952noram
Couples · October 20252/10
Extremely disappointed in our stay here from October 22-27. We were visiting Sydney for a wedding with a large group of people, many of whom stayed at the Sofitel as well.
Room & Facilities:
The ro...Extremely disappointed in our stay here from October 22-27. We were visiting Sydney for a wedding with a large group of people, many of whom stayed at the Sofitel as well.
Room & Facilities:
The room and facilities itself was nice. The bed comfortable. We didn’t really use the pool or the gym but did see both. They were fine but nothing special.
Spa:
I had a massage and facial the day we flew in and Mira was wonderful.
Buffet Breakfast:
Good. Food was typical fare.
Overall Service:
Terrible.
For a 5 star hotel and the price at which we paid, we definitely expected a higher caliber of service. Check in itself was fine. We had friends who weren’t able to check in early and were denied use of the rest of the facility. I’ve never stayed at a 5 star hotel that didn’t offer the use of the pool or other parts of the facility while waiting to be checked in. Mind you, they were only an hour to check in and they had been traveling for 24 hours. I don’t understand denying the use of the pool deck when they very obviously had reservations.
Another incident that occurred that made our experience even more terrible. We returned back to the hotel from the wedding around 445 am. Went up to go into our room and neither of our keys worked. Walked back downstairs and the night receptionist was no where to be found. We went to the valet and he called for the night receptionist. He didn’t show up. Then one of the cleaning staff went into the back room to retrieve the receptionist. He was very clearly annoyed with having to do his job and rudely talked down to us as he made us new keys. This whole experience took 20 minutes.
We go back upstairs and the brand new keys don’t work either. We immediately go back down and the receptionist looked at us as we were walking up to the desk then proceeded to help another set of guests to check out. He took his time checking them out and when we walked back up to the desk he gave us attitude and said he would go up to our room with us to open the door.
We go back up to the room with the receptionist this time and of course, none of the keys worked. He then proceeded to curse (dropped the F word a couple of times) and complained about why did this have to happen on his night working. He then said he would go grab the valet with the master key to try to open the door.
We wait some more. He returns with the valet. Of course, the master key does not work. He then proceeded to say he would find his manager and troubleshoot the door.
Eventually, the manager came up with a charging cable. Turns out the door battery had died. She proceeded to charge and change the battery, which took all of five minutes to do.
The entire process from the first interaction with the night receptionist to us finally able to get into our room was over an hour (445 am - 610 am). We were able to get into our room just in time to view the sunrise over Darling Harbor.
First of all, why did it take OVER AN HOUR, for this to be troubleshooted. Had the night receptionist cared to do his job and hadn’t been so rude, we could’ve had the door fixed in about 15 minutes, max.
Second of all, at NO time did the folks who were working apologize or acknowledge the inconvenience. In fact, we were treated as a nuisances. I recognize that you can’t predict when batteries die and it wasn’t the employees faults. However, we did not cause any issues and we didn’t cause the battery to die. Additionally, for the price we were paying, we expected some modicum of service and the kicker is we were not provided any sort of compensation for our inconvenience.
All that being said, there are many wonderful hotels in the area for the same price point. I could not in good conscience recommend the Sofitel to any of my friends, family, or acquaintances.Show More
