Shangri-La Hotel Sydney

Firstly the room & view was amazing, this is sadly where our experience ended. We went to the Blue Bar on our first evening for cocktails, they were good so decided to order some more & some snacks. It took over 30 minutes for the drinks to arrive & we are still waiting for the snacks. A staff member asked if everything was ok & we mentioned we had ordered snacks, I went to the toilet at this point. He came back & told my husband that the snacks hadn't been ordered & he would come back when I was there so see if we still wanted the snacks, we didn't see him again. We left after 10 minutes & mentioned it again to another staff member as we were charging our room, he took our room number & again never heard back. Ok the 2nd day we decided to try the breakfast, we were left waiting for 10 minutes for a table whilst other guests were shown to tables. The food was rather disappointing, the mushrooms looked like they had been sat around in the sun for 2 weeks & were cold, the scrambled eggs were like warm & no one was clearing plates of tables. We paid a bit extra as we wanted a bit of luxury for our last few days in Australia & unfortunately we didn't get the experience we expected.

When for high tea very expensive for the quality warm coffee and stale sandwiches desserts were good and view and service was good but all savoury things were a big disappointment

We recently stayed at Shangri-La Sydney and unfortunately our experience fell well below the standard I would expect from a five-star luxury hotel. The main positive was our final room on the 23rd floor, which offered absolutely spectacular views of Sydney Harbour and was undoubtedly the highlight of our stay. However, getting to that point involved a series of frustrating issues. Upon arrival, we were initially assigned a room on the 7th floor, located close to a major roadway. The traffic noise was extremely noticeable and made it difficult to relax. After requesting a room change, we were asked to wait in the lobby for approximately four hours while another room was prepared. Having just completed a long international flight, we were exhausted, and it was disappointing that no gesture of hospitality, such as lounge access or refreshments, was offered during this lengthy wait. We were then moved to a room on the 11th floor, where traffic noise was still evident. Even more concerning, the bathroom had a strong smell of cigarette smoke throughout our stay. For a luxury hotel, I was surprised that a room with such a noticeable odour had been assigned to guests. Eventually, after agreeing to pay an additional supplement, we were moved to a room on the 23rd floor. The views were breathtaking and finally provided the experience we had hoped for. Unfortunately, housekeeping created another significant disappointment. One afternoon we returned at around 3:00 p.m. to find our room had not been serviced. After contacting the Front Desk, we were told it would be cleaned within 30 minutes. We waited in the Lobby Lounge, only to discover at 3:40 p.m. that nothing had been done. After two further follow-up calls and repeated assurances that the room would be ready "within 30 minutes," it was not actually available until around 5:00 p.m. While delays can happen in any hotel, what frustrated us most was the lack of accurate communication. Had we been told honestly that the room would take two hours to service, we could have planned accordingly. Instead, we were repeatedly given unrealistic timeframes, which left us feeling misled and undervalued as guests. In summary, the combination of a noisy initial room, a four-hour wait for a room change, cigarette smoke odour in the second room, and repeated housekeeping delays made this a disappointing stay overall. While the harbour views were exceptional, they could not compensate for the service shortcomings. Based on this experience, I do not feel that the hotel delivered the level of service expected from a property carrying the Shangri-La name and reputation. Pros: Incredible harbour views, excellent location. 
Cons: Noisy rooms on lower floors, housekeeping issues, poor communication, lengthy room-change process. Would not return at the current price point.