HotelChatter

After reading the great reviews for The Grace Hotel in Sydney, Australia, on one unmentionable site ( OK, it was tripadvisor.com), we booked a stay for two people at The Grace through another website, lastminute.com, and although it was listed as a "mystery hotel" (They claim to do this as the rates are so cheap the hotels don't wish to be named) we could tell out booking was for The Grace as all amenities and the location was listed - duh! Din't really need to summon up the spirit of Sherlock Holmes to work out that one. But after we arrived at the hotel, we were surprised to find they'd given us two single beds. When we asked for the double we'd booked, they told us that because our room was a "mystery room" we had to take whatever they gave us, and if we wanted adequate bedding it'd be an extra $40 per night! Such a scam, rude reception staff too - although the concierge staff seemed a tad more helpful and friendly.   We'd also asked for a baby cot, but when it arrived we were dismayed to find it was a freaky metal thing that looked like it was from a torture chamber and older than the old neo-gothic style hotel itself- we saw stuff in Sydney museums that weekend that looked newer than that scary thing! I wish I took a photo to show you all what a scary contraption it was. The rooms were small, no view or opening windows, so we were stuck with dodgy air-conditioning, and the place wasn't nearly as central as it claims to be - there are a lot of better positioned hotels with cooler architechure and good staff and great views in Sydney -- avoid this place!!!!

Carolyn