Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel Review

For my upcoming flight to Europe from Charlotte, I decided to arrive a day early and stay at an airport hotel. I wanted to make sure to actually get to Charlotte so I can use my international flight on American Airlines, which I was able to upgrade to Business Class with my System-Wide Upgrade certificates. I am also still a few spent dollars short to requalify for Ambassador Status. The Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel is close to the airport, and they offer a complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport. I booked the hotel the night before my arrival through the Marriott app after checking what options I have in Charlotte to stay overnight.

Location

The hotel is about a 10-minute shuttle ride away from the airport. It is close to major highways in the area and a good place to stay overnight before a flight. Next to the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel is a gas station where you can buy some snacks and drinks as there is no convenience store on site.

Shuttle Service

The hotel provides a complimentary shuttle to and from the airport. You only have to find your way to the courtesy shuttle pick-up area at the curb of the airport. After that call the hotel and let them know at wich courtesy shuttle pick-up area you are at, and they will send you over a shuttle. It was tough for me to get to the pick-up area. This was my first time getting actually out of the airport and the signage got horrible curbside. Also, there is so much construction going on, it’s insane. You can barely move. There was a line at the exit door of the terminal building to get to the curb driveway. Some of the sidewalks are closed and you must take a detour which is not made for the tiny wheels on your luggage. I don’t know why nobody ever thinks about that.

Check-In

After I got dropped off in front of the hotel by the shuttle, I grabbed my bags and walked inside. Since I was the only one on the shuttle, I was first in line at the front desk. Nobody else was there during my check-in. Overall, it was a great and quick check-in experience as I am used to. I asked if they would eventually have suite upgrades available, but they didn’t, but they upgraded me to a Club Level room. After a quick check of my ID, i had my room keys in hand and was off to my room. The front desk agent pointed out the way to get to the elevator.

Weird fact about the elevators here. The elevator bay has a total of three elevators serving all floors. Two of them are panoramic elevators and have windows facing the atrium. The third one is just a regular plain elevator but slightly bigger than the other two. For whatever reason, one of the panorama elevators requires your room key to activate it but not the other two.

1 King Bed Room (Room 820)

My room was not too far from the elevator lobby. Just a short walk down the hallway. The room itself makes a very rustic impression. The rooms haven’t really been updated in a long time. I think the only updates the rooms got were the touchless entry lock on the room door and a flat screen TV.

From the entryway of the room, you have access to the bathroom. Inside is a vanity with a single sink and a single wall-mounted mirror. The mirror was placed behind the sink but wasn’t as wide as the whole vanity. Between the vanity and the opposite side of the room with the shower/bathtub combination was the toilet. You know that you are in a very old hotel room when you find this little thingy on the wall where you can pull out a line and anchor it on the other side of the bathtub. This line is to hang up your laundry, you probably did in the bathtub. I never used it, but that’s how it got explained to me. Way back then, it wasn’t common that a hotel has washer and dryer units or dry-cleaning service, I guess. As you walk out of the bathroom, you have a large dressing mirror hanging on the wall of the entry way.

The entryway will then open up to the main part of the room. Overall, the room is very spacious, and I had lots of space to put away my big suitcase and smaller bags. The King bed is centered at one side of the room. Next to it are smaller stands which are supposed to be nightstands but there was quite a gap between them and the bed on either side. Both nightstands came with a lamp, and one had a phone and alarm clock on top of it. To the left of the bed was a small closet which housed a small refrigerator. On top of the closet was an ice bucket and two bottles of water which are complimentary for Marriott elite members.

To the right of the bed were two sofa chairs and a tall lamp stand. Opposite the bed is another closet with drawers to store your belongings. On top of it was a flatscreen TV.

Next to the closet with the TV was an office desk with an office chair. This part went pretty much all the way to the outside wall of the room. By placing a lamp and coffee maker on top of the office table, you lose a lot of space to set up your laptop. It also has a glass surface, which is bad for modern computer mice.

Next to the desk area is a smaller window which gives you a view of the parking lot and the attached convention center and meeting rooms. Not a very pretty view, but I was hoping to be facing south to capture the lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, it was cloudy that night and a big cloud just covered that part of the sky. Also, the windows were very dirty if you wanted to photograph through them. Opening was also not an option as there was a stop and you couldn’t even open the window one little bit. There is a blackout curtain to darken your room if necessary. The windows are not even located centered in the wall. It is more towards the wall to the next room and close to the office desk.

The room itself is great. but I had one big issue. It was hard to get power outlets to charge your devices. You had to dig behind the nightstand or the desk to get a power outlet. Don’t even start with USB ports.

Public Areas & Amenities

The Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel has a beautiful lobby which is a gigantic atrium which spans between the actual hotel tower and the attached conference center and meeting rooms. The lobby therefore offers a large area with many possibilities to sit down. There is a nice seating area opposite the front desk. The corner used to have a little indoor water pond, which is currently dry. Only the one on the outside of the hotel, to the right of the main entrance is filled with water.

In the center of the atrium is also the restaurant and the entrance to the breakfast dining area.

Business Center

I completely overlooked the business center in the beginning. It is located next to the lobby bar/restaurant. You have to get up a few steps and there is a desk with two workstations and a printer. Next to it are a few more tables to set up your own gear. From the main walkway in the atrium, it looks more like it is part of the bar area.

Pool Area

The pool area at this hotel is amazing. I rarely have seen a pool set up like this in a hotel. First of all, the pool area is located in the atrium, close to the elevators. You can’t miss it. You need your room key to unlock the gate and then either walk down the stairs or take the ramp to get to the pool level. The pool is a mix of indoor and outdoor pool. It starts in the atrium, but it has two openings in the hotel wall where you can swim outside and back inside around the corner. The pool is heated as well, so you don’t have to worry about the water temperature. There are plenty of pool loungers around the pool inside as well as outside. There are also two doors you can use to get outside if you don’t want to swim. I really like this set up. Mostly only swimming halls have this kind of set-up or fancy resort hotels.

The whirlpool is located in the pool area as well. For whatever reason, this one was still covered and not usable during my stay. No signs showed why it is closed. The whirlpool is located inside the atrium.

Fitness Center

To get to the fitness center you have to first access the pool area and from there you have to take another set of stairs down to the entrance of the fitness center. Even though you need your room key to access the pool area, you still have to use your room key another time to get into the fitness center. Since the fitness center is located so low, it has no windows. Inside you find a broad selection of workout equipment and plenty of space to work out.

The Fitness Center is open 24/7.

Dining

Breakfast

Breakfast is served in the restaurant in the atrium. A small check-in booth is located next to the bar where a waiter will bring you to your table. The Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel offers a nice breakfast buffet and seating is staggered over a few levels. Depending on your seating direction you even get to see part of the inside pool area or the outside portion of it. Service was a little slow because the crew working breakfast was understaffed. Only two people had to take care of the whole breakfast area which included checking people in, serving coffee and juice, restocking items at the buffet, handing out the check and so on. Both servers were running back and forth all the time. I had plenty of time and it didn’t really bother me that the service was slow. They tried to be as fast and efficient as possible, but you can only do so much when you are understaffed. Breakfast for one person would have been $16. Thanks to my top-tier status with Marriott Bonvoy, I received a breakfast voucher during check-in.

Restaurant

After I settled into my room, I wanted to grab a bite to eat at the restaurant. I approached the bar area but wanted to sit down. There was no sign that you could just sit yourself or if you had to wait to be seated. I walked in and stood there a few minutes and a few servers just passed me without noticing me. So, I walked around and found the check-in counter, which I thought was the one for the restaurant, but it seems it is actually only used for the breakfast buffet. That’s why they had the lights off and the counter with the waitress was in the dark. She told me I can take any table and that she will be right over.

I looked through the menu and already had my mind set on what to order when I got the shocking news that they were out of sweet potato fries that evening. I ordered a burger with regular fries instead and it was a rather good burger. Nothing special but I definitely had worse burgers. Service here was quick, as almost nobody was sitting at tables and a few people were just gathered around the bar and had a few drinks.

Club Lounge

As the agent mentioned that I was upgraded to a room on the club level, I knew the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel has a club lounge. The front desk agent didn’t mention that the lounge was closed. But if you have been traveling lately, you expect the lounge to be closed. Barely any hotel has their lounge open now. Some hotels say it’s because of staffing, sometimes I think it’s just because they want to be cheap and save cost wherever possible and sometimes it’s both.

Update:

I revisited the hotel in December 2022 and the club lounge re-opened. Overall, the lounge is open 24/7 and offers coffee and non-alcoholic beverages.

Breakfast is served from 6:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.

It is a pretty small lounge. Not a lot of seating options. You might want to get there early for breakfast to be able get a seat. During my visit, the lounge wasn’t crowded at all. 

The breakfast spread is rather thin, and nothing compared to what you get at the breakfast buffet at the hotel’s restaurant. They offered oatmeal, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausage, toast, and cereals. 

There is also a small business center in the lounge which consists of a single PC and printer. The PC didn’t work as the PC couldn’t boot because of missing operating system.

Market & Snacks

Unfortunately, there is no convenience store or small market to buy small snacks or drinks. There are a few beverage vending machines, however. If you do need more than just that, there is a gas station next to the hotel. You can walk there and there is a small trail up the hill between a gas station and hotel parking lot. The gas station comes with a small convenience store.

Conclusion

Since I was only staying here for one night, there was not much I can complain about. One is for sure how hard it is to find a power outlet in your room and the second one is the Wi-Fi situation. During the evening hours it was so hard to do anything on the internet. Forget streaming a movie. Impossible. The hotel wasn’t even booked to max capacity and still the Wi-Fi slowed down tremendously. Sometimes I couldn’t even load websites.

Overall, the stay was great. The Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel might be a viable choice if you are here for a conference or event held at the adjoining conference center or for a layover night between, before or after a flight. I wouldn’t stay here long term. There are better options nearby. Staff interaction was great as well, besides dinner when I had to actively search for someone to figure out how their system works at the restaurant.