Hilton Sydney

A recent stay at the Hilton Sydney with our children thoroughly convinced us that Hilton’s are unacceptable unsafe as hotels for us for the foreseeable future. Dismal with mediocre service and generally a three star at best, it’s disguising itself as a 5 star hotel . To explain. On our first morning there, after landing late from a flight from halfway across the world, the power suddenly cut out and a terrible strong smell of electrical burning flooded one of our interconnecting rooms. A phonecall to reception resulted in zero help; nobody picked up. A maid in the corridor suggested keeping the door propped open to try to alleviate the pervasive and acrid smell coming from a panel in the ceiling as she let other staff know there was an issue through her handset. Still no answer from reception despite multiple calls. We understand from her that the power is only out on our level and no other staff in the hotel know anything about this - and the burning smell is getting worse. No one has come to help us even though the maid was told maintenance would come. After standing outside our rooms to escape the smell, I take my children down to the lobby, bypassing our floor’s elevator (with the cockroachy stairwell) and let the first member of staff that’s free know what has happened, that no one at all is helping us with this issue and won’t pick up phones. Again, no one knows what has been happening on the 37th floor. This man is Concierge and he rudely tells me that if I want to, I can go back up to the rooms, it’s up to me. He’s spoken to security, that’s all he’s prepared to do and he walks off. He’s basically washed his hands of it. Again, this is the concierge. No concern at all. Long story (and this is a long one) short, it takes hours to sort this issue. It takes a while for anyone to visit the rooms and after they deemed it uninhabitable, we were offered a short term little room for all four of us until another interconnecting could become available. Repeated ‘I’m sorry’s’ ensued but even when trying to move to this other small room (to get a key was impossible) and to get help with all of the bags that we had to pack in the fastest time possible, again there was no picking up of the phone at the main desk, resulting in another of many trips to down the Lobby. In the end, that afternoon we cut our stay there short due to the complete ineptitude of the staff of this hotel and were instructed to pay up the bill in full. When we left we were told that we were lucky that we didn’t have to pay the cancellation fee. We moved to a different hotel - a true five star - with a day wasted, including attendance at a business event that cost money to attend. The response by the Hilton to this severely unsafe fire hazard was the repeated phrase, ‘I’m sorry’. We’ve stayed in many mediocre Hilton’s and have accepted most of them for what they are (low-end) but to have a fire issue go unanswered for so long and to have such a disrespectful response knowing that they have cost us time and money is disgusting and as low as a Hilton can go in terms of safety and customer service. Please avoid this hotel, especially on high levels with children - you won’t have anyone to contact from so high up in the building and when you do talk to them, like I did in the lobby, they won’t take you seriously in a fast enough time. It’s not worth the worry or the stress, please consider elsewhere. They will cover their backs until you quieten down or leave. Due to this, The hotel needs a complete evaluation of safely protocols including the answering of the phone in an emergency, timeliness of response to the issue and a testing of their electric boards. No call should ever, ever be left unanswered when trying to get through repeatedly due to a fire issue. On a customer service level, they need to understand that I’m sorry is simply not good enough when it comes to safety, especially with children.

The hotel is situated in a convenient location (very close to the tram), the receptionist was very helpful upon my checking in. Even though I had to wait for a room, the handling process was smooth. The breakfast was good, but the staff was better. I was approached to ask if it was my first time having breakfast here and when I said yes, the staff gave me a clear instruction and offered to show me the food station. This was impressive.

We booked exec rooms with lounge access. The room was in poor state with blackout blinds that didn’t roll down. They were ripped and held together with tape. I didn’t discover they didn’t work until 11.30pm so had to endure a night with little sleep due to the brightness in the room. After a few attempts to fix the next day we were moved to another room which was much better all round. The lounge has a dress code which wasn’t mentioned in the booking info. I was chased into the lounge by a staff member who asked me to go change my shoes. I was wearing a conservative summer dress (loose fitting and knee length) with black leather sandals, so in no way casual or beach wear. However according to the dress code, they preferred me wearing my smart dress with running shoes (!). So that’s what I did, even though I looked ridiculous. I am not sure why I was picked on since others were wearing crocs, Birkenstocks, baseball caps, yoga clothes, hoodies… it’s not very welcoming way to treat a guest, especially if you’re going to be so inconsistent about it. And a bit odd in a city known for being laid back and relaxed. Clearly from the way people were dressed, no one actually wants a dress code in there anyway. A staff member in the lounge also accused my husband of trying to bring drinks out of the lounge. I have no idea why since he wasn’t anywhere near the door and was on his way to me at our table. Very odd attitude to customer service.

A very nice hotel with good customer service. Breakfast at the Glass Brassiere included full continental, omelette station, and a wide variety of cold food. Juice and machine coffee is also included, but barista coffee is extra. The first room we were allocated to had a lingering smell but the hotel staff was quick responsive to switch us rooms when we brought it to their attention. There is also a gym downstairs that you can use 24/7 but sauna access is only during gym manned hours. The only complaint is that the executive lounge is super busy during canape hour so you either had to wait or there was no seating. The crowd was louder and more social at Sydney Hilton compared to the Melbourne one. The food often ran out (especially the cake and some canapes). DIY cocktails was available during happy hour at the lounge so that was nice.

Fantastic dining experience at the Brasserie Glass wine bar; cosy atmosphere, floor to ceiling view of the entire Queen Victoria Building lit up in magnificence, interesting menu, and personable, attentive , and friendly service, from a professional F&B team who really know what they are doing. Easily one of the highlights of our exploratory tour of Sydney, second only to the open air dining at Circular Quay right between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.