Hotel Review: Sheraton Mahwah, New Jersey
Not every hotel stay is a glamorous one. In recognition of that, I’m trying to document some of our regular people “non-luxury” stays since that’s most of where we travel to. You’ll find a more complete set of information on my hotel reviews page. In this case, we were on our way up to the Equinox Resort in Vermont with some tentative plans to visit family along the way. So, we chose to drive as opposed to flying and we’re looking for an intermediate stop along the way.
This was certainly what I would categorize as a utility stay. We were embarking on a mini road-trip for part of Christmas break and needed a good place to stop for the night in the New York City area. But, I didn’t want to pay New York City rates as our destination was further North and we were only going to be staying overnight. Based on geography, we settled on the Sheraton Mahwah. I have Platinum status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program, which certainly played a factor in picking this hotel.
This is not a luxury destination. It sustains its rates by being near New York City and (I’m guessing) having a good base of corporate clients in the area. It was a hotel built at a different time and certainly was a bit dated.
The property doesn’t have a ton of connecting rooms for family travel. The lounge was closed while we were there so the hotel gave us certificates to order breakfast in the restaurant. The buffet was a much wider variety than I suspect we would have seen in the lounge so it worked out fine.
The hotel has a fitness center and pool. They’re very much in compliance with the Sheraton standards here, with a bunch of fairly new equipment.
We had booked two connecting rooms for our short one-night stay, both with King beds which is a bit of an oddity in the hotel industry. The rooms themselves were in a decent state of repair. I’d hazard a guess to say they were in better shape than some Westin hotels I’ve stayed at recently (yes, I’m looking at you Westin Denver Downtown).
The rooms were a decent size with new linens and fairly comfortable beds. They had a small but workable desk, though the chair wasn’t the best. The bathroom was the newish Sheraton standard furniture and amenities, and was clean and sufficient for our needs.
The hotel is a Category 4 for award nights which means 10,000 points a night. When I refer to hotels that don’t seem to be a good value for awards, this is certainly one of them. If you’re considering a weekend stay I would anticipate low enough rates that it may not be worth burning points. For our stay, there were rates just above $100 which would make redeeming for points a not-so-great value. And, it’s always worth considering cash and points as an option as well.
Opening my email this morning at work, imagine how shocked I was to see a review of a hotel in Mahwah where I work!! It was built when Sharp had its HQ in Mahwah, back in the 80s (which took over from the Ford plant which is the subject of the HBO special Mann vs. Ford). I think it survives b/c of the ballroom on the top floor which has amazing views and is host to many wedding type events. In the next few years a huge mall will be built right around it and the Woodbury Common Outlets are pretty close.
Kadence, I’m always trying to keep readers guessing! Oddly, the Mahwah review didn’t draw quite the same traffic as some of the Italy posts. Thanks for the background on the property. That makes sense, and even though I hail from that part of the country I didn’t know Sharp had their HQ there.