bhrubin

Introduction I brought my mother with me to Australia for a 4 night stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney. My husband joined me for the 4th night, so i was less concered about an upgrade than I normally would be. My mother had a separate room. Both my room and my mother's room were free--my room on 4 comp'd nights from our Hyatt Visa cards, and my mother's room on points.Our 4 night stay was the beginning of our 10 night trip to Australia. On a previous trip in May 2007, my husband and I had stayed in a suite at the former Observatory Hotel (now Langham Sydney). We had walked through the Park Hyatt Sydney at the time and had found it dated and dark and not nearly as impressive as we'd expected. Since then, the hotel has been refurbished in 2012. The new hotel version is a delightully airy, fresh, and modern hotel offering superb views of the harbor, city skyline, and Opera House.There is no question that the hotel has the best location and vantage point of any in Sydney:View of the hotel and Harbour Bridge at night before our dinner at nearby Quay: Check In Check in was pretty easy and quick. Despite my room being free, I was upgraded to a city/harbour view king room on the 3rd floor--largely because I still had Explorist status due to the Hyatt visa. My room was ready even at 9:00 am--a very nice surprise.My mother's room was not ready yet, so we took the chance to drop off our belongings in my room, freshen up a bit, and then head out for a walk to the Opera House. By the time we returned to the hotel, around 11:00 am, my mother's room was ready.Unfortunately, my mother's room was literally at the far end of the 2nd floor. After the walk to and from the Opera House, my mother (about to hit 70 years) was winded after just a quarter of the way! So we returned to the front desk and asked for a room that was closer to the elevators. We were told another room would be just 10-15 minutes.This is where we had the first service letdown--as it took nearly an hour before the new room was ready. Had they told us the room would take an hour or so, we would have planned accordingly...but instead they handled this poorly. It took several beat-downs before they finally let my mother into the new room on the ground floor much closer to the elevator. Room My room was lovely--with more space than I had anticipated and with a much better view.The entry hall:To the left of the entry (at the end of the hall as it were) was the toilet/powder bathroom with toilet and sink--including a Toto washlet that I very much enjoyed (we have several in our home): There was closet space along the hallway with plenty of space, safe, ironing board, etc:Across the closet was the entrance to the bathroom:View of the bath from the bedroom (since there was a slider that could open/close the space off if desired):The shower/tub area was quite spacious:The shower pressure was adequate, though I've had better. I never use a tub as I never take baths. I wasn't too fond of the small containers of shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner. I prefer larger, more impressive sized bottles for a luxury hotel (more like the Remede packagin in the St Regis hotels):The spacious bedroom area and view:Behind the full length mirror and bar/coffee/tea area was the refrigerator/bar:The deck with view:From the deck, there was a view onto the Opera House, surprisingly:The view from the deck from the other direction showing the main portion of the hote, the hotel's restaurant, and the Harbour Bridge above the hotel, too:The air conditioning worked VERY well, too. My biggest concern for any hotel was no concern at all. The room stayed a very comfortable 17 C for the entirety of my stay. All in all, the room was extremely comfortable for 1 person, and pretty comfortable for the 2 of us when my husband arrived for our 4th and final night. Service The service was very good overall but had some failings.The first failing was setting improper expectations for my mother's second room assignment--telling us it would only be 10-15 minutes when in fact it took almost an hour...and several complaints. That being said, the hotel did graciously give my mother another room despite being sold out. The hotel also upgraded me on a free room for 4 nights. The next failing was with delivery of amenities to our room(s). They had promised us a champagne and strawberries delivery on the final day after my husband arrived--that never came. Disappointing, but I let it go. They also improperly delivered some amenities to my room that were to go to my mother's room to celebrate her 70th birthday. Disappointing again, but I didn't bother to complain.The biggest failing was with housekeeping. WOW. We left to have our first morning's breakfast around 8 am...and returned at 9:30 am only to see the room hadbn't been cleaned. I called to complain...and ultimately discovered that the hotel outsources housekeeping which doesn't start until 9:30 am. Not exactly luxury hotel housekeeping if you ask me. I was told I could request earlier housekeepging each morning--though I insisted they should do that for me regardless.On our final day after my husband arrived, we returned to the hotel around 2:30 pm to find the room still hadn't been cleaned. I was pretty furious. I complained...only to have a manager try to explain (no, no, no) and then try to blame it on me for not having called ahead (oh dear, no). I literally told the mananger that he had just turned a housekeeping failure into a more serious failure in management. Ultimately, the manager apologized and bought us lunch. But it clearly shows that the hotel doesn't understand the level of housekeeping expected for a luxury hotel. (I've read similar problems for the Park Hyatt Vienna, which I mentioned often to the managers at the Sydney property. I get the feeling that Park Hyatt doesn't quite get it for houskeeping.)I did have a few minor things go wrong with food/beverage, but the team handled those BEAUTIFULLY every time. The food/beverage and concomitant service were outstanding.The concierge team is also outstanding with service. They were communicative and responsive well before and again during our stay. The concierges (among others) often remembers our names, something that I don't expect but which always impresses me.Ultimately, I found the service to be pretty good at the hotel--though not with housekeeping. The hotel and its guests should expect more from housekeeping here. Dining Food and beverage were outstanding. Some examples of our first few breakfasts and lunches in the hotel lobby area:The lobby area is not the formal restaurant, but we enjoyed it for our first 3 mornings for breakfast. This is the room, where you can also see the docked cruise ship: The cruise ship is hard to miss!The restaurant space is very nice...and has even better views:The breakfast buffet was wonderful, according to my husband (who always loves a good buffet): Location Superb. No way to discount how amazing this location is. One of the best located hotels anywhere in the world. Overall A superb stay, even with the housekeeping and minor service issues. We would gladly stay again at the Park Hyatt Sydney on a future trip--something that isn't always true for us.