Novotel Rockford (aka Novotel Century)
The Novotel Rockford is a dismal place, and at A$210 per night is poor value, even for Sydney's overpriced middle-market sector.
Rooms on the north side of the building suffer from very close proximity to a major highway, and although the rooms are new and fresh, they don't yet have any form of internet connection in all the rooms. Some have dial-up but for most visitors, wireless internet access on the ground and mezzanine floor is all you will get - and they have the nerve to charge A$20 for the inconvenience of this access.
Unique Quality: For A$50 per night less across the road at the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour, I got a bigger room, the same services but I had inroom broadband and a newspaper at my door every morning. Quite how the Novotel justifies their prices, I will never know. The entire building is served by just two extremely slow lifts. The staffing for breakfast is woefully inadequate, resulting in tables piled high with detritus and no-one to clear it.
But the most heinous crime was their failure to pick up laundry - a critical requirement as I was to be on the road for another week and this was my only chance to get laundry done. It was so important that I actually spoke to five people to ensure that it would be picked up from the room. Two phone calls to housekeeping went unanswered so I spoke to two housekeeping staff on the floor, and three people at reception before leaving in the morning. On my return in the evening, the bag - left cunningly hidden in a Novotel laundry bag in the middle of the floor so that you had to step over it to get in and out of the room - was still there. This quite staggeringly poor service was the final straw, and I came close to simply walking out of the hotel. I expressed my discontent - extremely politely, but assertively - to the duty manager. I noted, when I checked out that they didn't offer any reduction in the rate, not even, say, waiving the breakfast charge. I walked away more dissatisfied than with any other hotel in twenty years of being a regular hotel user. Novotel-Accor, you are a disgrace.
Make no mistake about it, the Novotel Rockford in Sydney is a crap hotel and badly managed. Try the Holiday Inn across the road for A$50 less per night for better rooms, better lifts and better service.
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