Sheraton Jiuzhaigou Resort

Misleading - Not a 5 Star Resort as Advertised

I stayed here with my Chinese girlfriend for two nights on a trip to the Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong natrure reserves during early September of 2009. We moved to the Qian He International for the third night (an even worse hotel, but much less expensive).

First of all, the Sheraton / Starwood site description and pictures are totally misleading. One get's the impression that this hotel is a major 5 star resort located in a private and secluded setting surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Further, based on price and direct discussion with the hotel prior to booking, one is also led to believe that the rates are high because of the 5 star quality of the hotel and the high seasonal traffic. Truth be told, this is all misleading and innacurate.

In respect to the location, the hotel is located very near and convenient to the Jiuzhaighou Nature Reserve Park entrance. However, the location is not as secluded as one is led to believe - or as safe. The hotel is located on the main road in town, has to be gated at night, and is only two blocks from the Qian He International hotel. Walking just three blocks away to visit local vendors, my girlfriend and I encountered a billy goat and small cat tied up along side a building and another billy goat strung up and being skinned another few yards away. Now, I expect a certain amount of this in parts of China - just not three blocks from the 5 star resort I am staying at.

As for the hotel room.... It was a good size, clean, and reasonably comfortable. However, it was not 5 star. It had an old t.v. rather than a newer flat screen, a fixed shower head, no iron in the room, a hard Chinese style bed, and it took three times to get the electronic door keys to work right. 3.5-4 stars - not 5.

The outrageous "5 star" hotel rate did include a decent buffet breakfast at the hotel cafe although the scrambled eggs were runny and the milk was clearly powdered milk. The cafe also offers a dinner buffet of about $30 U.S. This is a total rip-off and the food quality is quite poor. There is no carving station and the dessert selection is what one would expect from a buffet for less than half the price. On our second night, we skipped the buffet and ordered ala cart instead. My girlfriend (who speaks fluent Chinese) ordered for us, but my order was messed up. When she spoke to the manager about this, he brought the server to the table who proceeded to argue with my girlfriend that she ordered incorrectly. Just rediculous and poor customer service. A customer should never be confronted/questioned in this way. As for the food ala cart - it was as poor as the buffet.

As for the hotel rate... We were led to believe prior to arrival that it was due to seasonal high traffic; however, while there for two days it appeared to us that the hotel had few guests. The gift shop even closed one day in the middle of the day due to lack of patrons. Totally misleading.

While there, I needed to use the Internet and were informed that it was an additional charge. If I wanted to print anything, I would be charged per piece of paper printed. I understand that some hotels charge additional for Internet access, but this should not have been the case for the price paid. Just rediculous.

When we checked out I found it interesting that no one asked how our stay was, nor were any comment cards available.

We found out after arrival that the hotel is operated by Sheraton, but not owned by Sheraton. On our trip, we stayed at two other Sheraton hotels: Xian, which was very nice and Guilin which was average. This Sheraton was by far the most overpriced, with the worst service and worst food of the three. I would strongly suggest that Sheraton request significant changes with the hotel if they care about the Sheraton brand name. They should start by first removing the misleading photo's and description from the Sheraton/Starwood site, lower the price significantly, and improve the cafe to something along the lines of the cafe at the Xian Sheraton. Sheraton may also want to consider their social responsibility in operating a hotel so close to where animals are slaughtered and eaten outside.

One previous commentor wrote that this is the best hotel in the area. It may be one of the top hotels, but it is no where worth the price paid. If you pay more than $120 U.S. to stay here, expect to be dissapointed. Further, I would strongly advise not to eat at the cafe other than the included breakfast buffet.

Based on the misleading information on the Sheraton/Starwood site, we were looking forward to this hotel as being the highlight of our trip. Instead, it was a huge dissapointment. We left feeling totally misled, ripped-off, and with a bad impression of Sheraton who took good care of us at two other China locations.

Unique Quality: None.

Sheraton Jiuzhaigou

One of the only 2 "genuine" 5-star hotels in the area. Very good services (up to Sheraton standard), e.g., staffs are always polite and proactively offering helps.
Room facilities are not top tier simply because this hotel is a bit old, but still way better than average.

Another 5-star hotel is Intercontinental Jiuzhai Heaven. It is much newer than Sheraton and originally managed by a Chinese company so facilities are better but services were poor. Now let's see if things will improve in IHG's hands.

Unique Quality: Only 2km away (10mins walk) from the entrance of Jiuzhaigou park. Cost less than 1 EUR if go by TAXI. You can sleep until 8am and still be one of the earliest visitors of the day:)

In comparison, Intercontinental is about 23km away which means get up @6:30 and pay 10EUR on TAXI to get to the park's ticket counter before 8:30am.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average
• Related to: Family Travel

Sheraton Jiuzhaigou Resort Photo: Theatre

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Was this Sheraton Jiuzhaigou Resort review helpful?

decent location

booked the hotel through elong.com, the hotel is pretty close to the Jiuzhaigou entrance, 5 yuan car ride away, the public areas are not bad, the receptionist staff are nice but clueless and not very efficient, the rooms are not bad, there were 3 of us in a room so we were pleasantly surprised that they actually prepared the room for us in advance with 3 beds, 3 pairs of slippers and etc. the rooms are not cheap (2000 yuan a night for 3 beds) but we only stayed one night here so it was ok, the breakfast buffet was decent, overall, not a bad place to kick back after a long day of hiking beautiful jiuzhaigou

from the airport to the hotel is about 200 yuan tax ride
the entrance fee to Jiuzhaigou incl bus rides are 310 yuan

this if beutifual