I took a mother-daughter trip to Australia, and this was the hotel we stayed at when we were in Sydney. 5 days/4 nights in this hotel.
We arrived in Sydney around 8am. After customs and retrieving our bags and the shuttle to the airport, it was around 10:30 or 11am or so. Now, I'm not sure about you, but when I fly long distances, all I want to do is get into a hotel room and take a shower, and maybe a nap.
Well. This hotel has a policy that guests may not check-in until after 2 or 2:30 (it's been a couple months since my stay). We get up to the front desk and they tell us to leave and come back in 3 hours.
After leaving our bags with the concierge, my mother and I wandered around the city. We ate. Shopped a little bit. But really, we just needed to clean up and rest a bit. So we went back to the hotel. No. The room wasn't ready. We weren't allowed to check in yet. So instead of leaving, we sat there in the lobby.
Meanwhile, we're staring at the other people in line for rooms, and they're being given keys and going straight up to their rooms. We seemed to be the only people who were forced to wait it out. It was as if it was a small hotel and they literally only had ONE room for us to stay in.
After waiting an hour or so, we finally got assigned our room. Once we get up there, everything seemed ok, besides the fact that there was only ONE bed.
So we called the front desk, saying that we were supposed to have two beds--we are adults on vacation, after all--and they sent someone up to help us switch rooms down the hall.
So we waited for nothing? There WERE other rooms available! Still really confused on that one.
Everything else seemed ok. Internet costs are $25 for 24 hours. We bit the bullet on that one, just getting a day so we could reach home.
Couple days at the hotel and we come back after dinner one evening to a bottle of red wine and two glasses in the room, along with a note from the hotel manager.
We had let our travel agent know about the horrible experience checking in, with the unnecessary forced wait and wrong room assignment ordeal, and she had given the hotel word.
The manager's note was very nice. He apologized for our experience, gave us the bottle of wine, free breakfast for 2 the next day (It was good. Nothing to write home about. Like many things in Sydney, outrageously overpriced for what it is. Something like $25-30 per person), and free internet for the duration of the stay.
He even called the room the next day to check in and make sure that we got breakfast and everything. It was a very nice gesture.
Honestly, the hotel is not 5-stars. For the most part, it's clean (Much like the pictures on the website). It's in a good area. The manager seemed to go out of his way to correct their errors. It's not a PRIME location, but it's walking distance to most places one would want to visit, from Chinatown to Hyde Park (leading to the Royal Botanical Gardens - Opera House - Circular Quay - The Rocks). There's the World Square shopping center downstairs, which includes even a ramen restaurant. We were able to buy some snacks and put them in the hotel fridge for the duration of our stay. There are multiple hotel entrances around the block.
All in all, it was an ok experience. I'm not sure it would be my go-to hotel in Sydney, but it was just fine for what we needed. read more