My First Time At the Sheraton Mission Valley

Since I am almost re-qualified for Marriott Platinum status, I decided to stay a couple of days at the Sheraton in Mission Valley on Monday, September 8 and Wednesday, September 10 at the AAA Parking nightly rate of $130, which included parking (parking is normally $16 per day). I wanted to get two stays on this trip in order to eventually qualify for Starwood Gold status.  With Gold status I will be able to get Starwood points when I fly on Delta and Delta Skymiles, when I stay at Starwood properties via their Crossover Rewards program.  After these two stays I have 4 total stays for the year due to having the Starwood American Express card.  I only need 6 more stays this year until I qualify for Gold.

I reserved a King size bed for my stay.  At check in on Monday, September 8 I received an upgrade to a King Deluxe room, which the front desk agent told me includes a pullout couch.  Though I booked the AAA rate, I did not have to show my card.  When I entered the room, Room 907, I was surprised by the size of the room.  It was definitely larger than most of the Marriott Mission Valley rooms that I have gotten through the years.  The room faced  the highway, US8 or "The Eight", so it was a bit noisy.

My Sheraton Mission Valley Stay Review

The bed was hard, but not uncomfortable.  The decor was modern and none of the furnishings showed wear.  The bathroom was adequate with a normal tub shower with the sink, which had great lighting, in a sizable, separate area.  The toilet, though, is ill situated in the bathroom.  You either need to have the door closed to sit straight on the "throne" or you need to sit angled to the left, so that you can fit your legs by the door.  Also, I am lucky that I am tall, since the toilet paper is some distance from the toilet.

The greatest attribute of this room, outside of it's size, is the balcony.  It is just plain huge.  The view is not anything special, but the balcony is big enough to hold over 15 people with some room to spare.

The parking at the hotel is adequate with one lot right in front and another to the left when facing the hotel from which one can use the side entrance to enter the hotel.  Parking is $16 per day, but my rate included the parking.  If parking was not included, I am not sure how competitive pricewise the hotel would be for me in the future.  I did have troubles on both days getting into the parking, since the machine would read the key card, but the gate would not go up for me to enter the parking.  Luckily, the side lot's exit gate was up, so I entered by that way.

I had a bit of trouble checking out on Tuesday, September 9, since the front desk clerk could not get the computer to cooperate.  Eventually, she was able to check me out and gave my my receipt.

When I returned to the Sheraton on Wednesday, September 10, they had assigned me to the same room, Room 907, and it was ready for my early check in at 2:15pm.  I was so glad to be able to get into the room early!  The room looked the same as before, as if no one else had used it in the interim.  I was so tired that I was not at all harmed by the noise from the highway.

When I checked out on Thursday, September 11, the front desk clerk asked if the room that I stayed in was okay and if the traffic noise bothered me.  I told him that the size of the room was more important to me than the noise that came from the highway.  I also told him about the problems parking and he told me that they were working on it, but were unsure of the cause.  He did tell me that the call button on the parking does go to the front desk and they can open it for anyone that cannot get into the parking areas.

Overall, I was happy with my stay at this full service Sheraton.  I do not think it was my best stay, nor my worst.  It was definitely adequate enough to get me to Gold status with Starwood this year.