{"id":1955,"date":"2012-01-04T02:36:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boardingarea.com\/blogs\/verygoodpoints\/2012\/01\/04\/marriott-sydney-hotel-review\/"},"modified":"2012-01-04T02:36:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T02:36:00","slug":"marriott-sydney-hotel-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2012\/01\/04\/marriott-sydney-hotel-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Marriott Sydney Hotel Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Marriott Sydney is located on Sydney\u2019s famous Hyde Park and just miles from Sydney\u2019s CBD. The hotel has recently been refurbished and looks more like a boutique hotel (think W or Kimpton) than a major chain. The high floors of the hotel offer spectacular views \u2013 my room looked out onto the Harbor and Sydney Football Stadium.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Check-in<\/strong><br \/>\nThe hotel was very welcoming and my check-in very quick. I was upgraded to an Executive Floor Room and given access to the Executive Lounge. I had several pieces of luggage with me and a box waiting for me at the hotel, and so the concierge assisted me with bringing my bags to my room (that was a real treat for me! I usually never ask for help.) The bags arrived in my room within 5 minutes and the concierge answered questions about the internet, local area and in-room amenities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Room<\/strong><br \/>\nFirst, let me describe the hallways. They caught my attention immediately because the walls were gray and the carpet was gray. They were well maintained, but it made the hallways seem dark. Until I got into my room, I really didn\u2019t understand the hallway d\u00e9cor choice.<\/p>\n<p>The room was very modern \u2013 dark gray\/light black carpet, 2 black chairs, a white leather headboard behind the bed and a red accent wall. The bathroom was quite large and had a large tub and combine shower.<\/p>\n<p>While I liked the color scheme in the room (it could work well in my own home), I could see how some travelers might find it a bit dark. There were also a few oddities about the room. First, there was no clock in the room \u2013 no bedside clock even \u2013 so I found myself calling the operator. I also found the desk set-up a bit hard to work with. There were no plugs within easy reach of the desk, so I had to stretch my power cords behind me to the \u201crefreshment center\u201d \u2013 which made working a little awkward.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201crefreshment center\u201d as I\u2019m calling it had a mini-bar, a microwave, coffee pot and other typical amenities. The microwave was a nice touch, not that I used it though.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Executive Lounge<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Executive Lounge was small, much smaller than the Marriott Brisbane or Marriott Melbourne\u2019s lounges, and both nights I was there, it was full. The selection of food choices wasn\u2019t so great. In the evening they offered canap\u00e9s &#8211; the canap\u00e9s looked like they\u2019d been ordered in bulk from Costco (yep, there\u2019s a Costco in Sydney) and the breakfasts were typical hotel breakfasts (eggs, sausage or bacon, breads, muffins, meats and cheese) but nothing like I had in Brisbane or Melbourne (guess I got spoiled by Marriott Australia.) They did have a great selection of drinks \u2013 both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. They even had my new favorite drink, Schweppes Lemonade!<\/p>\n<p><strong>General Overview<\/strong><br \/>\nI was only in the hotel two nights, so not really long enough to try the restaurant or many other services. I did however stop by the concierge desk. She\/he wasn\u2019t there, so a bellman offered to help me. I wanted to find a day tour and asked about city tours, boat tours and other options. The bellman gave me a brochure for a whale watching excursion. I LOVE whale watching! I\u2019ve done it in Hawaii and Alaska (twice) and would go anywhere, anytime. I noticed that the brochure said the season ended Dec 10 (this was Dec 28th) but the bellman assured me that there were still trips and to ignore the date. I was very excited to say the least. Unfortunately, I guess the bellman was wrong because about 5 minutes later he called to let me know that there were no whale watching excursions available. I was disappointed. So I guess the lesson here is to wait for the concierge to get back from his\/her break.<\/p>\n<p>I would return to the Sydney Marriot if I was back in Sydney. The hotel was clean and modern. Offered free internet to Marriott Rewards Members and was very conveniently located.<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-VvylwoJD78A\/TwQirt6r1yI\/AAAAAAAAJo0\/2mYLRWe07_4\/s1600\/001.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-VvylwoJD78A\/TwQirt6r1yI\/AAAAAAAAJo0\/2mYLRWe07_4\/s320\/001.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-QnUFGqTz5K0\/TwQiryaLn4I\/AAAAAAAAJpA\/uqjdiJaAuBI\/s1600\/003.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-QnUFGqTz5K0\/TwQiryaLn4I\/AAAAAAAAJpA\/uqjdiJaAuBI\/s320\/003.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-hTW-pCqag0A\/TwQisSPkA5I\/AAAAAAAAJpI\/xqT7svgCGTU\/s1600\/004.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-hTW-pCqag0A\/TwQisSPkA5I\/AAAAAAAAJpI\/xqT7svgCGTU\/s320\/004.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-AtyH1HWqmmc\/TwQislphvJI\/AAAAAAAAJpc\/_OSYyLZxTHc\/s1600\/005.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-AtyH1HWqmmc\/TwQislphvJI\/AAAAAAAAJpc\/_OSYyLZxTHc\/s320\/005.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-wcUyUavK_j4\/TwQitTC4rcI\/AAAAAAAAJpk\/eeWtxlnfEWw\/s1600\/007.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-wcUyUavK_j4\/TwQitTC4rcI\/AAAAAAAAJpk\/eeWtxlnfEWw\/s320\/007.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Marriott Sydney is located on Sydney\u2019s famous Hyde Park and just miles from Sydney\u2019s CBD. The hotel has recently been refurbished and looks more like a boutique hotel (think W or Kimpton) than a major chain. The high floors&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[212,742],"tags":[21,58,75],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Marriott Sydney Hotel Review - VeryGoodPoints<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2012\/01\/04\/marriott-sydney-hotel-review\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Marriott Sydney Hotel Review - VeryGoodPoints\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Marriott Sydney is located on Sydney\u2019s famous Hyde Park and just miles from Sydney\u2019s CBD. 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