I fly frequently to Urumqi for business and I finally got around to trying the Sheraton. I firmly believe it to be the best hotel in town; it was a real treat to stay there. The location is good and the gym is far and away the best hotel gym I’ve seen in Urumqi. The hotel is located on a busy main thoroughfare in a nice shopping area several km north of Renmin Park. There are tons of good restaurants around, including some western ones like Pizza Hut and KFC, just across the street. It is about a 30min drive from the airport.

The hotel lobby is quite inviting, with a central fountain and fish pond with very friendly fish that follow you around. Check-in and check-out were relatively painless and didn’t take anywhere near as long as in most Xinjiang hotels. Hotel staff were generally attentive and friendly, well above average for China.

My room was amazing, fairly big with great views over Urumqi and the Tian Shan mountains. The room was spotlessly clean and well-maintained, and very nicely decorated. The bed was one of the most comfortable in China – not rock hard! There was a nice computer desk with a free internet hookup with average speed broadband. The big LCD TV had loads of English programming. My bathroom was huge – the size of a small bedroom – but that may be because I had a corner room. The bath tub was situated right in front of a picture window with a magical view out over Urumqi. There was no problem with road noise or hall noise and the room smelled fresh, as I think I was on the non-smoking floor. My only complaint is that even though I had the AC cranked to the max, it still was a little warm for me.

The hotel gym was a real treat, by far the best I’ve seen in Urumqi. All the equipment is fairly new, high-quality Technogym gear. There are about a dozen or so cardio machines of all types, all with personal TV screens, and a great range of weight machines. The free weight selection wasn’t too bad either, with a full set of dumbbells and a Smith rack. I had some great workouts here.

I highly recommend this hotel, definitely the best I’ve stayed in Urumqi. I wouldn’t say it’s the best value though, as it is almost double the price of the other top end hotels in town, like the CSA (formerly Kempinsky) and the Huaying International. As much as I’d like to stay here again, I will probably return to some of the cheaper 4-star places in town. But I must say, it was a real treat.

Well appointed Sheraton that generally meets brand standards with a a few 'China' quirks. The bathrooms with shower AND tub are a relief after being on the road as is the decent bed rather than standard Chinese rock hard. The staff in general does not speak much English but they try.

Probably the 'safest' hotel in Urumqi for a western traveller.

Airport pickup was on time and had a good sign and a nice clean car. Took 40 mins from the airport to the hotel because the driver was very inexperienced and never went over 40kph even on the highways. It would be better if people like this didn't drive for guests.

Check in was efficient. No problems.

Room was nice and everything worked except the "rainfall" shower head, which was installed improperly and directed the water upwards to the ceiling rather than downwards to the occupant of the shower.

English was harder to find at this hotel than at most hotels in China. Several of the operators spoke no English at all. For room service, I had to get someone from the restaurant to come to my room and take my order by me pointing at the item on the room service menu.

The gym was OK with newish Technogym equipment which is cheap and not ergonomically friendly, but at least the weight machines are OK. There were ellipticals, bicycles, and treadmills. Gym staff were surly and unfriendly.

Breakfast and evening snacks in the executive lounge were very sparse, but I think one of the nights I was the only executive floor guest!

Lunch at the coffee shop buffet was OK - quite a broad selection in fact. The servers definitely didn't understand English, however, and didn't seem to understand Mandarin from my colleagues either!

The staff - like most places in China - were mostly aloof, non-communicative, and generally not very helpful... but that's not just this hotel... it takes significant effort over a long time to train those traits out of the available staff.

Overall, don't get me wrong, this place is a safe bet. You won't be disappointed... just don't expect a Sheraton like you'd get in Thailand or Indonesia.

We stayed 3 nights in May 2008. Our intial reaction when we stepped into the hotel (to agree with another reviewer) was like stepping into an oasis after staying in mediocre ones in Dunhuang, Turpan and Kashgar. Unlike the Sheraton,which prides itself as a 5-star hotel, the other hotels considered themselves as only 3 or 4-star hotels. However, our initial reaction later gave way to disappointment with some of the hotel's services and facilities.

The reception staff were friendly and service quite alright but that could not be said of other areas, such as the restaurant where they served breakfast.

The lobby with its open atrium smelled of food and it was even worse when we walked along the second floor corridor where all the restaurants were situated. The smell was not pleasant at all and it was overpowereing...seemed like the smell was trapped within the atrium and second floor.

The shower came away from the wall in our room and I was nearly knocked on the head. Water seeped out of the shower booth whenever we showered and soaked up nearly half of the bathroom mat. My small open sachet of unfinished facial wash was thrown away and I was told by a staff that she thought it was an empty shampoo sachet.

We had an early checkout before breakfast and in many of the better hotels I stayed we could normally be given a takeaway breakfast box. When I asked about it, I was told that it would be deemed as room service. However, they compromised by saying that at that hour, the staff would be up and about preparing breakfast and I could get something there. Indeed, there was coffee, hard-boiled eggs and cold pastries. The toaster was nowhere to be seen and the staff didn't even bother about us.

It didn't help that on 2 of the nights we were there, there was maintenance work and one night, we were told, the electricity might be cut off for a few hours and another night the hot water supply would be affected. Although, the staff told us there would be minimal disruption, it was no comfort to us.