Arrival/Lobby/Check-in

I arrived at Sydney airport around 8am after a 14 hour flight from LAX and after a brief wait through Customs, Immigration, and getting my bag, I hopped on the train which was really convenient in the International Terminal. The ticket was $16.20AUD (which includes a fee for any trip to/from the airport) and I got off at the Museum exit which was 6 stops away. The whole ride took about 15 minutes. Exit at the Liverpool St exit and you are 1 block from the Marriott.

The lobby was nothing special but was clean and they had ice water available to drink, and arriving so early in the morning I had no expectations of getting a room. I was just going to check my bags with the concierge, and go to the office for meetings. Fortunately, as a Marriott Rewards Gold member, they had a room available. I thought the check-in process was pretty quick and painless, except for the annoying Asiana Airlines crew that kept butting in front of me asking for plug convertors and such.

Room

I was given a room with a King bed (which I requested) on the 19th floor. Initially I was a little disappointed as I was very close to the elevator and I was given an adjoining room. Two things I can't stand. Luckily in my 7 day stay, neither turned out to be an issue. I never heard the elevator and the room next to me was either empty, or the people were quiet. I heard some TV noise the first day, but never heard it again. Overall the room was nice. It was obviously recently upgraded with a flat screen TV, new furniture, and the bathroom was remodeled. It had a giant tub (which I never used except to hang dry my workout clothes) and a nice glass-enclosed walk in shower. It also had a modern toilet and a vessel sink. The only real problem was that the drain stop for the sink was missing the clip that lets you pull it back out, so it was challenging to remove after shaving in the morning. The view was of Hyde Park, Sydney Tower, etc. and it was a very nice view. No complaints at all. The air conditioning worked great, although I could only set it down to 18.5C which ended up being ok. I usually like it colder. It was only a problem around sunset time because the window faces due west and the sun heated up the floor to ceiling windows which transmitted the heat in to the room. Easy to solve by closing the room darkening shades, but it did noticeably warm up the room a degree or two.

Restaurants

I never ate in the hotel restaurants, but we did have an event at the hotel during the week and the catered food which I assume came from the restaurants, was quite good. I did briefly look at the menu and overall the food seemed expensive, but not more so than typical hotel fare. There are tons of restaurants within easy walking distance, and a few really good ones down Stanley street which is 1 block north I believe.

Gym

The hotel had a gym, pool, and hot tub on the top floor of the building (23rd floor). I never worked out, but did go up and check it out. Standard set of equipment for a hotel gym. Treadmills, bikes, universal machines, etc. There were no free weights at all, and the gym didn't seem to be air conditioned at all, but otherwise seemed adequate. The pool was small, and the hot tub smaller, but you can't beat a roof top pool for the view! Admittedly I never used the gym because the location of the hotel was so conducive to great runs, I just ran outside all week. About 1.5 miles north is the Sydney Opera House and then it wraps around to the Royal Botanical Gardens. You would be a fool to run in the gym with so many nice routes that close. In bad weather or in a hurry though, the gym would be more than adequate.

WiFi

I got free WiFi as a MR Gold, but it was pretty slow most of the time. Considering it was free, I have no complaints, but if I had to pay for, I would be pretty upset. That being said, the signal seemed to work everywhere, and I was able to use the same account on multiple devices concurrently (laptop, iPhone, Kindle Fire) without issue. Some properties make you re-authenticate each device and only let you use one at a time, so this was a nice plus. I found out internet is pretty expensive in Australia in general, so this could explain the slower speeds, but it would be nice to have quicker internet for VoIP calls back home, downloading emails, etc.

Executive Lounge

I had access to the lounge on the 21st floor as a MR Gold, and it was very nice to have. They had a nice breakfast with typical western foods (eggs, sausage) along with a lot of great fruit choices (pineapple, oranges, passionfruit, mango, plums, etc.), and other options including charcuterie, pastries, an automatic pancake maker, toast, juices, etc. They also had a decent espresso machine that ground beans and made drinks to order. I used this quite often throughout my stay and it was accessible 24 hours/day. Additionally in the off peak hours, the lounge is empty so my coworkers and I were able to use it for a few hours for a meeting and we were never interrupted. There is a little couch area if you just want to relax and watch TV. The shame is that the view to the north used to really be great from the lounge, but they built a taller building right next door. You used to be able to see the harbor, the opera house, etc. and now you can see people hanging their laundry. No fault of the Marriott of course.

Other observations

One thing that was annoying was that I had some mini-bar charges show up on my bill. I don't know exactly what for (they don't give you details) but the front desk said it was for soda and water. It didn't take much to get it removed, and I normally wouldn't think much of it, but my coworkers also had mini-bar charges they shouldn't have had, which leads me to believe it's either a freak coincidence, or the hotel needs to have a serious talk with their housekeeping staff. I would venture to guess this wasn't an accident. The kicker was that I had access to unlimited soda and water in the Executive Lounge 24 hours day, so why would I take it out of the mini-bar anyways? This also wasn't the sophisticated Las Vegas style mini-bar where the fridge knows when you lift something up, it's just an old school refrigerator that the housekeepers count inventory in every day.

Another issue I had was my room was never cleaned the first day I was there, although it was cleaned every day after that. I don't know if it's because I asked for it to be cleaned, or if this is standard operating procedure. They knew I was staying a week so maybe the planned to skip days? Not sure. They were also very inconsistent about replacing my towels. One day the bath mat disappeared, the next day they didn't replace the wash cloths. It was very strange. Maybe the 19th floor just needs some new housekeeping staff who don't erroneously charge people for mini-bar items, and who actually clean the rooms.

Lastly, they are militant about check-out time and want to charge you $30/hour every hour after noon. I've never encountered that before, and fortunately I didn't have to stay that long, but thought it was worth mentioning. Don't even try to stay past noon unless you want to pay for the privilege. The strange thing is, they didn't even seem to service my room until after 5pm every day, so I'm not sure what the rush is to get you out of there. You clearly wouldn't be slowing down the housekeeping process by staying until 1 or 2pm.

Summary

Overall, I had a great trip and great stay at this property. I loved the proximity to the harbor, the train station, and the CBD. There is a ton of shopping, restaurants, and cultural things within easy walking distance. I walked to The Rocks, Circular Quay, Darling Harbor, the Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge, Sydney Tower, and Royal Botanical Gardens during my week at this property. I would stay here again if I had to, although there were a lot of other properties I would like to try out closer to Circular Quay, including another Marriott, a Four Seasons, etc.