Crown Towers Sydney

Checked in 2hrs ago after a 20min wait in checking queue to check in. This wait alone surprised me for a 5star hotel & there were 9 couples to check in behind me. Room is lovely, booked bridge view that if you look as hard left as possible out of the window you could just see the bridge. It's 34 degrees outside so we thought we would venture for swim, sorry pool closed it is windy outside. Figured we would head to a bar, oh sorry the level 26 bar opens at 4pm so you will need to wait till 4pm to make a booking, after another 15min wait we achieve a booking & head to level 26, only to have to check in again. Seriously currently tracking at no better than 3star.

Not a 5* experience at all! Do not come here for a luxury stay. It is overcrowded, dirty, understaffed and overpriced. We stayed at this hotel five times over the past two years. The first few stays were amazing and luxurious. After that, it became consistently worse. It is too busy. The crowd in the lobby immediately sets the tone. Noisy bustle, kids on scooters, long check in/out lines and a smelly restaurant grill. The rooms are dusty, dirty and worn out. “Opera House View” means you may catch only a glimpse of its roof if you’re put on one of the lower floors. This time, our premium suite was dirty, dusty and run down. For one and half days during our last stay, there were no bath towels available for the guests. Without explanation or apology, we were reduced to drying off on hand towels and robes. For $1400 per night. The pool is overcrowded and messy. It is lined with many noisy guests, surrounded by fast food (in- and around the pool,) with poorly supervised kids running around and doing bombers. No pool supervision is to be seen. Many seats were “reserved” with sunnies and newspapers by guests planning to return to the pool area sometime later. Staff don’t seem to care. There were no free seats for the two of us that afternoon. The state of affairs was so noisy, splashy and untidy that we decided to return to our towel-less room and dry off on robes and bed linen once more. When our two allocated towels did arrive, they were threadbare and ripped. Just like they were during our last stay a few months ago. A trip to the local K-mart would have done the staff good in restocking towels of far better quality. Breakfast is a free for all run around for young families. It’s great to have a family friendly restaurant, but it comes with a loss of exclusivity or luxury. There is no longer an evening turn-down service. So no more slippers, chocolates or closed curtains waiting for you after your return from dinner. Crown used to have this service, but that has been discontinued apparently. Daily room service gets done about 5 pm and involves a straightening of the bedsheets (not a replacement with fresh ones). Many times we left the room at 9am with the “service room” light on to return at 5 pm to find the room unattended or currently in service. Back downstairs to sit in the crowded and smelly lobby for another hour to go back to a minimally serviced room. A request to have the room serviced the next day between 9am and noon was met with inactivity. For $1000-2000/night Crown is seriously missing the mark. We kept coming back hoping the worsening experience would improve, but sadly it only got worse. No more stays for us here. I heard the W, Langham or Sofitel may offer something more in line with an actual 5-star experience in Sydney.

Stayed this hotel previously in Jan 24 and many times prior. Always 5 star. Not so this time. A complete turnaround and unprecedented in my 56 years of staying 4/5 star hotels. Unloaded transport in the street on arrival. Forecourt not so busy, but only one person engaged in that. Only a few ahead at check in. After waiting 45 min for bags, started my own search. Finally got them after an hour. Embarrassingly advised bfast not included at restaurant. Always included prior! Nothing on res. Docs about bfast not included..Duty Mngr put it right. Room 2312 Opera Hse view and 70sq mtrs of expense: stains on lounge, carpet and drape. Damaged bed surround..Underside of both chairs hanging down ( I have images ). Rooms now serviced every 3 days(?) No way. Two out of three ‘services’ were incomplete. No coffee left, pile of sheets left, no rubbish removal. Checkout 15/11 Geo advised no additional charges ( we stayed using gift cards ). Emailed invoice next day showed $163.86 add for ‘mini bar food’. Not so! Emails from me on the 16/11 and 20/11 as well as two phone calls have all been ignored. Disputed with Amex, that took two attempts with Amex to rectify, ( they get 2 stars only ).. Still nothing from Crown. New management obviously have no idea how to run a hotel and have crucified this one!!

Having stayed at Crown before I booked a stay for my birthday. At 3pm check in I was told my room wasn’t ready. At $940 a night, check in on time is the bare minimum. I informed them I had pre-booked a 4pm massage at Crown Spa and was told the room would “hopefully” be ready by then. At 3.50pm my room was ready and I just made it to the Crown Spa in time. Not a great start to a relaxing birthday experience. Then when I was in the bath I discovered the bathroom TV remote didn’t work and I couldn’t turn off the Crown promo on a loop and at high volume. Staff tried using another two remotes but none worked. Volume was turned off remotely by maintenance. Noisy neighbours playing dance music at 2am at least had some charges removed from my bill. But no offer to change rooms due to the broken bathroom TV. The following day the bathroom TV came on again and maintenance had to visit twice to turn the TV off through the ceiling. Having maintenance visit my room three times in a 24 hour period when I’d spent $1600 is outrageous for a luxury hotel. No offer to change my room. No offer of an upgrade for the inconvenience. You’d think staff would check that room electronics work before the room is given to a guest.

We’ve stayed in lots of 5 star hotels around the world and probably at Crown Melbourne 30 times but this would be the worst by far I’d planed a couple of nights in a suite at Barangaroo for our 40th wedding anniversary I organised a chauffeur transfer to the hotel which was very good It all went downhill from there We arrived early (midday) so didn’t expect to check in, we had to head into town to pick up An anniversary gift so needed to kill some time anyway I was told on check in we would have priority check in and would be sent a message also told the champagne would be delivered to our room later that evening ( why not when the room is ready as is normal) I asked could it be delivered which the room That apparently was too hard! So we arrived back at the hotel at 3.30 and went to the bar and had a couple of drinks I thought I’d find someone to ask how the room was going as I hadn’t received a message I found a young lass who investigated and told me it had just been done and she gave me the keycard Great, so we got to the room. Bags weren’t there There was a bottle of champers sitting in a bucket of warm water Needless to say we weren’t impressed We called the concierge who sorted it but we’d already been badly let down That’s our last visit to Crown 4 star hotel at best