Sofitel Sydney Wentworth

Recently my team of 14 stayed at the Sofitel Wentworth for a two day conference. We were really disappointed in the quality of the hotel, services and the staff. Beware, the hotel states that it has recently been refurbished, but that is only some of the rooms. Our team, despite paying top price for rooms, were allocated mainly old, unrefurbished rooms that were small, old and not very comfortable. The restaurant is extremely noisy with the hard floors. Our conference room was located behind the kitchen - this room should not be used for conferences. It is noisy, and small. Despite paying for a larger room, we were only provided with half the conference room and had to complain to gain access to the entire room. Rooms were not ready at check in time, with some of our team having to wait hours for access to rooms. One of our rooms was given away to another person unrelated to our team. It was a surprise for one of team to find another person already in their room! Rooms are noisy - even on the top floor you could hear the traffic below. Check out was all self service despite there being staff available. For a 5star hotel, the service and facilities provided definitely did not match. There are much better hotels in Sydney. We definitely will not be using this hotel again.

The most amazing weekend at the Sofitel. Beautiful room, kind and generous staff. The room was large and very comfortable, felt very new and modern. The turndown service with silk eye mask and lavender spray was next level, as was the delicious fruit platter and Margaret River Chardonnay on arrival. Bar Tilda was the best spot for a pre dinner drink - highly recommend the French Martini. But the highlight was a long lunch at Delta Rue - knowledgeable sommeliers, delicious food and great atmosphere. Sofitel Wentworth is now my go to home away from home in Sydney. Highly recommend.

There’s so many things make me confused during my stay. 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. That’s actually fine compared what happened later. 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. But my instinct told me something was not right. 5 mins after I got into the room, someone opened the door and get in. 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. If I have to say something good, I would said the scent, the fragrance smells very nice. I also asked about this to the guy at the reception but he doesn’t know about it. He also said he will pass this question to the manager and as you already known, I heard nothing from the manager. Somehow I managed to found it on the Sofitel website. It seems more effective rely on myself then them. You know when I look back, 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. I believe if I used my membership, I would get treat better. But this also show me the average service of this place. I don’t think I will try this place next time or recommend to any of my friends.

The check in experience was very poor. At booking a month ago we had requested early checkin. However we were still waiting for our room at 4.30. We finally got access to the room at four pm and we had a wedding to attend at four thirty so this did not give us much time to get ready which caused unnecessary stress before this happy occasion.

Improvement is very noticeable…..service is very attentive, ambience understated but appealing. Enjoyed an excellent Sunday lunch at Delta Rue however this restaurant wasn’t open again until Tuesday. Only other option was fine Dining at Tilda. The hotel needs other alternatives for those who stay Sunday/ Monday….especially if you want to use your All Accor discounts.