Macleay Hotel in Sydney

Avoid at all costs!!!! If I could give this place a minus score, I would. The worst experience we have EVER had with a hotel so please do not stay unless you want to stay in a tiny hot box and receive customer service from staff that wouldn’t care if you slept on the concrete floor.

My step-dad booked this hotel one year in advance for a once in a lifetime trip for him, my mom and myself. I want to preface by saying that my parents are incredibly patient people, who have never complained about anywhere that they have stayed, but this was genuinely a unique experience.

See all the issues below (so I don’t end up writing a book):
- Aircon didn’t work from the moment we checked into our room
- No apology was given by the receptionist, just an ‘ah yeh your room is hot’, a promise that the aircon would be fixed by that evening (which it wasn’t) and given a n incredibly dusty fan that was weaker than the air I can blow from my own mouth
- Moved into a DOUBLE room that evening (even though there was three of us), so I had to stay at a friend’s house. The move also took some convincing from the man that came to fix the aircon, who had to tell the night receptionist that there was no way we could stay in the room they had given us
- The night receptionist sent my step-dad to go and find the rooms for himself, so my step-dad basically did a tour of the hotel alone to find a room to stay in, some of which had beds that were not even made up
- The next day we were told that we would be given a new triple room. However, to avoid moving again we asked the receptionist (who knew nothing about us moving in the first place), if I could get another double room instead so I can check in there myself and only move 1 set of bags- to which he said ‘yes’ :)
- I moved into the new double room, and 5 minutes later, the receptionist came upstairs to tell us that we had to move again to the triple because the other double room was taken
- As we had had enough, I simply asked for a refund for the remaining nights so we could move somewhere else. The receptionist proceeded to argue with me and raise his voice which was incredibly uncomfortable. I then said, ‘I’m not arguing with you, I’d just like a refund please as we no longer feel comfortable staying here’, to which he responded, ‘yes that’s fine, you’ll just have to contact booking.com but we have no issues giving you a refund here’
- After I contacted Booking.com, they called the receptionist 10 minutes later and he said that we would have to wait until the following day for the manager to come in, as he has no authority to approve refunds and the general manager does not work on weekends
- Booking.com proceeded to speak to the general manager the following day and she refused to give a refund, as they claimed that they granted compensation in the form of a second room (which they had kicked us out of 5 minutes after us moving in??)
- No apology was given, ever.

Additional minuscule and petty things:
- The hotel looks nothing like the pictures
- Hand sanitiser in the hotel reception did not work
- We were not asked how our stay was when we checked out
- Some of our plugs didn’t work
- The general manager did not once come to speak to us after the incident

Honestly just avoid at all costs and don’t waste your money or time.