Sofitel Sydney Wentworth — Hotel in Sydney

(From stay on January 10, 2025)

Would give this hotel a 4.5 if I could but just didn't feel the experience reached a 5 for me so unfortunately have to settle at a 4.

Check-in: The lady who checked me in at the lounge, I believe her name was Alley and she was the manager, was wonderful. Very kind and efficient service and I felt very welcome. Platinum status was recognised and we received a room upgrade as well as early check-in and late checkout which was a bonus. We were also provided the choice between a welcome amenity and points. Overall the check-in experience was fantastic.

Room: The room was very nice, unfortunate the shower is in the bath even after the hotel was refurbished but that's somewhat typical for a lot of hotels. Everything was clean and the room was spacious and welcoming.

Lounge: The lounge is visually appealing and the food is great both in terms of variety/selection and quality. Drinks are always available such as the usual soft drinks and juices. The afternoon tea included things like fruit, sandwiches, scones, little cakes, and custard balls which were a particular hit. It was definitely one of the better afternoon tea experiences I've had at a lounge. Evening canapes also had a decent selection, including a roast and accompanying veggies, sesame crusted tuna, sliders, savory tarts and an assortment of cheeses/meats. It was quite busy (not the lounge's fault) so had to line up for things but that is fair enough considering it was holiday season. Service was awful (more on that below), however that seemed specific to my table as staff seemed very attentive to other people. Breakfast was great and service was a lot better. Menu includes the usual egg selection and pancakes. Everything we had was great. There is also a selection of yogurts, fruits and a DIY banh mi and pho station which was unique.

A few complaints:

-About an hour after checking in a man from room service scanned the card and entered our room. When he realized we were there he said "oh I just need to check the minibar for the previous guests. I found it very rude and imposing how he didn't even apologize for intruding or offer to come back (I understand it was something that needed to be done and we checked in early but even offering would've been appreciated). It made me and my partner quite uncomfortable and we made sure to keep the door locked from then on (probably should anyway in the future).

-When at the lounge for canapes, we arrived at around 5pm a bit before they started. Unfortunately by 6pm we still hadn't been asked if we wanted any drinks or anything. Not to sound entitled but it was quite disappointing feeling invisible when other tables were being approached multiple times with staff getting them refills and new drinks. At 6 my girlfriend gave up waiting and approached a waitress to ask if we could get drinks. She came back a few minutes later and gave us a drinks menu but she seemed to have such a bad attitude. She didn't say anything, just shoved the menu at us and walked away. 5 minutes later she thankfully came back and took our order and brought our drinks. By 6:30 once again nobody had come to ask us. A lady (didn't get names unfortunately came to clear our plates and we asked if we could order some drinks. She said she couldn't do it but she'd get someone to take our order. We saw her mention us to one of the male staff but he never came to us. Eventually we got impatient again so I got up and approached the same lady who checked me in as she had been wonderful when I checked in. I told her what had happened and she apologized and took our order. I think she also pointed us out to the same male staff from before as he was much more attentive of us from that point forward. Overall the whole ordeal was quite disappointing. We felt invisible and disrespected compared to the other people who were there. I'm not sure if it was because we were younger and seen as less important but either way it was very saddening. Thank you to the lady who helped us in the end, I appreciated...

I arrived 3 days ago around 12 for check in, found the reception area all Macs for self check in. It’s a very effective way but tbh, I felt cold. The whole hotel is so busy and noise, and with this, you don’t really feel warm welcome. I found my room was not ready so I left my luggage and went out. I came back at 3pm sharp as this supposed earliest check in time. I don’t normally go to hotel that early just to clarify, it just that day I have some dessert and want to eat in the room before go out that’s why I returned at that time. And then I found the room is still not ready? So I went to the “relationship desk” for help. Funny is, the lady gave me the room key straight away? So was my room ready or not? It is still a question to me till today. She also told me that my luggage would be sent to the room soon. Alright, I’m happy that I got the room. 5 mins after I got into the room, someone opened the door and get in straightaway. I was excited, thinking it’s my luggage but turned out to be a middle age man about to fix the air con? I was so shocked and we both felt awkward I can tell. He apologized and want to leave. So I asked him is the air con ok? Would that be a problem during my stay? He said no but unfortunately, since then, I have concern about both air con and security. I’m a girl and travel alone this time. I on purpose choose high standard hotel, one reason is for safety. But now this is my biggest worry. I stayed in the room for 30 mins, trying to ease myself and also waiting for my luggage, but still not there. At the same time, I found footprint on the stand at the end of the bed. I don’t really know what that called? Either for sit? Or luggage? But either way, it should not have footprint there and immediately, I felt disgusted, like the room not yet finished clean. So I called reception, ask about my luggage, the man, footprint and request toothbrush. Lady apologized and said will check the luggage and also send housekeep people. Finally, 3:45pm, luggage was delivered. But the guy was not the housekeeping guy so I continued waiting. And maybe around 4pm, housekeeping guy arrived for deliver the toothbrush. Yes, it was a guy and obviously he didn’t know anything about footprint I reported. I have no choice but let him get in to the room, which means the door closed itself, to show him the footprint. I definitely worry and has concerns as a girl stay with a stranger in a room. But at that moment, I have no choice. Guess what he did? He just use his hand wipe it and acting like not big deal. He also mentioned about they don’t normally clean that part? But it was so obvious. I even point to him does that look like footprint and he said yes. I’m not a fuzzy person but this is too much. If you guys done that behind my back, I don’t care. But you should not acting like that in front of customer and telling me this? And then he left. I was shocked more than angry. Cause my brain is just keep processing, trying to let it not ruin my trip but so many part unbelievable and doesn’t make sense. On my way out, I planed to talk to the “relationship desk” but somehow there’s a very long queue. So I can only go seek help from the guy at reception desk. He was nice and patient, listened to me told the whole story. He said he will let the manager know and gave me a call back later. But even till today, I haven’t received any phone call at all. I really don’t feel any respect or attention from this hotel. The only good thing here is the scent, smells very nice. I also asked about this to the guy at the concierge but he doesn’t know about it. He said he will pass this question to the manager and as you already known, I heard nothing from the manager. In the end I found it on the Sofitel website. It seems myself is more reliable. I guess my biggest mistake this time was I booked this stay though OTA instead of under my ACCOR membership. I happened to be a Platinum Plus member. If I used my membership, I might get treat better. It feels like they don’t really care random...

I'm not usually the giver of "bad" reviews, and I tossed up whether to give 3 or 4 stars for this review, but I decided to give it 4 stars as some things I'll put in the category of "stuff happens". (3.5 stars would be more appropriate). The stay started off just fine - friendly check-in at the temporary reception desk. I know that the hotel is getting renovated, so you have to make allowances there. I'll divide my review into the GOOD and NOT-SO-GOOD categories.

The GOOD:

Room was very clean. Old but well maintained.

Staff at the reception desk and concierge were helpful, friendly and cheerful.

Location 3 minutes walk from Martin Place station and Metro is very convenient.

Good (but expensive) convenience store right across the street.

The What's App messenger service is a very convenient feature and replies were very quick.

Buffet breakfast food was good and kept nice and hot. Good variety on offer.

NOT-SO-GOOD:

An upgrade would have been nice as per Accor Gold Membership, but I understand this is not guaranteed and that's fine. However, even a room with a slight upgrade to a room with a small balcony would have been nice.

I've always loved the Sofitel Signature Beds around the world, but this one was tired, lumpy and saggy, I guess because it was in a older, unrenovated room so it had some miles on the clock. Therefore, a good, restful night's sleep wasn't really possible.

Changed the temperature of the air-conditioning from 18 to 20 degrees and immediately smelled a burning smell. Notified reception and they sent someone to look at it while we were out to dinner - seemed to be ok after that but it was a horrible smell at the time.

Construction from the work-site across the street started at 6.30am. While this isn't the hotel's fault, the noise insulation of the windows was really bad so it sounded quite loud in the room.

The wait times for lifts were very slow in the morning (see more below)

My key-card didn't work after breakfast. The lift wouldn't register it, so I ended up on the 17th floor instead of the 11th. A wait of 10 minutes for another lift to get down again. Obviously it wouldn't work for my room door, so a housemaid kindly let me in. This delayed my departure by 15 minutes which meant I was running late for my meeting.

Some of the staff in the breakfast room weren't friendly. I asked for a spoon (as the table is only set with a knife and fork) and was told, "you can get one yourself down the hall on the buffet". Ok, I don't expect to be brought a spoon, but if this is a 5 star hotel surely it would be good service for the waitress to reply with "certainly, I'll just get one for you". No big deal, but maybe some extra training is needed here? Plates weren't cleared after finishing part of the meal so the table ended up very crowded - this is despite numerous servers walking past plenty of times looking at the table. The standard of coffee was also..... not great.

Finally, (and I guess this is because I've working in 5 star hotels and tourism for a lot of my life) the standard of footwear of some staff was deplorable. Grotty, old black sneakers with holes in them and really dirty as well in some cases etc. I know this really doesn't affect me directly but what happened to uniform standards when working in a 5 star hotel?

I'm not trying to be ultra-critical in this review, just offering some hopefully productive and useful feedback. The whole place just felt a bit tired and run-down, so hopefully it'll get better and there will be a bit of a new spark of enthusiasm when the renovations are completed. I'm not sure I'll be back as I'm sure there are probably better 5 star options in Sydney to...