Recently stayed 2 nights (as Titanium) while on a work trip and came away thoroughly underwhelmed. While on the surface W Sydney represents a brand flagship in terms of scale, location and design, the actual experience falls well short of the aspiration.

The good:
- Front desk agent at check-in was pleasant and offered good service
- Breakfast is a very good spread with quality options and decent coffee (though I could nitpick for serving a flat white in a latte glass...)
- W bed and bedding comfortable as per usual

The meh:
- Upgraded (what I assume is 1 category) from Wonderful King to Spectacular King with Darling Harbour view. Didn't check availability before check-in for additional upgrade options, but agent said occupancy was down significantly from the preceding holiday weekend. I take it there was an artificial ceiling put on my upgrade potential by not burning an NUA on this. If I wasn't staying for work, I'd probably have been a bit more vocal on this.
- No in-room welcome amenity or note. While certainly not a guaranteed benefit and definitely not the end of the world (and maybe because I was staying on a corp rate?), it would have been nice to receive even the smallest token of appreciation for my business in a self-sanctioned 'luxury' hotel. (Pier One gave me a specialty Tokyo Lamington last year as a mere Platinum.)
- Room felt disappointingly small, particularly for such a large hotel. (Given that the room category ranges from 35-40 sq.m., I'm assuming mine fell on the smaller side). All the internal curvatures detract from the sense of space and result in suboptimal design choices, like a small bathroom vanity shoved in the corner of (when there's a oversized bathtub and shower area that didn't even need all the space. The round, red closet is also not particularly practical and poorly lit; I found an old sock that was not my own on one of the shelves when doing a final sweep to check for my belongings before leaving.
- Service at breakfast was inconsistent. My first morning I was immediately asked if I wanted to place a coffee / egg order, and the second morning I had to wait 5-10 minutes for someone to come take the order. If they're struggling to attract and retain staff, it shows.
- Public areas are oddly sub-scale for a property of this size and room count. They've put a feature staircase straight in from the street entrance, with lifts and a single up escalator off to the side. I get that escalators aren't the most glamorous but if you're going to have a first floor lobby at a hotel, I'm not sure a flight of designer stairs is the right solution. The lobby is awkwardly shaped with 2/3s of the floor space occupied by the Living Room bar and the check-in areas almost seeming like an afterthought (I was told that a temporary check-in desk area is used during peak periods).

The bad:
- Room design is a regrettable combination of impractical features (that large pendant light above the desk?) and light fabrics and details that show wear easily (there was a sizeable black mark on the desk chair). Evidence of budget constraints in the fit out abound: the touch-sensor buttons used to control the lights felt poorly considered and were borderline annoying to use, only the blackout curtain was motorised (with a single button to open/close), USB-A ports only for a hotel that opened in 2023. Given the W brand is defined by its design aesthetic, particularly lighting design, I thought the in-room lighting design was particularly poor and ill-considered.
- The oversized open shower area is a travesty and again an ill-considered use of space that seems luxurious on the surface but isn't. The rain shower head was also tilted at an angle and pressure / coverage were slightly above mediocre.
- The ghd hair dryer in my room seemed to already be in a bad state as it made an alarm-like noise when I tried to use it and wasn't particularly effective at drying my hair.
- 10 hours after express check-out (and 8 hours post email invoice), was issued a revised invoice for a $9 bag of chips from the minibar that I didn't consume. When I replied to the second invoice asking what the charge was for and saying that I did not consume anything from the minibar, Whatever/Whenever responded that it was for a bag of chips 'which was added to my account during my stay'. (Edit: they reversed the charge after an additional email.)

Having stayed at all three W properties in Australia, my ranking would be:
1. Brisbane
(large gap)
2. Melbourne
(smaller gap)
3. Sydney (granted breakfast is better than Melbourne was when I stayed).

I don't think I'll be back.