Lloyd M.
Yelp
I had a very disappointing experience that may have been an anomaly based on the many positive reviews of the Amora but was still bordering on horrible. On the positive side, the hotel is very centrally located, near many shops and restaurants. The exterior is also quite nice. The room service dinner I had (nachos and chicken schnitzel) was excellent.
So why two stars? One very poor situation that was handled poorly prompted this review as well as canceling a future stay. When returning from work on Tuesday night, I could not connect to the Internet. Long story short is it took them 2 full days to resolve the issue, leaving me with no Internet (a huge issue when on a business trip from Europe with no roaming).
I tried on an iPhone, iPad and my PC, all had the same issues. When I called Guest Services (around 6:30 PM), they sent an "engineer." The Engineer spent the first 15 minutes trying to show me how to connect to the Internet, despite the fact this is not the first time I've connected a device to the Internet, I tried with three different devices so it was not a device issue and had successfully connected the previous morning and day. When he was finally convinced it was not user error, he said I had to wait until the next day since the IT people were not available that late.
When I left the next morning, I reminded the front desk of the issue. I popped back to the hotel before lunch to have a note that I had to call their IT provider. The company, MovieLink, also made me waste 15 minutes showing them I knew how to connect. Eventually they realized there was a problem but the person I was speaking to could not fix it. I had to leave for work but was told it would be resolved that day.
When I got back that evening, still did not work. After another hour with MovieLink, they realized it was the hot spot or router in the room that was broken and needed to be replaced. It was too late to do anything so they told me it would be the next day that it would be fixed.
I got back the next evening and it was fixed, unfortunately that was 48 hours later and I lost significant productivity. The hotel did offer to move me the second day but moving hotel room is an inconvenience I did not want to deal with. In my opinion, a truly five star hotel would have
--. Had an engineer initially who could test on their device whether the Internet was working. Never, ever, imply it is the guest's error (even if it is, you can resolve it later if you start with the guest is always correct)
--. When it was not working, offer immediately to move me or bring in an expert (off hours) to get it fixed.
--. Have hotel staff deal with the external vendor, not the guest.
--. They should have provided compensation, not charged for a meal or a night. If a restaurant gives you even a disappointing drink, they comp it and try to make you happy.
While this may have been an isolated incident, a couple smaller things reinforced that this is not a five star hotel
--. When the engineer came up to fix the Internet, I also pointed out the TV remote was not working. As with the Internet, we spent 15 minutes with him trying to show me how to use the remote. Believe it or not, I know how to use a remote. Again, they had to replace the remote. It shows both bad equipment and the wrong attitude for the customer.
--. On checkout, there was a long-distance call improperly billed to the room. I have not made a call from a hotel in about 4 years (has anyone?), yet again while they eventually rescinded the call they tried to make me feel like a villain. The issue was probably on the calls to MovieLink for the Internet, which were all connected via Guest Services.
Sorry for the long review but when I give a two star review it is only fair to explain why. I would recommend another hotel in the same area (there are many options) and just cancelled a booking with the Amora Sydney in June for 8 nights.