OK, as promised here is my report on
Stay #2 at the new Sydney Hilton last Saturday night. I plan to stay here quite a bit in my quest for HH Diamond status this year, so have taken it upon myself to get to know the place very well, and the many room types, which at first glance are pretty confusing. I hope these detailed reports assist others to make the correct room selection - if you only get one chance to get it right!
Checked in about 1.15pm and all went well. Both rooms ready. Gives us 2 x room keys. One worked the lift the other did not. This is a MAJOR problem there the staff say .. many of the gold room keys simply do
not work in the lifts for higher Executive floors.
This time got an Executive Room for ourselves and for Lynn's daughter Gemma who was celebrating a birthday. I was told that "Executive Rooms" are identical pretty much to "Deluxe Rooms" interior wise - only difference being one has gold room key access to Executive Lounge, and the others do not.
We got 3816 and Gemma was 3809. Only 30 yards apart and on same side of corridor but warning - ALL the rooms sold as the same type are
NOT the same. 3809 was down end of corridor and the sister room at other end is 3822. (This applies for floors 34-38 and may well also apply to lower floors - not sure.)
Avoid 3409+3422 up to 3809+3822 is my strong advice. These rooms are absolutely TINY. There is literally one metre/one yard from king bed end to the wall. True. Our room had space for the rock solid and goofy chaise lounge as well as the metre walk space, so in a small room that is a lot of space to lose. 3809 did NOT have a lounge of any sort due to the tight space.
It was a real stretch to call this a "Deluxe Room." In any decent USA
FOUR Star a "Deluxe Room" would have 2 x Queen or King beds. This room literally would
not have fitted 2 beds and a desk it was so small. I was told 3416+3423 to 3816+3823 are slightly larger than other rooms on these floors. Ours (3816) certainly was much larger than 3809. 3816 was near lift, but no real noise level from that I experienced.
OK, now to the rooms themselves. New bathrooms, so that is a nice plus compared to the junior Suite we had last visit which had 10-15 year old bathrooms in it.
Separate large shower. In fact far too large for this room size, and as a result the basin/vanity area was less than a yard wide in total. Ridiculously small and being recessed, really cramped for an "Executive/Deluxe Room". Why they did not enlarge the bathtub to fit one of those Jacuzzi styles, and add a new shower to that beats me, as it would have allowed a ton more living space in these little rooms which really are FAR too small to have a separate bath.
Neither bathrooms in this or the suite had exhaust fans,
or phones
or input of the audio from TV/DVD. The latter I like if you need to visit the loo in middle of TV news or a movie etc. Every half decent hotel on earth has had in-bathroom phones for 20 years I'd guess. Huge
mistake not adding these tiny little touches when doing a total and expensive makeover.
Toiletries were BVLGARI in suite but far more basic fare here.
The shower has a semi see-through frosted glass wall facing bed. So anyone going into bathroom means the bed gets a fair bit of light falling upon it at night. Pretty annoying in the middle of the night when one person visits bathroom, and other is asleep. As we found.
The living area is really cramped. A glass top work desk took up far too much of the room, and really should be placed against shower wall rather than being an "island", that dominates the room. And which you painfully walk into at night.
Our room had a totally non-functional Italian styled "chaise lounge" that was rock hard. A really silly choice for any hotel. One circular pouffe type deal and that was it apart from the king bed.
The flat screen TV was much smaller than suite, but still a good size, and was at least integrated into the CD/DVD player, and far neater in appearance than the ugly wiring mess in the suite. And all rotated as one unit which was functional and smart. Unlike the suite, no DVDs or CDs were supplied. Still found it tough to get TV to work via the 2 remotes. Supplying a few DVDs/CDs
for use and sale is a VERY smart idea, and just an extension of the mini bar idea, and a sure profit centre. As there were none here, did not try the unit.
This room had clearly marked buttons to operate the electric block out curtains. The Suites do need some signs for sure on that score as buttons are simply not marked at all. Same silly little "archer slit" vertical windows as rest of Hotel, instead of decent sized panes of glass to allow some views.
In-room amenities were very good and up to speed with what you'd expect for a new "6 Star" Hilton. Full coffee/tea making stuff with milk sachets, ironing board, 2 fluffy robes, 2 pairs slippers, in-room safe, large hairdryer, wine glasses, opener, new quite large well stocked mini bar, neat little business folio with post-it notes, paper clips, eraser etc.
It was Gemma's birthday which the Hotel knew at time of booking and hotel sent her a large personalised cake and fruit, with note from General Manager - a very nice gesture but delivering it at
10.30pm when they were fast asleep was really bizarre timing!
Dumped bags in room and headed out to watch the AFL Grand Final which my beloved Swans were contesting - had not won it for 72 years. I had $4,750 riding on this result.
Went to P.J. O'Brien's Irish Pub to watch match and it was a real zoo - 1,000 people and 20 deep at the bar. Went back to Hilton and asked Concierge if he could suggest anything less frantic and less crowded. :-:
He pointed us to the Hilton GAB bar, which had 2 large Plasma screens and only 10 folks inside. Amazing. No-one had thought about that place. All nice and new and comfy, and a nice place to watch a Grand Final! They had a great deal for large gourmet meat pies (various fillings) plus a large beer or glass of wine for $A6.50. Unheard of value in the CBD, much less at a Hilton!
Better still, ran a tab AND I got 20% off all drinks and food via Premium Club at check-out, AND got Hilton points on it all, for 3 hours drinking and nibbling for the 4 of us. Then went back to Hilton Executive lounge after that for the excellent free nibbles and bubbly they have up there to 7.30pm.
Had booked
"Glass" Restaurant for dinner a week or so ahead - essential to get a table in that place. My previous stay they were 100% booked. This booking was for 9pm for drinks if we wished, and a dinner table for 9.30pm. We decided to skip the drinks and got down there at 9.37pm and Maitre'D seemed pretty shocked to see us as we
"had not re-confirmed". Huh? Anyway, he steered us to the bar and staff gave us a Taittinger bubbly each to apologise for mix up - very nice gesture seeing I noticed it was $24 a glass on menu.
Ushered to our table soon afterwards. Excellent and professional service all through. Food is pretty expensive - starters $15-$20 and mains generally $35 and dessert etc just as pricey. Food menu surprisingly limited compared to huge wine list. Typical noveaux cuisine tiny serves -
Lynn's Barramundi was literally 2 or 3 square inches in size with a couple of Balmain bugs perched on top. But very tasty she said. I had a sirloin steak - small but tender. We were not terribly hungry after an afternoon nibbling at GAB then Executive lounge, but if you were famished "Glass" is certainly the
wrong place to head.
The white butcher's paper covering the white linen table tops was way out of line for a top restaurant at dinner I thought. A few $100 bill per table of 4 would cover a dollar or two linen laundering I'd imagine? Maybe OK for breakfast which is often messier, but for a Fine Dining place -
not cool.
Booze cost is the killer at "Glass". We generally drink only bubbly, and the
lowest price for domestic fizz was $A64 a bottle for Chandon, and it is simply absurd there is not a more affordable choice. Lowest priced white I saw was $35 for something costing a fraction of that in a bottle shop. And apart from that I recall everything else was $40+. Huge wine list. Most impressive. Much of the cellar is on view in Restaurant via the 'Walls Of Wine' which is a nice feature.
The very top end wine ran literally into $1,000s a bottle. Many seemed to have remarkably low mark-ups actually. 1996 Dom Perignon for $A338 and 1989 Grange Hermitage for $A400 are very near bottle shop prices. Odd they'd be
so reasonably priced yet basic brands are marked up by ~400%.
The place was PACKED and new diners were entering way after 10pm, so right now this is THE hottest place to eat in Sydney. No doubt about it. Having the only rest-rooms a long hike away way outside the restaurant is a dumb idea, and you'd have to wonder what they were thinking with that kooky idea, as "Glass" seats a LOT of folks.
Had breakfast next morning at "Glass". We got there about 11am, but it was an absolute zoo. Now this place is expensive at $74 a couple, but price does not bother some folks it seems. A line about 15 deep to get near buffet area. Excellent food and selection and staff - as reported from last visit. And I'll make the same comment again re coffee -
they are INSANE not to have some brewed coffee there for self serve.
Once again we needed to wait 15 minutes for someone to rustle up cappuccinos from the fancy machine. After I wake up I just need
CAFFEINE and normal pour yourself filtered coffee is just dandy. This nonsense of needing to order it off waiter is dumb, as they are often so busy they forget as they did here. If you CHOOSE specialty coffee, sure do it that way, but right now that is the ONLY method to get a caffeine hit.
We have another stay in a few weeks, and hope to try one of the corner Relaxation Spa Suites. I understand these are about twice the room area of the Executive rooms. Look forward to reporting back then.
Glen