Hilton Sydney

Had a lovely stay at the Hilton in Sydney and it's on George st, it is in the middle of everything like a 10 min walk to Darling harbor 4 stops on a tram to The Opera house, I went to China town which is like 5-10 min walk and the Westfield mall is around the corner, the staff is friendly and the rooms are lovely, it was my birthday and stayed there for 2 nights and I was surprised they gave me Champagne, thank you I was truly surprised :) Alessio was so friendly and nice :)

The location is good because it is in the less busy part of town yet very walkable to shopping malls and tourist sights.
The front desk staff was very nice and polite. The lobby is very pretty and has plenty of comfortable places to sit or to have a cup of tea.
Our hotel room was nice and the bathroom was pretty big. Our view below was of the fountain, and we could see very far without any other hotel obstructions.
The elevators were pretty quick. The gym and pool are on the lower floor, and they both were well maintained, though the gym was very small and crowded every time I went in.

I last was here about 8-9 years ago and at that time, I was so impressed. The location was fantastic, the property was modern, beautiful and well-staffed, and they took great care of me as a Hilton Diamond member including an upgrade and a nice Executive Lounge to hang out in.

Fast forward to now, post-COVID and much as changed. I'm unsure if this is the new normal or if they are having issues with staff shortages and budget constraints but the place just seems to have gone down a notch in just about every regard.

Don't get me wrong, I am a Hilton loyalist and a lifetime Diamond loyalty program member so I am not trying to badmouth the brand. I will still continue to stay here when my work takes me to Sydney but this time around, the property just didn't shine the way it used to.

Gone are consistent doormen and I found the front desk sometimes unstaffed. I expect that at budget hotels but that should be a minimum standard at places in the mid-3 digits per night for a room such as this. I also was a little surprised that the area around the hotel has become a lot less bustling tourist and motivated business workers hustling to enjoy their day and has a much more homeless panhandler feel to it peppered in with the addled druggie back-packer groups just loitering around all of the closed businesses in the middle of the night. When you add in the multiple areas of vomit staining the sidewalk from the late night revelers closing out the bars, it really gives you a sense that the business district of Sydney has taken a real downturn. It feels like Sydney borrowed the playbooks from Portland, Seattle or San Francisco and are doing a reasonable job of running their societal strategies from them.

Within the hotel, the public spaces were clean but seemed to lack staff. The room was comfortable but nothing over the top. The restaurant and bar selections are uninspiring. Even the attached private gym which all guests have access to 24/7 seemed a bit run down. For $450 AUD/night, I expected a bit more as a hotel guest.

The Executive Club was where I really noticed a downward spiral. Higher end Hilton branded hotels, especially international (non-USA) locations have some outstanding Exec Clubs that are often well-appointed, private areas with fantastic work-spaces. They are great to enjoy breakfast in or evening cocktails after a jet-lagged work day. This one had the bare minimums in terms of offerings. It is a fairly large space which is great but it is showing its age and was only staffed with cleaning person during most hours instead of the usual staff that can assist you as concierges. In the mid-afternoon, there were no staff and there were dirty tables all over needing to be bussed. When I entered around 3:30pm, I bussed my own table just to have a clean space to sit at. That was just plain disappointing.

Sydney is a long way from home for me and I was let down by this Hilton experience. It was not a complete failure but it was clearly lower than what it should be given the prior stature of this hotel and its location. I will stay here for the location when I am in the area but otherwise, it will not be in my list of top international destinations.

I got upgraded from king guest room to city suite and it is huge! Great views and a jetted tub and 2 TV's and 2 toilets. Also got access to executive lounge as diamond. City suites are on the 42nd floorm. Great location and next to lots of malls especially for food. They stored my laksa in their fridge and provided a microwave on request.

Absolute top hotel.

Excellent service, clean rooms.

The staff helped me retrieve lost documents after my stay and went above and beyond to help me.

How can you be a 5 star hotel and not have a cafe or anywhere open at 1pm Sunday. Absolutely unheard of with a 5 star rating.

Great hotel with the perfect location. Everything was fast to get to with a 15-30 min walk. If you are interested in heading to the opera house or the great restaurant area in The Rocks this hotel is fantastic. We were given an upgrade which was nice but still found the room to be small. There's a executive lounge but come early! Tables were hard to come by as was the food options. It starts at 6:30 we arrived at 6:15 and everyone was eating already and tables difficult to get. They had great shrimp options by 6:45 no more shrimp and other food options were given. My suggestion is go earlier!

As diamond breakfast is complimentary as well and man breakfast was amazing!!!!!!!!! Soooo many delicious options!!!! The best breakfast I've had at any Hilton with a great view at that!

This is a nice Hilton, with an excellent location. It's easy to find, very close to Town Hall station. The shopping nearby is great and tram right outside the door. My room was comfortable with great shower, comfortable furnishings and good quality linen. Restaurant is also great - for breakfast and dinner. I would come here again.

This is a very nice hotel in a convenient location. There is a grocery store (Woolworth's) and train stop less than a block from the hotel. Circular Quay was only 2 stops away.

I'm Hilton Gold and was upgraded to the Executive Lounge. Yay! The rooms are nice, but relatively basic. I also stayed here 9 years ago and the room looked exactly the same (although not worn, so I'm sure they've refreshed it). My room also had a great view.

The lounge serves a continental breakfast, afternoon scones and tea, and evening canapés and alcohol. On some days, that's all I had to eat all day and it was fine. There were so many friendly people working in the lounge. They do check people in when they walk in, so don't try to sneak in any guests :).

I'd very much recommend the Hilton, especially if you get lounge access.

A friend and I stayed at the Sydney Hilton for four nights, and overall, the location is great and the price was right.

We arrived from the USA on one of the early morning flights. While our room was not ready, they did offer us to go to the Executive lounge for some breakfast and snacks and then the option of going to the gym to shower. Under the circumstances, that was very adequate for our purposes, and allowed us to start enjoying the day sightseeing relatively quickly.

The hotel itself is huge and has a large convention area. The lobby was always buzzing with business, considering we're staying in the central business district (CBD). It's very walkable to the harbor and the Sydney Opera House, as well as being on the same block as the metro. A very convenient hotel all around

We had Executive lounge privileges because we are Diamond members with Hilton, and we tried breakfast at both places. Both have pros and cons, but the lounge had takeaway drinks of water and soda, so we used that more. The happy hour at the lounge was also very busy and they have a adequate selection of food and drink options.

We were upgraded to a "relaxation" king room, but that meant that the bathroom was 100% completely exposed to the bedroom. Even if you're married, that sense of privacy is gone in the bathroom. I did not enjoy that aspect of the hotel. Actually, knowing that this was the hotel we were "upgraded to", I would have downgraded myself. It did have a nice sitting room area, though.

Overall, I liked the location of this hotel, and it is both a business and tourist hotel at the same time.