The Ultimo Sydney — Hotel in Sydney

While I don't typically write reviews, I felt compelled to share my experience. That's from someone who travels a lot.

We booked our hotel through Agoda. The receptionist asked for my last name and then left us waiting at the reception desk without explanation for quite a while, leaving us wondering what was happening. I had to ask her for an update. She then informed me that she couldn't find my reservation. It would have been more courteous to speak with us and let us know she was working on our reservation, rather than leaving us unattended. I presented her with my fully paid and confirmed Agoda confirmation.

After some time, she was still unable to find my reservation, so her manager or supervisor came to speak with us. He explained with an unfriendly tone that this happens when booking through cheaper and less reliable online travel agencies like Agoda. They took your money but did not actually secure your room, potentially reselling your reservation to another company for a small profit. If Agoda is considered unreliable, why does the hotel, in the first place, advertise on their platform?

The best part is he asked me to find which company agoda sold my reservation to so that company needs to send my reservation to them. Basically he gave me the impression it's my fault that i booked through a cheap platform like agoda. Finally, he informed me that he was able to find my reservation.

I have booked numerous hotels through Agoda, yet I have never encountered this issue.

In addition, as the hotel elevator was out of service, we had to use the stairs. While staff are available to assist with our luggage, we still need to navigate the stairs ourselves. Given that young men were hired to do this job, I surmised that the elevator's malfunction might persist for more than a day or two. Yet, I did not received any notification from the hotel regarding the elevator. What If we have a disability that limits our ability to use the stairs?

All I can say is find somewhere else. This is the type of hotel doesn’t care about the customer and are not willing to help you. Nothing outstanding about the room as well. Really nothing except that there were small flies in the toilet....

Dirty coffee cups. / 1 small piece of soap per 2 people./. even though we forgot to take our own soap, we did not expect to share one piece, / I had the double bed, which kept moving into the middle of the room every time I moved, we had to keep pushing it back to the wall, / my daughter had the single bed, which wasn't too bad ,,, / There was dust everywhere, the fridge was turned off so we had water all over./ the TV kept going off, / the best part was the hot water in the shower, / the carpet needs a good clean that is for sure, / Ten stupid people got into the lift, with luggage which held 6 people ( I think it was six) and broke it, so we had to carry our luggage down 4 flights of stairs. Then on the night before we left, the people in the room next door , made sooooooooo much noise, we could not sleep, at 2.30 AM I rang the reception to complain, ( it wasn't their fault I know ) but even so, they did attend to our problem and then after ten minutes, they started again.... The street noise was awful, parking a major issue. Car park 5 minutes away, but finding somewhere to unload to take luggage to our room was awful,,, All in all, it was an rotten experience, although they did give us complimentary parking for our trouble,. But we will NEVER STAY THERE AGAIN..... After saying that, staff were nice..........On Sunday morning, we checked out, i gave them my credit card to release the deposit back into my account, WELL, this morning i checked my bank and it STILL hadn't gone in, so i rang my bank and they said " it was still pending " when i rang the Hotel, I Was told that it would take up to 5 to 7 working days to go back into my account, ???????? NEVER EVER BEFORE HAS THIS HAPPENED TO ME, ,,,,, yet,,, my girlfriends had their deposit go in STRAIGHT AWAY,, ?????????? how strange is this ,, ? So i rang the Hotel back and INSISTED that my deposit be released today,,,, and it was,,,, NEVER EVER AGAIN WILL I STAY IN...

The staff were all amazing - friendly, quick to help, and reminding us to let them know if they can help in any other way.

The location is why we chose it, and it’s good in many ways. It’s ideal if you’re interested in any of Chinatown, Paddy’s Market, Asian restaurants (Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, and more), and pubs, bars, and karaoke. The central train and metro hub is a short walk, giving easy access to anywhere in the city - including being just a couple of metro stops away from the main tourist area (where the bridge and opera house are).

It’s not ideal if you want a good night’s sleep: because of the pubs, bars, karaoke, and many outdoor restaurant areas, it’s a very noisy place. And, it is just big city - which means all the narrow, greasy, dirty streets, chaos and bustle, and lack of greenery that comes with that.

As for the rooms, they are tiny. They just manage to squeeze in: the double bed; a single, small cupboard for the mini-fridge and hot water jug; and one small chair. No room for any cupboards, let alone a desk or second chair, and the only places to put anything are on the chair or the two hooks on the wall above it.

The rooms are a bit run down; and not especially clean. Bricks are wonky, paint is chipped, and the walls are thin (letting in sound from outside and other rooms; plus the cold). There was something sticky on the door step of our room, and some ugly brown stains on the bedding. Finally, the aircon didn’t have a heating setting. Not terrible and certainly fine for a couple of nights - but not what we’d have expected at that price.

Finally, they’re currently doing renovations on a floor above, which made things a little less pleasant. We were warned about that after making the...