The Sheraton Miramar Hotel & Convention Center in Viña del Mar, Chile, is a brand-new hotel located in the same spot as the former Miramar Hotel in this Pacific coast beach resort about an hour and half by car from Santiago. The hotel has a fantastic location atop a rock that juts right out into the ocean and is surrounded by sandy beaches on both sides. It has indoor and outdoor pools. It is possible to walk to the center of Viña from the hotel, but the walk involves crossing very busy highways and streets and is not pleasant. Taxis are readily available and cheap.
The entire hotel is decorated in modern style, with light colored wood furniture, light brown carpets, halogen lamps, flat-screen TVs, and Sweet Sleeper beds. Wired high-speed internet is available at about USD 18 per 24 hours; public areas have wireless access at the same rate. Some rooms faced the ocean; others face the city. Most are small in size, containing only a bed, a desk, and very little else. As a Platinum SPG member I was initially assigned to room of a lower category than I had reserved but, after minimal negotiation, was offered a large corner room on the top floor that had a sofa, a large chair, and a coffee table. Although called a ‘suite’, it had no separation between the sleeping and sitting areas. One of the porters told me that the hotel has no real suites, aside from the Presidential Suite.
Breakfast is included in most rates and is standard hotel fare. I did not try the restaurant, but it seems to serve mainly buffet style meals. Other guests told me the food was not very appetizing.
The staff are friendly and helpful, although many seem to be still learning their jobs. We were, for example, mistakenly told to check out three days before the end of our reservation because of overbooking due to a convention. We were allowed to stay upon producing a copy of the reservation and subsequently received a large delivery of goodies (wine, chocolate, cookies, a clock, a beach ball set, etc) intended for the conventioneers. After a while the hotel demanded it all back again, but then decided to let us keep most of it after all. We turned down a second delivery.
All in all, I would say that this is a fine hotel, more upscale than the normal Sheraton level, although it is clearly more geared to conventions than to tourists or other guests.
Review by Anthony.
Posted at October 28, 2006 9:22 PM
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3 experiences with sheraton miramar hotel & convention center
October 29, 2006 9:30 PM. th44roc said:
We loved our stay at this hotel early this year. i found the hotel rates a bit "up there", but was impressed with the quality of the property (fairly new build, I think!) and the great staff. There are great views from the hotel, as the reviewer mentioned, and when you're inside, we had a flat-screen TV in our room.
August 6, 2007 4:14 AM. Rebecca said:
Yeah, a bit pricey but overall good value, very professional which is nice to see in Chile!
October 29, 2007 6:19 PM. Chilelivin said:
We are in Vina right now staying at the Sheraton Miramar. Very nice hotel. SPG level is nice. Larger rooms are 524, 525 and 502. 521 and 522 have a larger balcony, but a bit of an odd configuation since they are on the corner. I like the larger balconies though. I would go for 502 given the choice - 524 and 525 overlook Wulff castle, but get traffic noise.
Level 7 and 8 have suites, but both are smoking levels. :( 701 and 801 have nice views back to Valpo, but are more like Junior Suites (really not that much bigger than what you are going to get on the SPG level.) In fact, I think they are smaller than 524, 525 or 502. 801 has a bigger balcony than 701.
The suites you, if you can get them to give them to you, are 808 and 709. These actually have separate rooms.
Again, floors 7 and 8 are smoking.....I am in 701 right now and have "febreezed" the crap out of this place, yet everyday I have to do the same thing. I am very definitely sensative to cigarette smell though. The carpet is also very dirty and the couch is in need of replacement (cigarette hole and did someone spill a whole bottle of red wine on this thing???) Someone apparently threw a party in here and practically destroyed the place.....it looks a lot more worn than any of the other rooms we have ever gotten here.
It seems like the front desk is really reluctant to give you a suite unless you specifically ask for it. I guess there are only really 2 real suites, and 2 "junior" suites, so apparently they hoard them. More than a couple times we were told there were no suites available for upgrade, but then they suddenly "became" available as soon as we figured out they were in fact available.
All rooms have ocean views.
For SPG Plat gifts, the bottle of wine and cheese at the Miramar is really super nice. We thought we would get a couple cubes of cheese, but got an entire plate of different cheeses, crackers, olives, prosciutto, turkey, salami. The champagne and chocolate sounds good too. This is one place I would get the gift instead of the 500 points.
Parking here at the Sheraton Miramar is $3,300 CHP (about $7). We always valet, but I don't know why.
Pool is nice, but can get crowded on weekends. It is oddly filled with salt water. You can also swim in the "ocean pool" below - basically a naturally (? at least it is meant to look natural) formed ocean pool complete with seaweed and freezing pacific waters! If you can handle the temperature, go for it!
Fitness center is really pretty darn nice - it is a Balthus. They use "techno-gym" equipment - Italian brand - never seen it in the U.S. They have an aerobics rooms and classes, spinning room and classes. The work out area is also ample and pretty large compared to most hotel gyms I have seen. Probably one of the best I have seen really....ocean views to boot!
My one complaint - there is no co-ed hot tub. There are luke warm hot tubs in the locker rooms for each gender, but the closest they come to a co-ed hot tub is an indoor pool that is heated.