Metro Hotel Sydney Central

Hotel was in a good location, close to transport. Although was a bit basic, bathroom was disappointing with no window or fan and the shower wasn’t that great either. The bed was pretty comfortable though.

It is a basic hotel in a good location. It is in Haymarket area so you get the various Asian food and they close late. It is also very near Capitol Theatre (great if you are watching a performance there) and World Square Shopping Centre. It is about 2 km to The Rocks/​Darling Harbour area (around 30 minutes walk via George Street) and near to Queen Victoria Building.
There was a parking agreement between the hotel and World Square Shopping Centre so we parked the car there ($ 35) and just walked everywhere in the city center area.
The room itself was smallish, it did not look or feel like 28sqm as stated in the website. If it really was 28 sqm, then I shuddered to think how small the other newer hotels’ rooms were at 15 sqm or so.
The room was clean and furnished with basic amenities like a bar of soap, body lotion and conditioning shampoo. You would need to bring your own toothbrush and toothpaste. The closet was tiny and the mirrored sliding door was not working.
If you just need a place to sleep at night and do not intend to spend a lot of time inside the room, this may be a good option as the price is lower than the other major chain hotels (in the $ 150– $ 200/​night range).
The service was average, could be a bit better. The front desk staff was quite a stickler to the rules, or she did not realize there could be other options. I did not bring my passport with me and she did not want to accept my driver’s license as a form of picture ID. She wanted an Australian form of picture ID which obviously a non-​resident would not have. She went to check with her supervisor and finally accepted my non-​Australian picture ID.
Later I saw that she insisted on a credit card with another group of tourists as a deposit. In the end, she relented and accepted cash as deposit from them. We came back as the key card did not work in the elevator and told her to re-​validate the cards. She insisted they were working and asked us to try the other card (there were two and we tried both before going back to the desk). She only grudgingly re-​activated the cards after we told her we already tried both.
The fire alarm went off at night and no announcement was made immediately so everyone who came out of the room was confused and wondered if we were to evacuate or what. After a while, an announcement was made it was a false alarm. If it was a real fire, I think we would all be roasted. Some bit of excitement during our stay.
Wi-​Fi is chargeable in the room. I did not bother asking about the free Wi-​Fi which apparently is available in the lobby.