Hotels near Manly Sea Life Sanctuary in Sydney

I had such a good stay there. The room was clean and comfortable, the staff were particularly excellent - every person was incredibly kind and friendly. Binay was really lovely and helpful and Jandro, the manager was wonderful and always had an incredibly welcoming smile. I wasn’t expecting such a good experience considering how cheap it was, right in the heart of the city, but the hotel ticks all the boxes. I would definitely recommend this, and I’ll definitely be coming back!

Great location, right near the Central train station. I’ve asked for a quiet room and got one at the back of the hotel. I believe the rooms facing the Main Street outside must be noisy as overall walls and windows sound isolation not very good. So, I suggest asking for a room with a window facing inside (no view but peaceful). The room was very basic and you need to ask for shampoo at the reception if you stay longer than one night as room cleaning service is not included.

The location of Mercure is very close to the Central Station, which is very suitable for families like us with elderly and children. The staff at reception is very nice and helpful. She suggested us to sign up as a member so we could park at a discounted rate of $45 a day (the original seems to be $49). We were charged $1 which seems to be a deposit when we registered Check-in there. There are swimming pool and fitness facilities on the 14th floor. During our stay, we called the reception for the services. The staff came to our room quickly to provide services. In addition, maybe we stayed during the Christmas period, there was a draw. Were were lucky to win the prize. My child was very happy to win a toy remote car, which added more joy. We had a good experience with our stay. The hotel staff we met there are very nice and helpfiul. If we go to Sydney again, we will consider Mercure again! 🙂🙂

When you exit the hotel, you face a small road and cross the bridge for 2 minutes to Darling Harbor. Turn left and walk uphill for 5 minutes to the QVB subway. The room is clean and tidy, and the bed is very comfortable. The one-bedroom suite has a small kitchen with stove, pots, bowls, etc. They all have a special feeling of being at home. The service attitude of the hotel staff is very good. The self-service coffee bar in the lobby is very considerate. Some rooms are currently being renovated, but others are in good condition.

Firstly, this hotel is perfectly located for business travellers to Macquarie Park Business Centres. The hotel is 5 minutes away from offices, Macquarie Centre and train stations. Absolutely perfect for my work trip. There were some positives. Rooms are fine, completely what you would expect from a business hotel. Bed was comfortable, there was a TV that I never used, space to put luggage and hang up your clothes, a table and a chair etc. However, it goes down hill from there. I'll list the negatives 1 by 1: 1. One pillow had a very strong odour coming from it. Smelled like bad musty BO. I literally had to move the pillow into the cupboard as I couldn't stand the smell. However, this meant that I could smell this musty smell every time I came in and out of the room. 2. 1 of the provide bath towels had a big hole/tear in it. 3. Housekeeping made an error and did not provide shampoo but instead 2 conditioners. Easy enough, I called up reception and they said I have to come down to the reception to get it myself. Fine, went down and was given 1 bottle of shampoo. I went back upstairs to shower only to find that the shampoo given was pre-opened/pre-used. Terrible. After my shower, I went back down to speak to another receptionist who was apologetic and gave me 2 bottles of shampoo. 4. On my second day, I realised housekeeping had not come in, so I went down to speak to the reception again and was told that because of COVID, they only do housekeeping on after the 3rd day of your stay which made it null and void for me. 5. Fitness centre was adequate but they did not replenish the towels and did not clear used towels regularly. On my second day, I had left a used towel on the side as the bin was full. On my third day, the bin was still full and my previous towel still sitting there in the same position I had left it in. Forth day, no more clean towels. 6. If they were so concerned about COVID, they would have more regular cleaning of public areas like the gym and in the hall way where an empty glass and cup set for 3 whole days. The lack of cleaning in public areas to me is unacceptable in the hospitality industry now. All in all, I cannot recommend this hotel to anyone given my concerns above, especially the lack of cleanliness while we are dealing with an epidemic.

We love the cockatoo Island camping experience ! the island has a stunning location in the middle of the Sydney harbour surrounded by blue waters the island has a great 200 years old history where it was a former of convict colony, as well as a ship building yard, a power station and now thankfully it’s been preserved very well with sustainable tourism of tents, studios and villas.

On the ambience side, the decor and modern-ish art was uplifting and fun. The room was very clean. But, we were surprised to find the room so small. In order for 2 people to get into the bed, one had to crawl over the other. The very small window sill became the nightstand. There was no room for luggage, and no luggage racks - we were told they didn’t have enough. That meant one suitcase on the floor and one on the very small plastic table. The retro-refrigerator was cool, but my traveling companion kept threatening to move it out into the hall to create some space in the room the whole time we were there. And then, the very small bathroom, the shower door doubled as the door to the bathroom. Have you ever looked into a microwave? The shower and the bathroom walls had the same dot matrix pattern as a microwave door. My companion was surprised to see while showering she could see me relaxing on the bed, and when she screamed “can you see me?” I replied “yes”. My companion now has bathroom-PTSD. Not only was the shower see through, there was a full-room-view sitting on the throne, trying to do your business. Then the realization somebody may be watching. PTSD! Our solution was to use the downstairs public bathroom for major activities. Did I mention IBS???

Located conveniently for an overnight stay between flights, the hotel did the job. A reasonably friendly checking-in process and I was grateful for an early check in as well after an overnight flight, thank you Valuesuites. The room is very small, mine had a single bed (not firm, but it was OK) and road noise carries, however with the window closed (which I liked being able to open for fresh air, great!), the road noise was much less. The room is fitted with all you need. Shower hot water was good. The next morning, as a coffee drinker, you are very well looked after with a Nescafe capsule machine on the first floor, with a wide variety of coffee to choose from. This, together with some quality breakfast snacks included adjacent (muesli bars, fruit/nut mix and cheese and crackers), well, these were a nice touch, thank you. For the price, location and coffee:) a good choice for an overnighter between flights that's not too expensive, nor far from the airport / Airport rail / Woolworths and cafes.

This is an amended review to highlight the ongoing lack of communication from the hotel. It is fair to say that the hotel had some great things going for it but, sadly, customer support is not one of them. Breakfast was excellent and the roof top Aster bar was a great place to enjoy a cocktail and see some spectacular sunsets. However, the whole thing was let down by extremely lacklustre support from the management down. My wife lost her glasses in the hotel. They are prescription reading glasses in very distinct designer frames and were in a sparkly gold box. We asked at the desk during check out if they had been found and were told that they had not been handed in but that reception would check with the Aster bar, where we believe they had been left but was closed at the time of check out. We were due to be in Sydney again in 4 days and the receptionist took all the details and a description of the glasses and case and said that she would email me to give me an update. Sadly we didn’t hear back. Four days later when we returned to Sydney we checked back at the hotel there was no note against our booking and the duty receptionist said nothing could be done but was unable to confirm if a check had been made in the Aster rooftop bar. I asked to speak to the duty manager and an Irish lady, whose name I sadly didn’t get, came out to speak to me. She was very apologetic and said it was not the normal standard we should expect from the hotel and promised to speak to the Aster staff and that she would get back to me by email before the end of the day. Sadly, no further communication was forthcoming and a follow up email to the hotel remains unanswered. We realise that the loss was our fault but the lack of interest from the staff and unfulfilled, empty promises from the management would definitely deter us from staying there again. It would appear that the management have no interest in fostering customer satisfaction.

Having been at a conference over the normal meal hour, and needing to travel by train next morning, the location was ideal. I was able to relax and enjoy later meal. The room was easy to find and toilet/personal products provided of a high quality. It is unfortunate that, as is customary, single customers are required to pay the same as couples. I’m sure that it would be advantageous to have a room occupied by one person than to have it empty.