I stayed at the SOTP for one night on the evening of 30 December.

Check-in: Checked-in at approximately 1:30pm. Friendly welcome. As a SPG Platinum, I inquired about an upgrade. I was told that no upgrade was available as there were no executive suites available. However, was told that I was assigned to a "very nice room". I had reserved a standard city view room. I was especially disappointed since I was not even offered a park view room.

When I got to my room, I wanted to check spg.com to see if any executive suites were available for sale for that evening. Sure enough, I could have booked an executive suite, as well as a park view room for that evening.

I called the SPG Platinum line and reported the situation. SOTP manager on duty Ray called me shortly thereafter. He explained to me that the executive suite reserved for me was still occupied until 6:00pm. Well, it would have been nice if I was told that so that I would have been given the option to wait until 6:30pm for the executive suite.

The city view room was nonetheless very comfortable. I appreciate the very nice small living area and the huge marble bathroom.

Executive Club: Excellent! I visited the Club three times during my one night stay:

2:30pm: Concierge was extremely helpful and eager to help me plan a walking tour around Sydney. Staff was very friendly in getting me a bucket of ice so that I could make my own iced tea (I make my own iced tea by making hot tea and pouring it over ice).

6:00pm: Lounge was somewhat but not terribly crowded. Got to snag a table one of the two small balconies. You could tell the staff were working very hard to serve guests. There was a nice selection of appetizers including smoked salmon, mini-steak and mushroom pies, cheese and fruit plate, asian dumplings. Free alcohol including Chandon sparkling wine.

8:00am: Very nice breakfast set-up including hot items (scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and sausages) and cold items (smoked salmon, fruit, cheeses, yogurts, etc). I was delighted to find a dessert on the buffet: a delicious strawberry tart. Again concierge was very helpful in helping me with ferry schedules so that I could take great pictures of the Opera House.

Health Club: Very nice equipment. Clean facility. Again, very friendly staff.

Overall: Very nice hotel. Excellent Executive Club lounge. Genuinely nice, caring staff. Excellent central location. Will not hesitate to retun.