Property: The Sebel Sydney Martin Place
Status: Accor Plus Gold
Room booked: Deluxe King Room
Rate: Accor Plus Hotel Escape Sale ($442.40 for 2 nights)
Room upgraded/type: No
Free internet: Yes
Free breakfast: No breakfast or bar facility on site.
Early check in/late out: Yes, late checkout offered till midday.
Welcome drink: Yes, via QR code in room.
Welcome amenity: No, and no status acknowledgement.
Parking: None on-site, however they do have a partnership with Wilson Parking (60 Elizabeth Street) offering a discounted 24-hour flat rate of $70 on weekdays and $40 on weekends.
Recommend: Yes, if the price is right.
Had a couple of work events in the city so decided to try this hotel as it was a nice mid-way point between the two event venues.
Received an email from the hotel's Guest Services Agent the day prior to check-in providing a general welcome and detailed information for check-in, parking, breakfast, mini-bar and other services offered by the hotel. Hotel is conveniently located directly opposite the Elizabeth Street entrance to Martin Place Train/Metro Station and shares its footprint with some corporate offices and suites (apparently including that of the Hon. Bob Carr).
Check-in itself was straightforward. No acknowledgement of Accor Plus/status and no welcome amenity, however the front desk agent was very amiable and helpful in providing hotel info or answering any questions. Was advised that the hotel has no on-site restaurant or bar facilities, but Welcome Drinks could be ordered through a QR code in the room and would be brought up to the room (although I never ultimately availed myself of them). Requested a late checkout and was offered midday (standard checkout is 11am), but was also advised to check with the front desk on the day of departure
* to see if they could offer any later.
As mentioned, the hotel has no on-site restaurant or bar facilities, however they do have an arrangement for breakfast with local cafes
La Riviera and
Piccolo Me.
La Riviera (at 170 Phillip Street) is an all-day brasserie-style and opens for breakfast Monday–Friday from 7:30am to 11:00am.
Piccolo Me (Shop 2, 80 Elizabeth Street) offers dine-in and takeaway, but also offers in-room dining which can be ordered via the QR codes in each room. It's open Monday–Sunday from 6:30am to 2:00pm. I visited there for breakfast and had a decent B&E roll + large FW for about $14 (which I thought was reasonable).
The hotel doesn't have any on-site pool/gym, however they do offer guests access to a swimming pool located off-site (an 8-minute walk from the hotel). Apparently they cover the paid entry and provide a towel, bag and water, although I didn't avail myself of the facilities so cannot attest to how well that all works.
Discovered that one of the two lifts seems to have a mind of its own on occasion. Jumped in on Level 8 and pushed the button for Lower Ground (i.e. Elizabeth Street hotel entry). Lift proceeded to Level 5, paused, then went back up to Level 7. Duty manager jumped in and swiped for Level 4. Lift proceeded to Level 4, paused, then started on its way back up again. Duty manager looked perplexed and we mentioned that it had just happened to us as well. She swiped again to stop at the next floor, jumped out when the doors opened and said "...I'll get onto that one." Heard the next day from one of business folk using the office suites in the same building that "...one of these lifts is a bit dodgy. It's a bit shaky and occasionally goes wherever it wants to go."
Room (823) itself was quite pleasant - 25m square - overlooking Elizabeth Street, with a kitchenette, microwave, bathroom with proper shower and 5 double power points readily accessible (excluding bathroom), 3 of which also incorporated USB A and C ports. Airconditioning was slightly fiddly to use, but once you wrestled control over it, it was quite effective. TV includes a Chromecast so you can stream your own entertainment to the big screen. I guess this is in lieu of not having any pay TV channels and otherwise only offering free-to-air channels. Sound-proofing is ok, although some noise could be heard from neighbouring rooms - nothing too disruptive, but never-the-less noticeable.
Wi-Fi is the standard Accor captive portal setup where you get free and fast(er) internet by logging in with your Accor ALL account. No issues with my work laptop (Windows machine), but my iPhone and iPad would bring up the captive portal, and as soon as you tapped into the username or password fields for signing into your ALL account, the captive portal would crash and you were disconnected from Wi-Fi. Eventually worked out that I could successfully accept the "anonymous" low-speed internet option and that would connect me. Once connected, I could bring up the captive portal page (this time opened in Safari) and force a logout, which would then take me back to the captive portal sign-in page where I could successfully log into my ALL account and obtain high speed Wi-Fi. With this done, I never had an issue reconnecting. So it works and the speed is decent, but it was definitely fiddly to get connected in the first instance.
Upon closer examination in the room, we identified that the mini bottle of red wine from the mini-bar had already been opened (although not consumed) as the seal on the screw cap was clearly broken. I took it down to the front desk to show them and ensure it wasn't added to the bill as a mini-bar usage charge - no issues there. Asked for a box of tissues whilst I was there as DejaBrew and DejaBrew+1 were both a bit under the weather and anticipating the remnants of the box already in the room wouldn't last long. Staffer went searching and eventually came back to apologise that there were no boxes as the order they'd submitted several days prior had yet to arrive. Must admit, this was a first for me at any hotel!!
All in all? I'd stay here again (which is good given I'm already booked to be back there in September!!) but it would be dependent on the pricing. Overall service is pleasant albeit a little mixed, but tissues aside, no major red flags (especially compared to my
most recent Swissotel stay). My general impression is that it's used predominantly as a "business hotel" so even though sound-proofing is not perfect, the typical guest is not going to be your average family with young kids.
* Departing today so checked with the front desk about extending the late check-out. I was asked what time I wanted and I requested as late as they could offer me. They informed me they'd need to check with their manager (once the manager returned) and would call me in the room to confirm. Well... by 11:45am (at time I commenced writing this review) I still hadn't heard a peep from the front desk. As midday rolled around, I figured I'd received my answer and checked out. So now I'm sitting in the foyer of the Swissotel's Arches Bar, leeching off the hotel's free Wi-Fi in order to finish my review
