stayed here over christmas 2007 for 5 nights, booked early and got great rate on holiday inns own website

Requested higher room and got it - 11th floor
arrived at 10am from long haul flight really not expecting room to be available - asked if we could leave bags, consierge was really helpfull and advised yes we could, but also if room wasnt ready to let him know and he would sort some gym passes for us to be able to grab a shower
- amazingly room was available!
Good sized clean room with v effiecient Air con - only down side was bathroom a little outdated compared to rest of room
Mini bar was well stocked and pretty reasonable
should mention the hotel is being extented - upwards - at the mo which we didnt know about before we checked in, but no noise disturbed us.
the hotel is in a fantastic location - minutes from darling harbour and only a short stroll to china toen and the city train stations
Staff were very helpfull and keen to help at all times, and also kindly stored our bags free for 5 days securely whilst we took a whitsundays cruise
A taxi from the airport was only $31 - much the same as the trainb for 2
would recommend as a great good value base

This hotel is under heavy construction. They are adding floors, so there is heavy equipment on the roof, which creates tremendous vibration and noise. I made two advance calls to the hotel to ask about room size and location, as this was an anniversary trip. Nothing was said about the construction. The night before arrival, I called them again to verify that we would have an upper floor/view location and, again, not a word was said about the construction--particularly amazing given my request for an upper floor. The room was attractive, but who cared? When I complained to the manager on duty, he said that the hotel had put this info on their website for months (not true), and that all desk/reservation personnel had been trained to tell guests --also absolutely not true. He refused any request for a discount or anything at all - too bad, live with it, we told you, it's your fault. Also, construction was supposed to begin at 9 a.m., but on the Saturday we left, it was well underway by 7 a.m. Avoid this place like the plague it is.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn for 6 nights at the beginning of November.
The location is very good – a 5 min walk to Darling Harbor and probably a 20 min walk to Sydney Harbor. We found the hotel to be clean and in good decorative order with contemporary furnishings. Our ‘Queen Bed Superior Room’ was quite roomy with plenty of space to put luggage down. The bed was comfortable and we found the hotel to be very quiet which made it easy to get to sleep at night. We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant only on one morning and we found the buffet to be splendid with a good choice of hot and cold food. Overall staff at the hotel were friendly, although I did find them somewhat uncooperative when they tried to throw us out after they bungled our reservation – still waiting for an apology for that! I would stay at this hotel again without hesitation.

I chose this hotel mainly because it was one of the few 4+ star hotels not to jack their prices up considerably due to a soccer match being held the same night (which was the purpose of my trip anyway).

The mention of "Darling Harbour" in the title is a bit of a misnomer, as it is one street off Chinatown, yet a good 10-15 min walk to the heart of Darling Harbour.

The hotel is directly across the road from the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Very convenient for those attending concerts or basketball matches at that venue.

Express checkout was very convenient. Porters and Front desk staff were quite friendly and efficient.


The one downside is the power switch at the door (like many hotels these days) requires your room key to be inserted (or an unneeded card of any type will do). Housekeeping will remove the card if you are absent. In my case, my mobile phone and laptop failed to charge fully.

Had absolutely no issue with the renovations at the property. There are many notices in the hotel advising of the renovations and the times you will experience noise (which from memory was from 0830-1800).

While I did hear a bit of noise during those times, it wasn't enough to annoy me (maybe I picked a good day).