Leura Gardens Resort — Hotel in Sydney

Beautiful setting, gardens and to sunbathe around the open air pool on their loungers. The ground floor room was great, plus all the usual complimentary bits n pieces. No food/ restaurant available for our one night stay was quite disappointing. We were there Sunday pm and evening. We had to buy two bags of crisps from the reception desk AusD$5. that was all there was on offer. So thinking through how we could overcome this lack of facility. We solved it ourselves by searching any near bye eateries that delivered food as we weren't wishing to try and hire a taxi to go out for a meal. The taxi situation in Leura wasn't good as we'd found out at the Train station, trying to reach the Leura Gardens to begin with. This town seems to have only one taxi cab..... Janette bless her. Whom we got lucky with too, with her returning to the station area to collect us having dropped her previous fare, whom had been suffering with the same thing as us, in trying to order a taxi which there is a definite shortage of. I know this is not directly related to Leura Gardens, however, they are all very relevant to a stay here. We had to order a delivered pizza from Wentworth Falls. This was good value and worth the online ordering of food. Hotels Continental breakfast next day was ok, but not a lot of choice to it thou. The pancake making machine to make your own was a novelty. Those with plenty of divine maple syrup was gooood. The highlight of our stay, was the view from the breakfast table. Here, the most gorgeous view out across the gardens and beyond, looking over the 4th hole of the Leura golf course across the road. Just amazing!! 😍 Overall the stay was good, but more about how we turned things around ourselves to make it so, as opposed to the hosts delivering this to...

Pretty disappointing experience overall.

No staff on site after 7pm, so everything’s handled through an automated key dispenser and when that system fails (like it did for me and another couple) things quickly turn into a bit of a nightmare.

I had my booking voucher and SMS instructions ready to go, though none of the info lined up. As someone who runs a business, I understand that tech can glitch from time to time, although when it leaves real people stuck in the cold, it needs to be taken seriously.

There were 4x different phone numbers listed around reception, all directing to a call centre in Southport QLD. Considering the property is in the Blue Mountains NSW that already indicates some red flags. The call centre staff tried to help, though they weren’t the ones standing outside in freezing rain for over half an hour, soaked and waiting for someone “on site” to eventually appear.

When someone finally did turn up, they casually walked to the door with no greeting, no apology, and no explanation.. they just walked up to the safe and punched in a one-time code to open the safe that should’ve worked to begin with. Honestly, couldn’t the team on the phone just have provided that digital code earlier? It’s the same result as if the system had worked.

After getting the key, I finally got into the room… only to find the aircon remote barely working. After being stuck in that weather, even getting the heating going was a hassle as the remote was barely responding and seemed really temperamental, possibly just flat batteries.

I don’t usually write reviews, though to be fair for paying guests, this kind of setup feels pretty disrespectful. Definitely prefer staying somewhere with actual staff. Not...

Edited: Rory I have contacted you but no response. Disappointing to start with that you wouldn’t have been proactive enough to contact me first, given the experience. However I can only guess by lack of reply it was a tokenistic reply you gave.

Have been coming here for over ten years and it’s changed hands three times during that period. Since Fairmont took over it has become a shambles. Upon check in I was told my booking hadn’t “dropped in” to their system and there was no room ready for me. People however checked in after I was waiting. Was told they’d call me in about twenty mins when room was ready. Waited thirty minutes and nothing. Went in and was told still to wait they hadn’t even started a room for me. Sent to a room finally and as I opened it up someone was already in there. Finally got a room after almost three hours. This was after watching many many people get rooms who were arriving well after me. Also many people having their booking stuffed up and cards not working. Windows don’t open and now laying here not being unable to sleep as there’s huge and very noisy venting under my window (guessing this is why they don’t open). They did try to organise another room but it was even noisier than this one and had been freshly painted and absolutely reeked of oil based paint. So am stuck in this room where I won’t get any sleep despite putting on booking to have a quiet room. Will be leaving early tomorrow and not staying two nights. Which is costing me a photography commission. Will also be contacting property to get a refund. Won’t be coming back here again. Sad as it was my absolute favourite place...