Stayed here on a whirl wind tour of Australia, typical business hotel. Good rooms, spacious, with all the amenties you'd expect, good minibar, good bathroom, there's a black out blind in the room which is pretty cool to get over the jetlag.

Great location, you can walk anywhere in the city from here, max distance is about 25minutes to the opera house, enjoyed the walking through the city, you see things you wouldn't see normally.

Staff were mostly helpful, attentive and pleasant. I found concierge good who offered me the assistance I needed. Check-in staff were friendly upon arrival and in the restaurant adajcent to the hotel (the Pumphouse), nice surroundings, lack of atmosphere but nice meals.

Would recommend to my friends, but maybe I would suggest the other Novotel on Darling Harbour as that looked a slightly better location. But I would go back to this hotel for sure.

I virtually lived at this hotel throughout 2003 one week on one week off.
The things I liked about the hotel as a facility are pretty much the same. It’s small, it’s not a tour bus drop zone and very close to all the key elements of what people (visiting) like the about the city of Sydney.
So what’s happened since 2003 apart from a minor name change? What was a somewhat utilitarian feel has become cold, boring and devoid of any human warmth. From my memory of the Hotel the staff augmented its short falls, housekeeping was good and reception had friendly professional efficiency.
I arrived for two nights stay in May, coming to reception at 1.30pm I was asked to wait, I sat in reception whilst they readied my room, at 3pm I approached the staff to find that the room had been completed 40 minutes earlier. Even though I was sitting 15 feet away, even my bags had been sent up, they did not inform me. Front desk staff was not exactly run off their feet in the time period so there was no excuse for the oversight.
I maintain a personal view of the service industry within hotels in Sydney as being superficial, disingenuous, and almost pretentious. My recent experience in this hotel did not change my view.
I walked up to the room passing a tray of food left outside the room next to mine. It was ready for pickup. On the tray was a half eaten pizza.
The room itself I liked it appeared well presented and maintained this was in contrast to the corridor carpet, damaged decor and paint chipped door architraves.
The room service I had later that night was on time and the quality was good.
I left the room the next morning 8am, my room service food tray was still outside my door and I walked past the pizza tray still in situ from the previous afternoon
Returning from work that day, about 5 pm I was surprised to see the familiar, now petrified pizza still sitting there. When I came back from dinner that night about 11pm it had finally been removed.
On a bright note the “pump house” bar and restaurant at the back of the facility remains as a significant jewel in the facilities crown however do not be surprised, as a paying guest you are shut out of the hotel facilities in favour of “private functions.”

I myself read reviews on the internet before i decided to give this hotel a go for a holiday i had planned for my anniversary with my partner.. I thought the price was right and the location seemed perfect. .... WELL! i hope that by reading my review you will do yourself a favour and choose somewhere else to stay.
The staff at this hotel are the most unhelpful bunch of people i have ever encountered. This was our first trip to Sydney and when i enquired if they had any maps of the city avaliable in the foyer or for purchase i was met with a response of " you get them elsewhere"
The room service/ house keeping was deplorable we went sight seeing one day and went back to the Hotel around 3pm for a rest to find our room still had not been serviced. I spoke to the concierge who assured me they would have someone do it for us if we would like to return in 45mins. We did this, went up to our room and suprise suprise still no house keeping. I was quite annoyed by now as it was almost 5 oclock. i returned to the concierge with complaint and he finally fixed the situation... 2 hours later.

If you're looking for a quiet nights sleep... you wont get it at the Novotel Rockford Darling Harbour. All through the night we were woken up by the sound of doors slamming in the corridor as the room doors are quite heavy. In the mornings when house keeping were doing their rounds they were very noisy and i overheard two couples complaining.

The location is good, within walking distance the Paddys Markets, Darling Harbour and the Monorail station. This is the only positive to this Hotel.

Overall... very dissapointing.

My husband I recently stayed here for our 10th wedding anniversay. We had a very 'rare' 4 days away from our 2 children. After spending alot of time reading the reviews of all the hotels in the Darling habour area in our price range I thought the Novotel looked really nice.

I was bitterly dissapointed with pretty much everything about the hotel.

Firstly having been up since 3am we were hoping to check-in to our room at little early. The reception said check-in was not until 2pm and there was no way we could check -in early. The made absolutely no effort to help us. Anyway...... after an exhausting day in Sydney we came back to the hotel expecting to go straight up to our room only to be told that it still wasn't ready(2.30pm). They said there was some sort of problem with the blinds. By 3pm I was desperate to get some sleep and asked if there were any other rooms we could have. All they could offer us was a basic room (we had booked and paid for superior king with garden views) Not good enough. After waiting another hour or so we were finally taken to our room. I must say it was quite nice, good size comfotable bed. Bathroom was pretty tired, but it was fine. I must say I was expecting it to be alot nicer.
We received no appology from the staff or any kind of compensation.

The facilities were pretty poor too. The pool area wasn't very appealing. Was Ok at best. Same with the gym.
Breakfast was Ok, selection was average for the price. On our last day we went down for breakfast at 10am, we were told they shut at 10.30am. We assumed they would have the normal selection avaliable, but alot of it was gone, and not replaced. Not even any coffee!!! They waiting staff were packing everything up at 10.20am which we felt was very rude. Very dissapointed.

Room service was fine, as were selection of movies. Rooms were cleaned well. House keeping were VERY noisy outside our room at 8am most days, so don't stay here if you want a sleep-in!

We had another issue which we found very frustrating. We wanted to hire a car for a day and reception were really helpful. They gave us a price list, booked the car and arranged to have it delivered to hotel. Fantastic service!! However... they asked us about what time we would be returning the car, and we said about 7-8pm. We returned back about 6.15pm, and asked them to ring the car hire place(avis) to collect the car. They informed us they closed at 6pm, and we would have to pay $30 for overnight parking!!!! We were amazed that they hadn't thought to mention to us when we booked the car. very poor customer service.

Generally we both found the staff at reception rude and unhelpful. The conceirge were pretty good though.

The location of this hotel is pretty good, however I think there are some that are alot better. It is about a 20 min walk to where the ferry leaves from, and alot of the resturants and bars. Much further than I had thought it would be. Not great if you had a really busy day and just wanted to get back to the hotel.
I would say the location of the other Novotel is much better, also four points, Ibis, medina, crown plaza etc.

And don't even bother asking for a late check out. They were going to charge us $20 per hour. They did hold our bags for us. But no rooms to change in and shower. I had to unpack my bag in the main lobby and change in the toilets.....nice!

I will not be staying here again ,!st due to the terrible attitude of the staff ,2nd because of the very average facilities(would rate a 3star at best!) and lastly because I think there are other much better located hotels.