Introduction
You remember Rod Stewart? The singer who looks like he's been recently electrocuted? Well, he was top of the charts with his song 'Maggie May' back in October 1971 when the Sheraton Skyline first opened its doors and it cost just £6 a night to stay here.
You know what's even better? The hotel celebrates its age. Yep, in a world where everyone is trying to be ultra modern and trendy, this hotel, like me, accepts how old it is and sees the advantages in doing so!
This is my fourth review in the series of six Marriott properties at Heathrow. In previous reviews I've stayed at, and reviewed, the Moxy, Sheraton and Courtyard hotels.
1971 images when the hotel was opened by its then Canadian owners, Skyline Hotels
A brief history of the Sheraton Skyline..
The hotel opened in October 1971, with 350 rooms and, as you can see, suffers exterior brutalist architecture of the era. The period in which the hotel was built is now widely regarded as one of the worst excesses ever for British design and you can see why. However good your imagination is, you cannot see this hotel as anything other than ugly! However, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you walk in.
Originally costing just £6 a night for a single room, or £9 for a double room, the hotel was originally designed and built by Canadian hotels group, Skyline, hence it being opened by the then Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
The hotel became a Sheraton in March 1977 when it was re-named the Sheraton Skyline Heathrow (not to be confused with the Sheraton Heathrow which we looked at previously)
In 2015 the hotel was bought by Qatar Airways and was to be renamed the ‘Oryx Sheraton Skyline’ - this idea was later dropped and it continues to trade simply as Sheraton Skyline
The Hotel
The entrance to the hotel is very smart. I was expecting something that had maybe been refurbished a few years ago, but it all felt fairly modern. You can see the age of the place in some areas but it is mostly a new feeling.
The foyer features the entrance to a sports bar although when I went in for a quiet whisky the football was in full swing, with its associated followers, so I left it alone and went instead to get a latte from the onsite Starbucks just next door.
As you see in the photo below, the hotel has a swimming pool (or it did). Like so many great things, the hotel pool closed during Covid and will not be making a return. You can however hire the poolside area as a venue, pool bar and all (just no swimming).
My Room
I booked a basic deluxe room but on the day of my stay, I was upgraded to a Club Room on the third floor which is where the Club lounge is also located (more on the lounge below).
The room itself was very spacious and seemed well fitted out, albeit I had to fiddle with the television to get anything to work.
The bathroom was also well fitted out and everything worked - perhaps an odd comment to make but you can’t take anything for granted at airport hotels.
Madhu’s Restaurant
This is perhaps the hotel’s main selling point. It has a genuine, bona fide Indian restaurant which is run by the well known Madhu family of London, who run a number of restaurants in South East England, including the very upmarket Madhu Mayfair. Well, I simply had to dine here!
I didn’t have a booking but they were fairly quiet on this Wednesday night of my stay so I was seated straight away.
The pictures probably do it more justice than words..
To start I had the Chilli Chicken, for mains I had Kadai Prawns with the Creme Brulee as dessert, washed down with a nice couple of Rioja’s and a dessert wine with the Brulee came to just shy of £100 and worth every penny..it was superb.
Bonus: I met world renowed Irish snooker player, Ken Doherty!
The Club Lounge
The Club Lounge is located on the third floor, where the Club Rooms are.
It’s a lovely lounge and way, way, better than the cramped space of the Club Lounge at the Sheraton down the road.
Since being crowned with Bonvoy Platinum status, I’m finding two clear differentiators between the Hilton and Marriott lounges. One, the food in the Hilton lounges is simply better. There is more choice and more effort and cost is put in to what they present at happy hour when the canapes come out. The alcohol is also better in the Hilton lounges. So far, across three Marriott branded lounges that I’ve tried, the alcohol choice has been limited to just wine and beer. In fact, in one JW Marriott, the alcohol was only available on a request basis.
The second differentiator is that I do like the Marriott lounges from a ‘hard product’ perspective. They’re just classier than Hilton. Anyway, during my visit I enjoyed what there was in the lounge - I worked during the day in here and found the wifi very good, with soft drinks also available all day.
During the evening I enjoyed happy hour booze and canapes and the lounge didn’t get too full. What you can find often in these places is that they’re quiet all day until a feeding frenzy happens at 5pm when the food comes out.
Sadly, another victim of Covid is that, like the Hilton, they no longer serve breakfast in the lounges. You have to go down to the main restaurant for that. It’s a pity. I enjoyed the lounge privacy for breakfast.
The entrance to the Club Lounge with some of the canapes and alcohol available
Conclusion
There's a lot to like about this hotel, and trust me when I say, it is a hundred times better than the other Sheraton down the road.
All of the staff that I came into contact with were very nice and got the job done, along with a nice lounge and a great Indian restaurant, with some of the best Bonvoy Club recognition that I have ever had at any Marriott property.
The one enduring memory I took away from this hotel is whilst it's one of the oldest operational hotels at Heathrow, the owners know it's old and celebrate that. I love it when hotels do stuff like this.
I paid £128 on a fully flexible basis, with breakfast included as part of my Bonvoy Platinum membership.
Highly Recommended.
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