Ibis Sydney Darling Harbour

After a very long flight, we did not check in until around 9:30 PM, and the staff was so friendly and helpful. We were spontaneously given two water bottles and small towels for refreshment. Our room was on the third floor, all the way in the back on the right at the end of a hallway, and was therefore very quiet. It was very clean, large, and the picture window provided a view of Darling Harbour, the National Maritime MUSEUM, the skyline of the district opposite, and a construction site on the other side of the street. But, it was very, very quiet. You heard practically nothing from the hallway or from outside. The breakfast buffet is very extensive and international, from continental to British, from Asian to Australian, with plenty of fresh fruit. Everything was included, and for me with a food intolerance, everything was also wonderfully labeled and even placed separately. Upon request, you could even get more. Small tip: You should be at breakfast before 8:30 AM, otherwise it gets crowded and you have to wait a short while until a table is assigned to you. The central location of the hotel, in the middle of the Darling Harbour Quarter, situated directly at a light rail (tram) stop and five minutes from a ferry pier (Pyrmont Bay) as well as the Pyrmont Bridge, makes this hotel the best place to stay for a visit to Sydney.

Staff were friendly and competent. Especially the meet and greet guy on the ground floor who had clearly been put there to overcompensate for the fact reception isn’t on the ground floor due to the weird topography of the building. Not his fault and he was a joy but.. building wise, this lack of consideration around customer experience is definitely a sign of what’s to come. The room was a good size… and relatively clean. As if the staff had given it a red hot go but maybe don’t have all the time they need. It’s very clear there hadn’t been a deep clean for a good while- there are large heat/ air vents throughout the room and the dust on and in them that comes out when you turn it on, that you can see floating down onto you is properly gross. There are chips and cracks in the bathroom tiles, messy repair work to the grouting, the towels are patchy and threadbare, there’s a large crack in the ceiling plaster, the glass topped table was streaky on the glass and chipped and scratched underneath, the rest of the furniture is visibly worn and patchy. Look, you know all those DIY jobs that need doing if you live in, or visit an elderly relo in, older house or apartment? The ones that start to really add up and eventually make the whole place give you the total ick? Yeah, that. You also have to climb around a glass screen and inbetween the counter and over the bath to get in the shower. Which is very, very old, had two dark hairs in it, and you have to run around in to get wet. Overall this place is massively badly considered from a design perspective, leaving actual human customers making weird movements to get to basic stuff like the blind, the shower, and the light switches. It’s also super shabby.

We stayed two nights at Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour as a family. The location is convenient, and the breakfast buffet is generous with plenty of choice. Unfortunately, the experience was disappointing. We checked in at 12:30 pm and were told we would be called when the room was ready—this never happened. At 5:00 pm, we were assigned room 901, next to the elevators and likely a technical area. The room was unusable due to extreme vibration and noise; even the wall lamps were shaking. It is hard to believe the hotel is not aware of this issue. Reception showed little urgency, asking us to wait for maintenance that never arrived. After more than an hour of back and forth, we were eventually offered another room. This was presented almost as a favor, when in reality it was simply a room where it was possible to sleep. As Accor Gold members who booked months in advance directly with the hotel, being knowingly assigned such a poor room is unacceptable. Loyalty recognition appears to be lacking. To make matters worse, we received repeated calls at 8:15 and 8:35 am the next morning while still asleep, without any real apology or service recovery gesture. Overall, while the hotel has a good location and decent facilities, the service falls well below expectations.