. No music and the bright, glaring neon light is worse than at a dentist. Nothing where you would like to sit and enjoy some drinks.
But...
We went for drinks and the staff was simply amazing. They interacted with the customer and offered a great service. They were the only ones still connecting and actually living the brand as the
guys are in the property for several years.
Breakfast Restaurant Elements:
Breakfast was served in the breakfast hall.
The food was good and super fresh. The buffet has a decent size and offered a lot of cold choices as well as a live egg cooking station. Unfortunately the ordered omelette was swimming in oil
and was completely soaked in it.
Staff was attentive and friendly but here you see the biggest issue. I would guess that 80% of the staff is untrained and have simply been told to collect empty plates from the tables.
Elite Lounge:
The Elite lounge at this property was always a rollercoaster. Sometimes absolutely stunning and sometimes disastrous bad.
We have to say that currently the lounge is quite good. The F&B they offer during Happy hour was really good and the service from the staff was good as well.
Summary :
All in all a very unpleasant stay.
We came back to this property because we had spent many nights here.
What is going on now at this property, is a disgrace for a Sheraton and a loyalty customer. Every 1 Star low budget hotel offers a better service and has better and more motivated staff. Moxy or
Motel one seem to be at 5 Star level Hotel compared to this Sheraton Grand Hotel.
At check out, people were even sleeping in the bar/lounge at Sunday morning.
Honestly y said, they should have closed the property in March 2024 as announced. Even the hotel is open it is dead! No more soul, no more atmosphere just a cold, poorly managed, guest-unfriendly
bed bunker which is run by untrained staff who play "Hotel" .
No management staff visible at all and you can not give any feedback.
The Hotel is nothing to return, if they aren't reinstalling the former services and basic Sheraton standards.
Should this property continue to be a Sheraton they urgently need some assistance from corporate at Marriott as they are destroying the Sheraton Hotels & Resorts Brand.
Unfortunately based on our experience we can not recommend this property any more.
Notes:
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- Paul will always pay for the services in order to be able to rate freely and truly about the experiences.
-If you are interested in more details, please send me a private message and I will be happy to share.