Royal Hotel Sydney

Very good

Very good

Bad

Liked: The door was locked. The woman came down and let us in. There an immediate negative vibe we both felt from her. She was cold, unfriendly. She said we could get our luggage and use the PIN in our confirmation email to open the door. The PIN did not work multiple tries. Through the door window, we said it wouldn't work. She stood there a long time looking down at her iPad, not opening the door, then walked away. She emerged from an adjacent door and tried our PIN. It wouldn't work for her either. She then began sticking a pen up under the keypad . My friend started to say something and was told by her to " stop talking!" saying she couldn't concentrate. She then instructed me to enter the code. It worked, but the very old door stuck, so I gave it an extra shove. Inside She began berating me, saying that I pushed too hard and that she'd thought I was going to break her lock! I responded that I had not pushed hard enough to break a lock. She then placed both hands on my shoulders, as you might when scolding a child and looking directly into my face, and said," I'm trying to be nice" and that we needed to be nice to her because she was apparently frazzled. We'd been perfectly polite and cordial, even after the " STOP TALKING" demand. That was it. We said we would not stay there and left. We did not even check in. I would give ZERO stars . Zero stars needs to be an option on ratings! It was a very upsetting experience, and neither of us, both 66 and travelers , had never encountered such treatment. I would not recommend this place to anyone, solely on our negative interaction with this woman.

Superb

Good

Liked: The location was great and the room was beautiful.
Disliked: A more friendly host and serving staff. With better options for breakfast.The Internet was very slow.

Didn't feel so royal at...

Liked: - Very nice property. interior hallways and rooms nicely decorated.- Breakfast was nice and full (once settled that we indeed pay for it)
Disliked: - poor communication and lack of customer service. I do not recall ever being treated so poorly in my travels around the world! To give you a long story short, when asked what my room number was upon arrival, I was hung up on. The next morning, I was laughed at when I was expecting the breakfast that I paid for, and they said that it was not. 5 minutes later, someone shows up without apologies and said that actually I did pay for the breakfast and served us the meal. No instructions on how to lock our room door (had to Google it).- strange you have to take your shoes off

Exceptional

Exceptional

Weird Hospitality

Disliked: What a bizarre stay. Wish I read the commentsThe front door is locked and you need to call, leave a voicemail, then wait at the door to be let in. Then there are 20 minutes of instructions given by Carmen before you can go to your room. You just take off your shoes but also aren’t allowed to be barefoot. The doors are locked using a code and were shown a few times how to do this. She has an adorable little dog who barks a lot! The vibes were pretty uncomfortable.Our room was fine and clean. No issues there. However, when we left, we had to lock the front door. It took us a couple tries, but we heard it lock and tried to open it again to confirm it was indeed locked. Approximately 45 minutes after we left, I get a call from Carmen, then 4 text messages, threatening to charge me for not locking the door. There were other people in the hotel, so not sure why she’s blaming me. And also, even if I did, you would keep my damage deposit for not locking the door? That’s not hospitality at all. There is no breakfast available, but it is mentioned on Booking there is. There was coffee in the common areas but no dairy. The owner makes this place an uncomfortable experience and I would not recommend.