As many of you know this is the old Observatory hotel. I stayed in the Observatory on several occasions for business a number of years ago and had liked it. We needed a room for 1 night while in transit and this was the only really nice hotel that was not fully booked.

Check In

We checked into the hotel early morning after flying from SFO. We did not expect a room to be ready, but surprisingly they told us to go have breakfast and by the time we were finished they should have something. This was Jan. 1st at 9:00am so we were very pleasantly surprised. The lobby is nice, the breakfast in the dining room was very good ( we ordered a la carte as we are not buffet people), but there is no view. Service was very good, and after about 45 min.reception found us on the dining room and told us the room was ready.

Room

We had booked a Deluxe harbor view. The room was spacious with a nice bathroom - separate shower and tub. The furniture and decor however was in need of an update. Old, chintzy, and quite frankly just needed a facelift. The harbor view here as expected was not much. Very industrial, but I think better than looking at the street. Since we arrived on a holiday and left the next morning we were not bothered by construction but I imagine that coud be an issue. Worth asking if you are a light sleeper like me, but for our dates it was very quiet.

Overall

We did not use the spa or pool, but I checked it out and as nice as I remember from days past. We did not eat lunch or dinner in the hotel, but I had written ahead to ask for reservations and they were all handled perfectly including one at a reciprocal yacht club!

All in all I thought the hotel was nice for our purposes. The service was very good, but the rooms need updating and I don't think the location is great. Just a bit off and the view is much better in other hotels. If you like old English, this could be the place for you, but I much preferred our next hotel in Sydney, the Park Hyatt!