"Upscale" is the category immediately below "luxury." Frequently the rooms in a good upscale hotel can be comparable to those in a luxury hotel (not in Sydney, however); the biggest difference is the service.

Excellent point, so I'll leave the thread here.

RichardInSF, moderator, luxury hotels

After having had a very disappointing stay at the PH Sydney this past February, I am hard pressed to describe the PH as a luxury property

The OP has Club access which is far nicer than the bar, so won't have any need to slum with the dregs of Sydney society :) The rooms at this Shangri-La are quite specific, the Opera view rooms are much bigger (twice the square footage of some other rooms) and furnished nicer. Also the Club floors operate with a higher service standard for things like housekeeping, hence the divergence in ratings on Tripadvisor -- the cheap rooms are far worse than the expensive rooms :) Personally I prefer the ex-Observatory (now Langham) which does have great luxury hotel service but no view (their "harbour view" rooms are facing the wrong harbour). For a view and hotel quality the Shangri-La is probably the best choice. The FS has to be the worst FS in the world, fwiw, even after its rather miserly renovation.

Stayed at the IC twice, I like the location but that's about it. Very poor service.

I stayed in January at the Langham, PHyatt, and the four Seasons at different times during the month. My ratings would be:

1. Park Hyatt by a long shot. We had a large opera view room - it was great. Much nicer after the renovation as had stayed in the past. But, it is significantly more expensive than other hotels. We were not impressed with the restaurant, but there are so many great places to eat in Sydney, not really a problem.

2. Langham - ex Observatory. We had very good service, room was ok, not great. Harbor view as said earlier is wrong harbor. I liked it better when was Observatory as service was not just good, but great. Rooms getting a little tired now too.

3. Four Seasons - great location and great view from premier Harbor view jr suite. Hotel not great however - 4 star, not 5. But location really ideal IMO.

In summary, PH was the best, but not sure worth the price when compared with great luxury properties in other countries!

We just spent 5 ngihts at the Shangri-la. While I have not stayed at the other hotels in this thread I can provide some observations. We chose this hotel specifically for the Premier Grand Harbor View room category. The room is much larger than the other harbor view rooms and is located on a corner that provides a spectacular view of the opera house and bridge. The price difference between this category and the one below it was only about USD$50 so it is totally worth it. The room was quite nice, although it does not have some of the more high tech features of newer hotels. The bathroom was fine but certainly an older style. Regardless of how one might feel about little details of the room, the view will win you over with 5 large windows that wrap around the space. It really is a spectacular room.

Our agent, DavidO, booked us through the Luxury Circle program (which is superior to Virtuoso) that provided an upgrade AT BOOKING, USD$100 credit towards incidentals, full breakfast including room service (we used the room service everyday simply to enjoy the view), and a welcome amenity (fruits and chocolates in our case). With the rate over the Christmas period at USD$330 per night (which includes taxes) once you figure in the $100 credit (which works out to $20 per day) and the value of breakfast (say $80) the room alone is about $220 (again including taxes). At these rates, I did not fully expect a 5 star experience. More on that in a moment.

Having looked at the other options online, it was clear that the Park Hyatt is probably the nicest property (although I would not accept a lower level room as I'd feel too exposed to the parade of people constantly walking by). During our dates, however, the available rooms were about 4 times the price of the Shangri-la. The Four Seasons looked odd to me with the room at a strange angle to a relatively small window. The IC just did not look great to me.

In the end, the Shangri-la was the perfect choice for us. The room size, view, price and amenities included all outweighed the negatives. The negatives included a small lobby that was overly busy and not really 5 star quality. The restaurant and bar on the lower levels had no view at all and really lacked any physical appeal. The pool/gym are nice enough but the details are not tended too like a real 5 star property. The elevators are slow (waited 5 minutes on a couple of occasions and others told us they waited 15 minutes). Air Conditioning had hard time keeping up with the heat build up on the windows first thing in the morning (engineering cleaned the filters which helped a bit). Lastly, I would caution some potential guests about the fact that the Shangri-la is up a relatively steep street for the last two blocks. We're healthy and fit so it was not a problem. However, some guests might find the climb a bit more than they're up for. If the hill is that big of an issue, just use a taxi. Alternatively you could choose the Four Seasons as its location is on a flat area adjacent to the harbor.

As the rates at the Shangri-la skyrocketed on December 29 for the New Years weekend (4 night minimum at US$1500 per night), we moved hotels for the last 3 days of our visit. Our last days were spent at the new Sofitel Darling Harbour. I can elaborate on this if anyone wants. Long story short, it is really beautiful. The corner room we had was a bit too small however. The non-corner rooms looked to be a bit bigger. The club on level 35 is well done as is the restaurant and champagne bar. We did not care much for Darling Harbour itself but the hotel was a good option for us during this holiday weekend.

We spent NYE at the opera house Portside party.....and flew home this morning.

[MENTION=46997]peter11[/MENTION] thanks so much for that comprehensive summary of the Shangri-La! That was excellent--very helpful, with lots of extremely useful and realistic details.

It seems the air con issue would be my biggest hang-up. I could deal with a good 4 star hotel with good F&B and views....but it seems there are some weaknesses here.

The PH is clearly the nicest in town. It may be pricier, but 30K Chase Ultimate Rewards points gets you 1 night there--for free. :D

The FS is overrated...and always has been. Dated, tired, not impressive at all. FS should de-flag and stop diminishing its brand rather than having this as part of their group.

The Observatory now Langham was a little dated when Langham took over many years ago...and is far more dated now. The Langham service level also doesn't seem to match that of even the imperfect service at the PH.

My thoughts on your points would be that the Air Conditioning issue was for a couple of hours in the morning and can be negated by not opening all of the curtains. The room did not get uncomfortable but a little stuffy. Once the sun was higher the issue abated. Otherwise yes, it is 4 star.

Generally when using points for a room I find that I am assigned a lower grade room. I don't know exactly how the Hyatt works with Chase points but if they assigned me a ground floor room I would not be terribly happy (keep in mind it is only a 4 story hotel). The lowest level rooms are well above sidewalk level and have a frosted glass balcony railing to improve privacy. That said, they are not very private at all. If you study the shape of the building relative to the opera house, you will see that the majority of the rooms do not have a direct view. One most step out on to the balcony and then look far to the left to see the opera house. I believe you really have to book into the better suites to have a postcard view.

If you look at my Expert Review, you’ll see it’s possibie to get a 3rd floor deluxe room on points for 4 nights. My mother, whose room was on nights from the Hyatt Visa, also got a 3rd floor room, but the walk was too long for her down the long hallways...so they gave her another upgraded much larger room category but on the ground floor (no view). This was May 2017.

If my free room were at the PH on the ground floor, I’d still prefer it to the Shangri-La, the FS, the Langham, etc. and it still would be free. I can close to the Shades if I were bothered by passers by.

I stayed at the Shangri La about 3 years ago on my first trip to Sydney. Stayed for a few nights in the Premier Grand Harbour View room, and I agree with the OP that the room was great because the view was spectacular--270 degree view of the harbor, encompassing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Was amazing both day and night.

That said rest of the SL experience is in no way luxury. And I returned for a 2nd stay but the Premier Grand room wasn't available so they instead put me in one of their suites and it was thoroughly unimpressive.

For that room I'd absolutely stay there again, but in any other situation I'd go for the PH.

Just FYI regarding the PH Sydney and points: Unless you are a "Globalist" the chances are high you will be assigned a very inferior room including the dreaded tree view rooms at the side of the hotel. Even Globalists on points usually (but no always) are assigned City Harbour View rooms. Some people (long-time guests, travel agents, those who are lucky) will do much better but you won't find out until you arrive at the hotel.

over priced international brands offering mediocre service and dated sub par amenities ... welcome to australia.

these are the typical reasons many australian's travel abroad rather than domestically.

Was in Sydney about the same time as well and wind up staying at the Meriton World Towers. Have stayed at Intercon, Shangri-La, Four Seasons and Westin before and none has struck me as particularly good. The only other one that I would contemplate trying is the PH Sydney but probably when I am not traveling with kids. Meriton World Towers is hardly luxury but they offer 2-bedroom apartments that work well for families and is in a very convenient location. There are also tons of restaurants close-by and we managed to walk to all the restaurants we went to (Sepia and Firedoor)

Going off subject now....but with our upcoming stay at Park Hyatt we have used points for the first night and the second two nights as paid stays in their Opera Deluxe. What they have done is charge us a supplement on the first night to upgrade to an Opera Deluxe so we do not have to move rooms, which I believe is around $250. So if you're really worried about room allocation that seems to be an option.