A Major Disappointment …. First World Complaints
Sometimes a hotel stay starts out poorly and goes downhill from there…We stayed three nights at the Park Hyatt Sydney in March 2014 at the beginning of a month long trip touring Australia and New Zealand. Park Hyatt is a brand that we are familiar with as we have Hyatt Diamond status and have stayed at many other Park Hyatt properties around the world.
The e mail message sent to the concierge informing the hotel of our evening arrival from Bangkok went unanswered. This marked the beginning of the wildly inconsistent service we experienced during our stay. Doormen, bellboys, cleaning staff and restaurant staff – good service. Front desk, front of house and concierge – terrible service.
The doormen and bellboys at curb were on their game and greeted us promptly, collected our bags from the car and escorted us into the lobby to the front desk. The desk did have our reservation information however it did not take any note of our election to accept Hyatt’s e standby room upgrade options. We were awkwardly acknowledged as Diamond Guests. The staff checking us in seemed to have a canned spiel for those having an address anywhere in north america. The fact that we had just come from Thailand and prior to that Paris seemed to throw them off track.
While being escorted to our room #303 we were told that we did get a wonderful bridge view. Unfortunately we were not told that the treadmill in the adjacent exercise room would save us the trouble of setting a morning alarm. It was further explained to us that the hotel was full and that our late check in condemned us to the last available room. Wonderful Bridge View was a bit of a stretch…..
It seems that, much more than most properties, your experience in this hotel is dictated by room location. Neither the promised Diamond food & beverage amenity nor a move to a better room materialized during our stay.
The concierge desk during our weekend stay was manned by very young poorly trained staff. As an example here are their recommendations when asked the best way to transfer baggage upon check out to the nearby cruise terminal: 1. carry your own bags as the terminal is not far, 2. Hire a cab and pay them an extra 20 or so because it is such a short ride or 3. take pot luck with the hotel car since it can not be booked and is at the discretion of the door/bell men…….in our opinion this is not an example of 5 star service nor fitting in a property that charges room rates in excess of A$1,000 a night.
We utilized the Living Room space for drinks and snacks. The Opera House views are ground level good, however, it does attract numerous non hotel guests during the day and can fill up.
Breakfast and Dinner in the Dining Room was of good quality. Once past the front of the house staff service was very good. Our Pea Soup starter at dinner was excellent.
Upon checkout front desk staff still had not upped their game as an incorrect overage charge was included on the bill for extra Diamond Breakfast guests. While the charge was removed one hopes that this property is not attempting to collect additional revenue from inattentive Diamond’s.
All of the above said, yes first world problems, but first world problems that should not occur at a property that bills itself as the premier Sydney property and charges accordingly. Would we stay there again?
No and we canceled our planned April reservation and moved over to the Four Seasons Sydney.