Fairmont Resort & Spa Blue Mountains, MGallery by Sofitel 4 stars

We recently stayed three nights at the Fairmont via a Luxury Escapes package. First the good…..the resort is in a decent location to access everything the Blue Mountains has to offer. The rooms are large and well appointed and the wi-fi is excellent. Grounds are lovely and the views across the Megalong Valley are spectacular. The not so good? The service left a bit to be desired. We ate dinner twice in the resort - once in Embers Grill ( fantastic steak) and once in Azzuro. Our main gripe was the almost total absence of decent service in Azzuro. Once we were seated, nobody came near us for 15 minutes. When we finally saw a waiter we ordered an entree, our mains and a bottle of wine. Soon after our entree and bottle of Pinot Grigio arrived, all good. Five minutes later, whilst we were still eating our entree, the main turned up, and was plonked on the table. The food was really good, nothing at all to complain about. However, after we finished our mains, we waited another 15 minutes before our table was cleared, at which point I asked for a look at the dessert menu, which was immediately given to us. After that, we didn’t see the waiter again. I don’t blame the staff, who were all young and probably learning. They are obviously not properly trained, and the responsibility for that lies with whoever manages the food and beverage teams. Surely someone should tell them “if you take out the mains and the guests are still eating their entrees, don’t serve the mains”. It’s not that hard, is it? And “if guests ask to see the dessert menu, revisit them after a few minutes and see if they’d like a dessert, don’t just ignore them”. We left without ordering dessert. The whole team in Azzuro seemed completely disconnected from one another - I reckon we had four or five different people serve us. And the guy that looked like he was running the show spent most of the evening behind the counter perusing the next night’s reservation sheet, instead of helping out the troops at the coalface. And it wasn’t that crowded, perhaps 30% of capacity. Breakfast was also a bit lacking. Many of our fellow guests were families, and there were a lot of kids about, and many of them were flinging food everywhere. Despite there being a lot of staff picking up plates and wiping tables, nobody gave a rat’s about the food, cutlery, butter satchels and serviettes dropped on the floor. Staff were stepping over the rubbish on the floor to wipe a table that had been wiped five minutes earlier. The whole place looked in need of a revamp. The rooms were very tired, lots of stains on the carpets throughout the resort that took away from the feel of the place. We never really had the feeling that we were valued guests, even though we paid $400 a night to be there. We’d walk past staff in the corridors and they’d look down to avoid eye contact. This probably sounds like a huge whinge (which it is), but we were so looking forward to our long weekend at the Fairmont, and it fell well short of our expectations. I would find it very hard to recommend the Fairmont to any of our friends, who I would think would be right in the target guest demographic for the Fairmont. I understand that Covid happened, and a lot of good people left the hospitality industry. But how long can we use Covid as an excuse for poor service? Hopefully someone in management at the Fairmont will read this and realise that there is quite a bit more to do.

We always love our trips to Fairmont Resort, Leura (blue mountains NSW) ✅ welcome drinks ✅ room upgrade 🎉 best gift in our room: wine, cheese, soft drinks and snacks ✅ dining discount : book ahead restaurants get booked out ✅ complimentary breakfast (platinum) with barista coffee ✅ late check out 12.30pm We had a great time! Tried the new ice skating rink, bush walks, kids playground, movie cinema, swimming pool, spa, indoor Mirror room, dining - breakfast lunch and dinner. They’ve redone the tennis court and basketball area (we haven’t been in awhile). Wish we could have stayed longer - but back to work Monday awaits! Lots of photos: for those who like details

Two nights all good except ... we booked in to the Italian restaurant and when we turned up asked for a couple of dishes without garlic and were told everything has garlic! So we thought ok we'll get Pizza and were told all pizzas have garlic! And when we booked our stay we were asked about any particular needs and we stated No Garlic. So we went to the bistro and had some nice food.

Very comfortable and relaxing.

check in behind time waiting way too long to have room ready food very good service very good