Bayswater Boutique Lodge - Potts Point — Hotel in Sydney

I stayed at the Baywater Boutiqe Lodge in April 2022 (booked via Agoda) and had a horrible experience that I feel compelled to share with other prospective guests which involves being locked out from my room the whole night without having any staff to contact about this until the morning. Firstly, in this hotel, all rooms were operated by a capacitive touchscreen panel for door entry so you have to key in your issued code. The room that I was in did not have a private bathroom, which required me to use a shared bathroom in the corridor, but this is not the issue, so please read on. I tried to ask if I could change to a room with a private bathroom and was told that there was a potential room for this, but was then later told that the guest wanted to extend his or her stay so I had to remain in the same room. At around 9PM, I had no issues entering my room with the same key code I have successfully been using. However, around 11PM plus, I left my room to use the shared bathroom. On trying to re-enter my room, the same keycode that I have been using did not work. I tried numerous times, but remained locked out. I could not contact the staff as my phone and other belongings were in my room. I tried to find the cleaner who I believed lived in the room on the same floor, but there was no answer. I went down but reception was closed. I came up again and tried multiple times (likely hundreds of time) with the keycode I have been assigned but it still did not work. That night, I paced around the hotel hoping to seek a solution or a way to contact the staff. Embarrassingly, I had to knock on other guests door in the early hours of the morning, and one of them answered and offered to help me by lending me his phone to call and email reception. He also tried to key in the code which I told him, on my door but also did not work. He managed to find the contact number of the property on his phone, but multiple calls to the staff were attempted throughout the night but went unanswered and I kept trying the same keycode on my door, hoping this was some mistake. I was unable to sleep that night, and missed my 8:30AM interstate flight home, and I had to buy another flight ticket. In the morning, the receptionist arrived and when I explained to her what happened, she outright rejected my claims that I could not enter my room with the keycode. She told me that this has not happened before and therefore it is impossible to have occurred. She reviewed this keycode access on her software on her ipad and key in some changes on her screen, and said I should be able to enter my room now anyway. I went up and was able to enter my room finally with the same keycode I have been trying all night. My suspicion of how this all happened is that the receptionist anticipated that I was going to swap room back then, and assign me the new room on her software, but when this was not available, she forgot to reassign me back to the previous room on her software. When I went out of my room that night, and returned probably just after midnight, the system probably by default, deleted the keycode for the room as there was a change of date after midnight. She then probably reintroduce the same keycode or reset it on her ipad without admitting to me that the system lapsed after midnight. The sleepless (and roomless) experience I had was terrible, but I can try to understand that sometimes awful things like this can happen as a honest mistake. But what makes this situation so unacceptable in this case, was that the receptionist adamantly denied that this happened, tried to shift blame on me by telling me that the keycode entry should definitely work, and did not even acknowledge my sleepless ordeal, and outright rejected my request regarding compensation for my flight. There was also no overnight contact number to call to resolve issues like this. I was only offered a refund...

NOT a 4-Star Hotel! Disappointing stay.

Stayed at this hotel for 5 nights and have no idea how this place managed to get the title of a “4-star hotel.” It’s nowhere near 4-star standards.

The room itself is very worn out. The balcony door, the fridge, and most of the furniture look old and poorly maintained. Hygiene? Nope. I walked in after check-in and found a dead cockroach lying on the floor. Maybe the host thought I needed extra protein, so they decided not to bother cleaning it up. Haha.

The check-in process is all online because their staffed hours are super limited. And there are only two shared bathrooms for the entire floor, which I admit I misread in the description, but I expected a 4-star hotel to have private bathrooms for each room. To their credit, the bathrooms are decently clean, but they’re pretty tiny, you’ll have to awkwardly twist your body just to avoid crashing into the wall while using the toilet. Not to mention, the body wash runs out quickly (since everyone on the floor is sharing it), and no one bothers to refill it.

Another inconvenience is that there’s no lift. Carrying heavy luggage up the stairs is not ideal, but at least there are only two floors. Good chance to exercise a bit I guess?

There’s no air conditioning in the room, which luckily wasn’t an issue for me since I visited in winter. The room does have a large ceiling fan, but I didn’t use it, so I can’t say how effective it is. That said, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be sufficient to keep the room cool during the summer months lol.

The only redeeming factor here is the location. It’s a 5-minute walk to Kings Cross station.

Overall, definitely not a good experience. If this place is somehow a “4-star hotel,” I’d rate it a solid...

When we got there, we had to send text messages at the door to get codes to fill out forms to register our booking just to get a code to input into the key pad on the door to get into the motel. We had to call them a few times because we couldn't get in the door. We must have been outside in the street for about an hour trying to get in the door. We got no real help from staff over the phone. There was no staff on premises to help us. We had to do every door by push button codes. There was no air conditioning in the room. Just a ceiling fan and portable fans that were hopeless. There are no fly screens on the windows, so we couldn't keep them open. The carpet was frayed and ripped in some areas. If you don't understand technology, you will struggle to get into the motel. The whole time we were there, we had never seen a sole. You have to walk up very steep stairs. We were buggered by the time we got up to room 15. There were no lifts. My cousins have a few health conditions, and they really struggle to walk up these stairs. And service, there was no service. You had to message or call them. I wouldn't recommend this motel. And if you don't know how to work a mobile phone or go on the internet to fill out forms. Or if you have mobility limitations and can't walk up steep stairs, forget it. This motel is not for you. You also have to add your debit card to these online forms and leave a $150 deposit just to input codes yourself. Also, you pay 400 and something dollars a night, and you get a shared bath room. No toilets or showers in the rooms. We had to walk across the hall every time we needed to go to the toilet. I could go on and on, but basically, this motel is badly run and not...