Worldwide Hospitality Awards

We've raised the Sheraton Lisboa’s reputation by offering guests the unexpected with our ‘Open Hotel’ concept.

At Sheraton Lisboa we have thrived by inventing the "Open Hotel", offering our customers the unexpected This is our Best Team Achievement.

With the impact of Covid-19, the unconstrained freedoms of yesterday seem like another country at another time. Yesterday, The international corporate clientele pushed our revolving doors at ease while our tower of concrete and steel projected the image of a ´forbidden city´ above the capital. If our brand impressed with its formidable institutional exclusivity - remote and beyond the reach of the general public - then the pandemic showed us that it was time to move the goal posts and set new lines.

Today, at the dawn of its fiftieth anniversary, the Sheraton Lisboa is proud to have redrawn those lines, pushing back the boundaries of its offer to create the concept of a truly "Open Hotel", designed around an innovative strategy which offers the promise of success.
We are pleased and proud to have refined its image as an international hotel, to extend that image to make it more welcoming, inclusive and relaxed, in synchrony with local market demands, without losing any of the quality professional service the Sheraton brand has always guaranteed.
Sheraton Lisboa is bold and daring, having pushed the boat out by creating experiences that render the past achievements of simple hotel service outdated and irrelevant.

But this bold new strategy would never have got off the drawing board had it not been for the agility, drive, and enthusiasm of its teams and their members whose cooperation and creativity ensured that no challenge was too unsurmountable and no task left undone.
Without the close collaboration of all our departments and the willingness of the fifteen members of our operational committee to pull together, our strategy would have never seen the light of day.
When our routine was paralysed by the health crisis, we could have simply sat back and waited with a fatalistic ‘well, what can anyone do?’ attitude. However, we were proactive and not reactive and listening to our clients who inspired us, we chose to grab the reins, take control and act.
The Sheraton Lisboa was the first 5 * establishment to reopen its doors on July 1, 2020, never to close them again.
The concept of the ‘open hotel’ was on this day born.

And you ask what is our philosophy for this renewal?
Our guests no longer want a simple hotel to stay in. They want to be surprised by the range of ‘experiences’ created and customised to suit individual wishes and whims. And if they cannot come to us, we will go that extra mile to meet them.
Beyond the walls, we've designed Share Experiences so that locals can get a taste of the Sheraton in the privacy of their living rooms… an amazing idea, crowned with success.
We came up with the Food, Wine, Spa and Cocktail Boxes. And before the word ‘decadent’ pops to mind, we created the Heart Experience Box, for those vulnerable members of the public who are most often forgotten yet most in need: the homeless.

Within our walls, we have set aside the hotel swimming pool for Scuba diving and a pool-side cinema with floating sofas. We’ve also launched ‘Saudade’ (It means nostalgia), an immersive cocktail collection. Out front we’ve even created a beach bar concept `La Plage’ with an oasis of golden sand in the heart of the city.

These examples of achievements were designed in line with Portuguese health directives. Once the preventive measures deployed, we drew from these restrictions the strength to transform the hotel into an incubator of creativity.

We’ve designed many innovations for the Leisure and Corporate segments.
The Sheraton Lisboa was not the only hotel in the sector to react, of course. But it acted faster and often came up with original and pioneering ideas.
And since lockdown accelerated working from home, we transformed our rooms into offices offering, a competitive long-term rental service which was praised by professionals from all walks of life.

And since video conferencing has become a new norm, we’ve set up a TV studio with state-of-the-art technology audiovisual communication. Thanks to these facilities, we hosted the National Congress of Cardiology at the hotel for the first time. Four thousand participants were virtually present in our meeting room, Now that is a challenge successfully met!

From experience, a challenge is rarely taken up alone.
Which is why we forged and mobilised local partnerships, calling on expert partners in our desire to strive for excellence. After all, they too suffered the full brunt of lockdown! Forging business alliances would benefit everyone: our reputation would support them, their skills would strengthen us.
So, the Japanese Nomada, which was forced to keep its doors closed, set up in our restaurant Panorama to offer our customers a culinary journey to the borders of the Far East. Thus the wine producers, our audiovisual service provider or the Diving School to recall just a few.

Of course, nothing would have been possible without the sterling efforts of our great communication campaign, from traditional press and public relations to the social networks. Since its reopening, the Sheraton Lisboa has 7,000 new followers.
And nothing would have seen the light of day without the supervision of our director of finance, whose thoroughness has both guided and enhanced our creativity.

Since 2020, the drive of our teams has grown daily, based on our core values: authenticity, agility, resilience, collaboration, consistency and empathy, as well as on a seventh value, which is probably one of our most important: meaning through experiences.

We will go further, we’re not short of ideas.
Today, each of our employees ends their day with a smile on their face and a sense of price. That’s what makes it all worthwhile.
We are only at the beginning, the future of Sheraton Lisboa is in our hands which is why we are competing today in the Best Team Achievement category of the Hospitality Awards.

Thank you.
Thierry Henrot, General Manager on behalf of all the staff