"Fantastic view from the 21st floor of Sydney Harbour and Opera, from the beautiful big bedroom (and bathroom). Stayed 10 days. Great bedding, fluffy towels and absolutely everything else that a 5* hotel provides. Quite close to everything, the wharf, restaurants etc. Modern and luxurious. The personnel is nice, and often, they would ring the doorbell, asking if we needed anything. The 2 negative aspects are: Because it's so huge, (565 rooms and 36 floors) there are so many people everywhere, with corporate meetings, queues for check-in/checkout, queus at breakfast after 8, in the lobby, in the 6 lifts, cruise ship passengers, weddings, parties.... that you're just another anonymous face in the crowd. The 2nd one is too long to go into (noise from the nearby lifts and change of the flight date to Dubai by Emirates, due to the Iran situation), we were offered a "corner room" view and never an honest paid upgrade, only an incredibly expensive one for the one extra night. So we had to pack, take a taxi to a (beautiful) hotel 5 minutes away and to unpack, to stay just the one night before flying back to Europe. Bitter sweet experience, even if the Front Manager was very nice, no honorable compromise was ever considered. Nevertheless, a lovely 5* luxury hotel with everything you need but next time we will choose a smaller, guest-friendly, landmark, Heritage hotel, rich in History and character, without so many people, guests and personnel included, everywhere, all rushing around noisily, giving off stress and hasty urgency vibes. And where suitable adjustments are made should problems arise, without a feeling of pretentiousness from the hotel. Especially when you're staying 10 days."

"Booked a club access room with a Sydney Opera House view. The corner rooms are massive as you gain an extra seating area for bags and shoes etc. Almost like a small suite. Email ahead and request. The club lounge was amazing. I would sit there all day. Amazing view of the harbour for breakfast, afternoon coffee and cocktail hour. I probably would not stay here if I wasn't staying in a club room. Theres better value around. Breakfast was good, afternoon tea was good. Cocktail hour had nice food and drinks but in all honesty, if the view wasn't there, probably wouldn't have wanted to sit there all day. The rooms are dated. The staff are ok. You're paying for the view and the Shangri-la status. Why 5 stars? The view"

"Beautiful hotel eith spacious rooms, awesome scenic bar and restaurant on the 36th floor and very helpful staff. It was a pleasure to spend my Sydney stay here."

"It's a lot of money, but you get an awful lot for the money. We splurged on a horizon room with harbour bridge view and lucked out to get one on the 35th floor. Several members of staff said it was the best room in the hotel!! The view of the bridge and the opera house is amazing, with cushioned window seats to enjoy it from. The bed was really comfortable, and the bathroom was huge and well-equipped. We had to extend our stay because of the Iran war and moved to a lower level, boring view room, but that too was a great room - other than the view and the Horizon lounge access it was almost identical to the first one and way cheaper We made full use of the afternoon tea and the drinks and canapes in the Horizon lounge - though the canapes were more like a light a light supper There's a decent gym which was pretty empty every time I went and a nice pool Staff were all excellent"

"This hotel is tired and old. Definitely not a 5-star Fine Hotels and Resorts category anymore. It may have been before they invited the cruise ship guests here. All the furniture in the rooms is beat up, the decor is from the 80s. It’s in need of a big renovation. The chaos of the cruise guests makes it unpleasant and rowdy and not on brand for Shangri-La. Pay the additional $10 and stay at the Four Seasons instead, at least then you don’t have to walk up the hill."