Avoid this hotel. Rooms small, noisy and have limited technology that often does not work properly. Hotel staff rude and unhelpful. Try the Manor House in Paddington, much better although costs a bit more, similar location.

This hotel really is a mix of the very good and the very bad.

I arrived straight from the airport at around 6.30am and was met with a warm welcome. I was told that they had a nice room available which I could go in to straight away. The room was quite large and offered a balcony. The breakfasts are fantastic and offer a very good range and variety.

The decor is very diferent from most corporate chains and has been decorated with interesting antiques and art work. Thisd hotel certainly has its fans and some will find this rather charming- I personally felt the hotel was more of a large B&B (in need of further renovation) than a 4 star hotel (as advertised by the 'hotel').

Cleaning at this hotel is also a little hit and miss. My room was not supplied with a bin. I drank a couple of bottles pf beer on the balcony one evening and left the empties to be cleaned away- they remained however where I had left them throughout my stay and they didnt appear to take the hint.

Service is the largest area of concern in this hotel as the staff here can be really quite rude, surly and unhelpful. On chequing out, there was a confusion over payment and they made me feel as if I was trying to rob the place and tried to make me investigate the matter myself using my mobile. The fiasco took about an hour to resolve during which time I grew to feel quite sorry for the guy working on the front desk as he couldnt handle all the incoming calls and had to hang up on at least ten people- I would have probably been less than impressed if I had been at the other end. Service at breakfast was similarly chaotic- I would wait for 20 minutes or so to be asked whether I would like the cooked breakfast (which I had already paid for) and then was forced to approach the waitress myself and ask if I could possibly have something to eat- her reply was less than apologetic and rather more distainful.

I found the location of this hotel a little inconvenient as the bus journey took about 20 minutes to the city centre. I enquired about other forms of transport and was told that there might be a train but they didnt know exactly where the station was.

I wouldnt stay at this hotel but it is entirely possible that other guests may encounter an entirely diferent experience (such is the variable nature of this place).

Myself and my husband were booked to stay in the hotel over the New Year period 2004/5. On checking-in we were asked to pay for the room in advance (although we had not yet been shown the room), and so paid the invoice in full. When we finally entered the room we were gutted! The room was way too small for a double bed, there were no wardrobes and so we had to live out of our suitcases, no storage space for suitcases and so had to jump over them, the drains in the bathroom smelt really bad, as well as the bathroom door not being able to open fully without hitting the bed! On top of this, the room was not clean. When we looked behind the curtains, there were cobwebs on the windows, dead insects behind the bed, and the decoration was shabby. When we tried to get a full refund, we were told that we were only entitled to 50% of the money back, and should they be able to re-rent the room, we would get another 20% back - neddless to say we didnt get the further 20% refunded. However, we did decide to leave and checked in to the Holiday Inn in the Rocks, Syd - AMAZING view for the NYE fireworks and a tad expensive, but worth it if your only going to visit Sydney the once.

We stayed here for 2 nights in August 04. We requested the Retreat about 6 months before we left and were given confirmation. The Retreat is 3 interconnecting rooms as we are a large family, I also emailed some time before we left to check these rooms were the ones booked, however on arrival we were given different room as the Retreat had been given to one of the owners friends. This did cause some inconvenience as we had to climb over a sofa bed in the night to get to the bathroom as the rooms we were given weren't set up for the extra bed. The desk staff were apologetic and tried their best to help us in the circumstances. The breakfast was excellent. The rooms we had weren't as clean as I would expect, but price was reasonable. Overall not bad but do check that the room you are booking is the one you get as I did get a feeling that this wasn't the first time that pre-booked rooms had been given to someone else.