Although we stayed here only one night, we were treated like royalty. We arrived DOG TIRED from out flight from Beijing, but were warmly greeted by the folks at the check-in (we took a bus from the airport that dropped us off to a few minutes walking distance to the hotel...it was the second stop). Since I informed them via email that I was a Starwood member, they had my room ready and gave me full access to the club lounge.

Although not a great view, the room itself was extraordinary.....a suite with a separate living room and bathroom and guest closet, then a master bedroom with free wifi, a beautifully appointed bathroom with a rainforest shower head and beautiful tile work. There was also a complimentary bowl of fruit delivered to the room by the GSM. Very nice touch. And tons of complimentary water, coffee and tea.

As with the other Sheraton club lounges in China, the food was very good. Although we arrived late for the happy hour, the breakfast was nice (definitely not as high end of a selection as the breakfasts offered at the Westin in Beijing or in the Hongku Sheraton in Shanghai, but good nonetheless). Good selection of both Chinese and American style food: illy espresso coffee, oatmeal, scrambled eggs (a bit runny for my liking), made to order omelettes, sushi and noodles, cereal and various buns and rolls.

The concierge was very good at setting up our day trips to see the terra cotta warriors and some additional temples, and they even arranged for them to take us back to the airport. No complaints at all and would definitely stay again

The Sheraton Xian is not a new hotel, but it has been renovated and the rooms are in decent condition - clean, good sized room, decent shower, flat screen TV, etc.. All very functional and in-line with the average 5-star international hotel in a 2nd tier city in China. Software/service is mixed as is typical for 2nd tier cities - lots of staff standing around but not seeming to do very much, although they do seem to try if you ask them.

Location is decent - just to the west of the city walls, although access to the ring roads to get out of town can be slow at rush hour.

The room rate was not terribly good compared to other similar cities, but the launch of a new range of international hotels (new Westin, etc.) might help to make rates a little more reasonable in the future.

Didn't have chance to hit the gym, but the buffet breakfast was good with a broad range of options that were generally well prepared.

The hotel itself is nice. The rooms are comfortable, clean and we were well rested during our stay.

The only issue we had was with the door staff and concierge. I realize this is China, but their concierge spoke very little English and it was practically impossible to convey anything to them or extract any helpful information. The door staff was a joke and each time we tried to leave they told us it was too hard to get a taxi so we needed to walk out to the street to get one ourselves. The hotel is about a half-block off the main street. Then they literally told us they could only book one taxi to the airport even though we had 8 people. They said it was impossible to arrange two. We again went out to the street, this time with our luggage and hailed a taxi in less than 1 minute. Not sure why these guys are even employed because they certainly don't help guests.

We stayed for two nights as part of our tour. While dated, the room was clean and comfortable, with a small sitting area near the window, which was nice. The rest of the hotel was also well kept. lobby very nice, though the carpets in the hallways were dirty. The food in the restaurant was pretty good, nothing outstanding, but the buffet was hot, which was not our experience everywhere on the trip. Our biggest complaint was with the way we were handled when one of the bellboys broke a piece of our luggage getting it out of the cab. We pointed it out right away, but when we got into the hotel and checked-in, all the guys had made themselves scarce, and we ended up taking our bags up ourselves. At first when we addressed the damage with the management, someone came up to our rooom and took pictures of the bag, but later, no one seemed to know what we were talking about, and we were finally told that the guy who took the bag out of the cab said that the bag was already broken when we arrived. Which we know isn't true, but they would not budge on this position. Obviously customer satisfaction is not high on their list. This incident put a big black mark on what was otherwise a nice stay. Just as a side note - the pollution here is terrible. Our throats and eyes were burning most of the time. Worst of our trip. If going, be prepared - but it's worth it for the Terra Cotta Warriors alone.