HotelChatter

The Observatory Hotel
We wrote about the Observatory Hotel back in September and we relied on a TripAdvisor review who was pretty spot-on about the place.

Room Reaction: Room 130
We came from the Park Hyatt which was furnished with very modern furniture and amenities. So when we checked-in to our room at the Observatory, we were disappointed. The room was huge but the king-sized bed only sported two meager pillows. The furnishings, which the above-metioned TA reviewer quotes as "traditional" reminded us of our parents, specifically our in-laws. They would have been tickled pink to stay in this type of room with its pink and white floral chairs, beige carpeting, and dark wood table furniture. It's not in bad taste, it's just the style was about 30-years-too-old for us. Not quite romantic or appealing.

At the Park Hyatt, we had a gorgeous view of the Sydney Opera House. At the Observatory, we had a view of some shanties. (See below.) To be fair, you could see the harbor but there was always some big shipping barge that was anchored nearby.

Room Amenities
Things picked up when we started to explore our room a bit which was equipped with a myriad of amenities like a heated towel bar, a terrific shower head that spouted out from the ceiling, a spacious closet, mini-bar and a fairly new TV (not flat-screened) with a DVD player. However, the DVDs the hotel offered were a tad old. The toiletries were standard but the hotel offered to bring you anything you may have forgotten. The hotel did have both WiFi and ethernet but at an outrageous price of $35 AUD and you needed to call for the access code.

Pool & Spa
While still missing the Park Hyatt, we became excited again by the Observatory's pool and spa which is all indoors. The Olympic-sized pool has an adjacent hot tub which felt amazing after a long day exploring the city. We weren't quite sold on the indoor-pool thing but at least it was quiet and clean.

The spa is however, worth a look-see. It's a La Prairie spa and the services are quite luxurious. Caviar Facial or Diamond Body Polish anyone? And finally, we found our much-desired elliptical in the spa's workout room.

Dining
We ordered room service for breakfast the first two days that we stayed here because it was so good. The options are bit lighter and healthier than what we had at the Park Hyatt. But when we dined at the lobby restaurant for breakfast on our last day, the waiter forgot to hand in our order to the chef so the normally-slow Aussie service became an excruciating wait.

We showed our disapproval when the food finally arrived by not even smiling at the waiter who we were pretty friendly with beforehand. It must have worked because he comped our breakfast. But we felt a tad guilty about that so we left him a tip, especially since we spilled a cup of coffee all over the table.

The Proof is in the Turndown
So you must be thinking that we hated the place. But actually, we haven't gotten to the good part yet. What we loved about the hotel was the service. We were pampered from the moment we walked into the hotel from the cheery bellman, to the extremely helpful concierge who made all our dinner reservations to the newspapers left in a green bag on our doorknob to the honeymoon gifts they bestowed on us.

Yet our favorite part of all this was turn-down. The staff leaves a soft towel at the side of your bed with slippers placed on top and a water bottle in a cloth bottle cozy (stamped with the hotel's logo) left on your nightstand. Of course, other turndown items were present like the bedtime mints and the breakfast menu but we felt utterly pampered each time we turned out the lights. And in fact, we're still missing the Observatory Hotel today. We're trying to teach the dog the turndown trick but so far no such luck.

Would We Stay Here Again?
Absolutely, but it's not for first-timers to Sydney. It's a perfect second-stop in town. While it's close to the Rocks and you could walk it (probably about 15-20 minutes), you still have to cab it to a lot of places and not many of the cabbies really knew where the hotel was located.

Honeymoon Appropriate?
Not really. Maybe for the over 50-set on a second honeymoon. However, the staff was thrilled to have us honeymooners so the extra attention was pretty wonderful.

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