Originally Posted by margarita girl

I completed a 4 night stay here a few days ago, probably my 4th or 5th time at this hotel. The only other hotel I've stayed at in Sydney was the Marriott Circular Quay a couple of years ago after becoming a newly minted MAR Plat member. I was given a horribly tiny room with a view of Sydney bridge (if I leaned against the window and looked off to the right). So I decided to stick with the Sheraton.

I used SNAs to confirm a suite upgrade with a view of Hyde Park. Upgrade cleared at 5 days out. I love that this property is easily accessible using the airport train (St James station is across the street). Given that it's a 20 min ride, it's much faster than a taxi/Uber. At check-in, I was offered 1000 welcome amenity points or buffet breakfast in the restaurant. Since there were 2 of us there for 4 nights, that was a no brainer. Breakfast was fabulous with a noodle station, and of course, made to order eggs.

I was disappointed/surprised that we didn't get an in room welcome amenity, but we discovered late on the second day that my roommate had accidentally turned on the "Do not disturb" sign when housekeeping slipped a note under our door. Since it was Easter Sunday, I dropped a quick note via Chat apologizing for this error and saying that housekeeping and the Easter Bunny were welcome to stop by anytime. The reply back was "the Easter Bunny is on its way". When we returned from our outing, there were 2 bottles of red wine in the room, one on the desk and one on the sideboard, which leads me to believe that there might have been duplicate bunnies at work.

The evening service in the lounge is from 17:00-19:30 and includes free wine, beer and spirits (even though you're not allowed to serve yourself). As many have mentioned, the lounge offerings at this hotel are excellent, even if you don't eat seafood. There were 3 hot dishes every night plus a variety of veggies, dips, salads, cheese, sushi and a scrumptious array of desserts. The only issue was serious overcrowding, particularly on Easter weekend. Not sure if this is due to too many Elites or selling lounge access, but the hotel needs to somehow reduce the number of people with access to the lounge.

Two days before check-out, I went to the Front Desk to give them my gift cards that I wanted to use to pay for the room. They didn't know how to apply them so took photocopies and said they would get back to me. At the end of my 3rd day, I got a note under my door that said "I believe these are the first Marriott cards to be used at this property and we are working with our Finance team on how these are redeemed". They still hadn't figured it out by the time I left, so I paid with my credit card along with the 1.5% surcharge. Not impressed!

Overall this is a solid property with great staff and I will continue to stay here when I go to Sydney (which will happen again next month).

Originally Posted by UserMark

A question for those who have stayed here with 2 adults and a child. It doesn't look like any of the rooms they have, suites included, can accommodate 3 people as is, unless you count the couch for the 3rd person. The rooms have either 1 king or 2 single beds. They offer a roll-away for 110AUD per night, and don't seem to want to budge on that price. On a 7-night stay, that would add up very quickly. Is there a solution that I'm missing?

Originally Posted by UserMark

A question for those who have stayed here with 2 adults and a child. It doesn't look like any of the rooms they have, suites included, can accommodate 3 people as is, unless you count the couch for the 3rd person. The rooms have either 1 king or 2 single beds. They offer a roll-away for 110AUD per night, and don't seem to want to budge on that price. On a 7-night stay, that would add up very quickly. Is there a solution that I'm missing?

Originally Posted by margarita girl

Sheraton Grand is a Luxury Collection. So wonder if that means that Plats will lose lounge access. Lurkers?

Originally Posted by ftaus

Originally Posted by margarita girl

Just completed another excellent 5 night stay at this hotel. This time I was upgraded to a Corner Terrace Suite which was amazing given the length of my stay plus the fact that Vivid Sydney is underway. The room had 2 small balconies (one off the living room and one off the bedroom) that face Hyde Park. Welcome gift consisted of a bowl of fruit, an array of beautifully decorated chocolates and a bottle of Australian Shiraz. I got a second bottle midway through the stay, probably because I'd split my stay into two separate reservations.

I don't know if the bathroom amenities have been changed at the hotel, or if it's because of the type of suite, but we had Hermes branded amenities which I don't recall ever seeing here.

I forgot to mention in my review from last month, but once again, I traded away my 1000 pt welcome amenity for buffet breakfast for 2 people in the main restaurant. Definitely worth it.

The hotel hasn't figured out how to apply my Marriott gift certificates, but they are still working on it even though I checked out about 5 days ago.

Great stay. This is my go to hotel for Sydney!

Originally Posted by Happy

Would it be easier to use Physical Marriott GCs? As those can just be swiped as a regular Visa from my understanding.

I had a very high value physical gift card bought several years ago, that would not swipe despite each time the front desk would try to swipe it, but the full number of the card, including the check digit, can be entered in the payment system on the GESX screen that is standard on all Marriott brands. I finally used up the last $150 at Fairfield JFK in April - the FD knew exactly how to proceed when I told her it would not swipe and require manual entry.

So right now your gift card has not been charged, nor your CC used for guarantee also not been charged, yet?

Originally Posted by SHLTP

might be time for you to move to a different property with an upgrade track record like that - sounds like they are taking your loyalty for granted. You stay so much they know you'll be back