Sheraton Hohhot

Read time:

4–6 minutes

upper upscale in past tense

Marriott Bonvoy, Northeast Asia, Premium, Sheraton

Being Marriott’s only option in Hohhot, the capital city of China’s Inner Mongolia, the Sheraton Hohhot was not exactly appealing at first glance. Even the pictures on Marriott’s website looked tired, bland and slightly underwhelming. With that expectation in mind, however, I found my stay here actually quiet satisfactory.

The hotel was located in Hohhot’s busy city centre, but not directly off any main roads. Instead, it was tucked in on a narrow street that was more like an alleyway. While it gave the hotel grounds a more exclusive vibe, traffic was not ideal, and I consistently had to plan 10 extra minutes for driving in or out of the alleyway. That being said, public transit would have been a better option, as there were a few metro stations within a 10-minute walk – I was just being lazy.

Hotel exterior, love the Mongolian writings

The arrival experience was okay, I did have some issues navigating the maze-like one-way parking lot situation when I pulled in for the first time and ended up head-on with another vehicle, and was guided to where I was supposed to be by a kind security officer. The lobby was grand, everything was marble, and the chandeliers looked very expensive. There were also some interesting local touches like the “sheep and cow pen” scattered around, and every evening there was live Mongolian music in front of it. They were definitely going for authenticity which was great, but some of them did feel a bit out of place (did I mention the “sheep and cow pen”?).

I used two Nightly Upgrade Awards to secure a Sheraton Suite, which was supposedly the premium one-bedroom suite, one step below the presidential suite. Upon entering the suite though, I realized the pictures online were all pretty accurate. My suite was roomy, but seemed pretty tired indeed, with out-of-date (or so-called “old money”?) decors and liberal use of light woodgrain panes that not only looked cheap, it also showed their age much more easily. Surprisingly, however, there was not much wear and tear to put my fingers on – everything felt spotless clean and well-maintained, which spoke volume about the quality of their preventative maintenance works. They also didn’t cheap out on the furnishings and fixtures, and they still felt premium after all these years.

The bathroom was also very well equipped, and equally as well maintained. I found it interesting though that they went for a shutter-style blind for the bathroom window that didn’t go up or down, but decided to splurge on electric controls just for spinning some bamboo pieces? I found this quite interesting and somewhat wasteful, but it may have made sense back then when luxury meant being extra.

My room faced west, and the city view with the mountains in the background was by my judgement one of the best the city could offer. However, it was a MASSIVE shame that I couldn’t find one single pane of clean window across my entire suite, as they all had watermarks that seemed to have been baked in already. It was so bad my camera kept wanting to focus on the dirt when I was trying to capture the view.

This is as clear of a picture as I could get

The club lounge was located on the top floor, and offered the standard afternoon tea and evening food and beverage services. The drinks selection was decent, but food was lackluster, and in some cases seemed like a clear lack of effort from the kitchen team. The service team here was nice, but in quite a shy and passive way, and would not initiate any conversations beyond the transactional “hellos” and “good-byes”. Once I got one going though, they were very pleasant and fun to chat with.

Speaking of service, I found the team at the front desk generally nice and courteous. That being said, I did have an interesting interaction with an associate over Marriott’s in-app chat. I asked if the minibar items were chargeable as there were no price lists to be found, and their response was a little unpolished and slightly impatient when I couldn’t find it after following their directions. I later clarified with the front desk, and confirmed that as they were in the process of transitioning from Pepsi to Coke products, the price lists were taken out and yet to be replaced by new ones. Conversations over text lack any tonal variations, so I can’t blame them too much on not coming across the right way, but I’m pretty sure having a chargeable minibar but no price list (even temporarily) would be illegal.

The hotel also served breakfast in the main restaurant in the lobby. The variety was average among its peers, but the quality (especially of the local options) was really good. I didn’t know I would fall in love with salty milk tea but I did.

Overall, with modified expectations, I did enjoy my stay at the Sheraton Hohhot. As an older property, it was apparent every department and every team member at the hotel was doing their best trying to deliver the best they could with the hard product, which was older but seemed to still be holding solid. However, I did ask the front desk if a renovation was on the horizon, and the answer was an unfortunate no.

RealScore

Service: 7.5

Design and Room Size: 7.0

In-room Amenities: 8

Bathroom Size and Layout: 10

View from (my) Room: 8

Hotel Location: 9

Available Guest Facilities: 10

Food Quality: 8

Food and Beverage Service: 6

Executive Lounge Quality: 7

Final RealScore: 7.81