Sheraton Tunis Hotel Review – Some Good, Some Bad, Incredible Staff

Sheraton Tunis Hotel Review – Some Good, Some Bad, Incredible Staff

My Sheraton Tunis Hotel review comes after a recent stay of 3 nights at this property in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. For anyone interested in history and considering visiting the ancient site of Carthage (that’s why I went!), Tunisia is open for visitors. This is a Marriott-owned property, and I’ll review the property, location, and then the staff at the Sheraton Tunis Hotel.

Booking Process

The Sheraton Tunis Hotel is a billed as a “5-star hotel” on many hotel booking sites, but it’s a Category 2 hotel in the Bonvoy program. I went during an off-peak period, which means I spent only 10,000 points per night. I stayed for 3 nights.

The cash price was $122 per night during my stay. This is a redemption value of 1.2 cents per point. That is far above the average value of what Marriott points are worth.

Sheraton Tunis Hotel Review – The Property

I’ll talk about first about the hotel itself. The property is HUGE. I had no idea when I arrived and figured it out later after exploring. In this part of my Sheraton Tunis Hotel review, we’ll talk about the location, the hotel facilities, and also my actual guest room.

Location

This is a low point in the review, unfortunately. The Sheraton Tunis Hotel is a bit far from the center of Tunis. It’s near a lot of embassies, and being outside the main part of the city allows them to have more space. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself. However, the trams and buses to the city center don’t run out to the hotel. You need a taxi to go anywhere, and I found the prices of taxis in Tunis ridiculous (think $30 one-way into town). Thus, if I left somewhere for the day, I didn’t want to come back until the absolute end of the day–avoiding paying more than needed for taxis.

Entry

There are 2 entrances to the hotel: one for guests and one for people coming on a day pass to use the gym/pool/spa. More on that later.

The drive up to the front door leads to a revolving door. This area does need some repairs, but the grounds you pass through are beautiful and create a great first impression.

Lobby

The lobby area near the front desk is huge.

Additionally, the lobby bar area continues to an outdoor patio for drinks. It was a popular spot at sunset.

This also is a good segue into the restaurants and bars in the hotel.

Restaurants

At the end of the hallway, past the elevators to the guest floors, there is a restaurant open for breakfast.

The restaurant is quite spacious, and I enjoyed breakfast here each day. The buffet has a good range of options–both cold and hot foods. Additionally, you can custom order eggs, coffees and lattes, etc.

To the right of the lobby (and not so far), there is a sports bar open for lunch, dinner, and late night drinks. I had dinner here twice and also tried to watch the Brazil-Argentina game that was ended after 5 minutes.

The sports bar area has numerous different chair and table types, which was nice. You can choose whatever you like.

One down side is that people can smoke in the sports bar, so look for a table far away from them if that’s not your thing.

Gym, Pools, And Day Pass Access

As I mentioned earlier, people who aren’t staying at the hotel can come on a day pass to use the spa, the pools, the gym, and even exercise classes.

Day pass users come in a separate entrance in the back of the hotel.

For hotel guests, you can take the elevator or stairs to floor -1 and then go through his hallway to the separate wing where the gym, spa & pools are located.

This large, beautiful area connects to all of the facilities in this wing of the hotel. There are 2 spiral staircases and an elevator to go from one floor to another.

To the left (top floor of the facilities area) is the entrance to the spa and salon.

On the bottom floor, there is not only a gym but also an open area with different exercise classes, such as yoga, CrossFit, Zumba, and more.

The indoor pool is on the lower level, adjacent to the exercise rooms.

A hallway leads to the outdoor pool. It is large, the temperature isn’t too cold, and there is ample seating. There’s also a lifeguard on duty.

I was extremely impressed with the amount of facilities available. The spa and salon obviously have extra charges, but the classes, gym, and pools are free to hotel guests.

Access To Guest Floors

Within the hotel itself, you pass the elevators when going between the front desk and the breakfast restaurant.

I liked the all-mirror design of the elevators. Your floor is selected automatically when you tap your key card on the panel in the elevator. Thus, you can’t access other guest floors, but you can choose the buttons for the lobby and for -1.

Guest Room

I stayed in room 401. This is a Junior Suite on the 4th floor. I received an upgrade due to my Marriott Titanium Elite status.

Upon entering the door, there is a a table with pottery and mirrors along the other wall.

Living Room

You enter into the living room of the junior suite. I found that the chairs and sofa were much too close to the coffee table. Getting in to actually sit down was tight and didn’t have enough room for your feet. I wound up moving them all back a little bit.

Additionally, there is a small dining table with 4 chairs in the back of the living room.

Turning around, there is a cabinet along the wall, under the TV. The TV had a lot of channels, but the time on the TV was never correct.

Along the outer wall, there is a lot of cabinet space.

On top of these cabinets, there is a coffee & tea area. I also received free bottled water daily.

Inside the far cabinet, there is a fridge. You can call the front desk to ask for it to be stocked with any items you want to buy. I simply kept my free bottled water in here.

In the other corner of the living room, there is a desk area with phone, sockets, and lamp.

Half Bathroom

There is also a half bathroom behind the desk in the living room.

I did notice that the half bath didn’t have any towels. I never used it, so that wasn’t a problem for me.

Balcony

At the rear of the living room, sliding glass doors led to a small balcony with a table and 2 chairs.

I didn’t find the views to be anything too special, but I could see out over the city. And I’ll never say no to a balcony!

Master Bedroom

In the master bedroom, there is another desk & chair in the corner (with multiple outlets for your devices), plus an armchair.

The bedroom is really spacious, with tons of room to move around the king-sized bed easily.

There is a large mirror and TV on the wall opposite the bed.

Another wall is completely lined with built-in closets and the door to the master bathroom.

Closets

The larger closet has space for hanging clothes, with hangers, bath robes, slippers, and a luggage rack inside. There’s also an iron and ironing board.

The smaller closet has shelves and drawers, as well as a safe.

Bed

The bed was large and comfortable. There are multiple pillows, but they’re all the same type. I found them to be the kind where your head falls through them like they’re not even there. Pro tip: fold up a towel and put it under a pillow if it needs reinforcement.

I slept really well on this bed. The sheets are really soft and comfortable.

Each side of the bed has a nightstand with a lamp and outlets. There’s also a phone on the left side.

Bathroom

The master bathroom is impressive. It’s large and looks great. There’s a huge mirror behind the sink, and the shower has both a hand-held option and a rainfall option.

I really, really liked the design of the sink. Water runs into a small slit on the left, due to the angle of the basin.

The toiletries are good quality, and I liked the smells and consistency of all of them.

To the left, there is a jacuzzi tub.

This is a great bathroom. I really liked it a lot.

Overall Thoughts On The Room

While the guest room had a lot of great features, I have to point out some things I didn’t like.

First, there are switches for lights on the wall, but none of them do anything. Literally, every light in the room is a lamp, and you have to turn them on one by one. When you arrive in the room after dark, you essentially need the flashlight on your phone to find your way to the first lamp. This setup is strange and a bit annoying.

Second, the door from the living room to the bedroom closes automatically–at all times. There’s no way to just have the door open, unless you put something in front of it. I found this very strange.

Sheraton Tunis Hotel Review – Staff

While the facilities are immense and the room has some good features (offset by some oddities), I want to highlight the staff in this part of my Sheraton Tunis Hotel review. They have set the bar incredibly high for what a hotel staff can be like.

Prior To Arrival

Prior to my arrival, I received an email thanking me for my booking and welcoming me to the hotel. They confirmed that they would upgrade me, based on status with Marriott. They provided some basic information, such as taxi prices and their van price. I responded that I would take a taxi and confirmed my estimated arrival time.

Check In

On arrival, the front desk staff made a great first impression, and this lasted throughout my stay.

After my Air France flight to Paris, I sat in the lounge at CDG airport reading the news about the coup d’etat in Guinea. My plan was to spend 3 nights in Tunisia and then fly to Guinea. When arriving at the hotel, I told them my plans were up in the air and asked if they could call the airline to find out what would happen with my flight.

They assured me they would provide assistance and then completed my check-in. The employee was friendly while confirming my suite upgrade and explaining that the club lounge was closed.

To compensate, they gave me a voucher for the sports bar, worth about $10 USD. I was able to eat dinner without owing anything after the voucher.

Before leaving the desk, I asked if breakfast was included in the mornings, since the club lounge is closed. The man at the front desk replied that I could have it for free, due to my Titanium status.

On arrival in my room, I had some snacks and a note from the general manager.

However, I must note that the arm of the sofa had a seed from a date left on it. Someone failed to clean this before my arrival.

During The Stay

I interacted with multiple people at the hotel throughout my stay, and I find them overall very good. Breakfast staff were friendly. When I poked around the spa & pool area, I asked some questions and received friendly answers. Staff in the sports bar were attentive and friendly.

However, the best people were the front desk staff and the business center staff. The front desk staff helped me arrange taxis and answered questions about sightseeing. They greeted me whenever I passed.

In regards to my questions about talking to the airline for my upended plans, they referred me to the business center. The manager in this area was fantastic. She not only convinced the airline to allow me to change my ticket without penalty, she convinced them to give me a voucher for the fare difference (my ticket to go to Morocco instead of Guinea was cheaper). Then, she printed all of the documents and ensured nothing was left unresolved.

Lastly, the staff coordinated for someone to come to the hotel to do the PCR test I needed for travel. When the woman was late bringing the results back to me, they called her (without me asking) to get an update on her arrival.

On my 3rd (final) night, upon returning to the hotel, the front desk agent said, “Here is your dinner voucher for tonight.” I had assumed the voucher was a one-time thing on arrival, so I had room service while working in my room on the 2nd night. I was glad to use the voucher in the sports bar again. I didn’t mention anything to him about the night before.

Check Out

At check out, I met an employee I hadn’t seen before. Even still, he greeted me by name and was expecting me. He knew I had a pre-arranged taxi and therefore assumed it was me coming to the lobby at 4:30am.

The front desk agent reviewed my bill and erased the breakfast charges, since the club lounge was closed. He then surprised me by erasing the room service charges. I had not asked anyone about this and was very willing to pay, since I did order food to my room. He approached it like “you probably would’ve eaten for free at the club lounge if it had been open”, so he just zeroed out all food and drinks on my bill.

The staff was absolutely phenomenal throughout my stay. From first contact until final goodbye, they set the bar incredibly high. Whenever they saw me, I had a friendly greeting and offer of assistance. They helped me sort out new plans and went above my expectations. Absolutely fantastic.

Sheraton Tunis Hotel Review – Final Thoughts

While I found the location a bit inconvenient for sightseeing and wish a wall switch could control the lights in the room, I can get past those. The hotel has great facilities, but what really makes it special is the staff. I wish the staff at all hotels could be like this.