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

Beautiful hotel, the view is outstanding and the location is perfect. The rooms are big and clean, only small issue is the beacon from the smoke detector which is very disturbing during the night (either block the light with stickers or change the location of the smoke detector, which is right above the bed at the moment) We visited during COVID 19 times, so we knew breakfast buffet were not an option, but the room service proposed by the hotel is a far cry from a 5 star Standard. Paper bags and aluminium trays just don’t cut it. It’s not just the disposable items that were problematic, the quality of the food was poor. The fruit plate wasn’t seasonal, therefore the fruits were not ripe, and the hot food was mediocre : no seasoning and very dry (vegetarian bowl) We had however two amazing experiences with the staff : The staff in charge of the gym & swimming pool were all very helpful At the breakfast area on Wednesday morning, Debbie was great ! She was very professional and despite having a mask covering half of her face, we could see she was genuinely smiling (you should ask Debbie to Train the young lady With glasses at the front desk - Reception- that was on service Monday evening and Tuesday evening, she on the other hand was very patronising, even rolled her eyes.. unacceptable in a 5 star)

Felt like home away from home

Four nights in a ground-level "Courtyard room". The attention to COVID safety is remarkable, much more rigorous than what I experience at home (Parramatta). However, perhaps a bit much on one point: our room was equipped with just two paper cups, rather than proper mugs for tea, which we had to specifically request at the desk. Really, letting your guests have proper glassware & cutlery is unlikely to exacerbate risks!

NOT FOR PUBLISHING Context I booked an extra long weekend away (4 nights) by calling the hotel directly as there was no availability listed on the ALL app. I was pleasantly surprised by the room availability and the pricing. The first 2 nights were for my partner and I and the latter 2 nights for her and a friend as I needed to return home. The stay Upon arrival I noted the room is quite sparse due to usual small inclusions (like drinking glasses) being removed in the current environment. This was not ideal but also not such an issue. Our first night (Thursday) was fine. Our second night (Friday) became a problem. Clearly there was a significant influx of families to the hotel. Our room (204) was near the lifts and we had children running up and down the halls as well as many 'group meetings' held outside the lifts. The room is poorly soundproofed (arguably the biggest concern) so we were disturbed at night and in the morning. Additionally, one of the neighbouring rooms appeared to have a plumbing issue so we heard pipe 'hammering' from time to time. Our own bathroom appeared very dated, with a weak shower head, ineffective steam extractor and poorly positioned soap rack - I mention this because I twice knocked my elbow on it. On Saturday morning I spoke to Stephanie (I believe it was) in reception and explained our issues. To her credit she said she was surprised at how many families/children there were a week after school holidays and understood the disappointment we felt on a couples getaway. She was eager to help and agreed to move us for the remaining 2 nights. We were given room 351 and the concierge kindly moved our bags whilst we were out for breakfast. The new room looked newer and nicer in all respects. Whilst I did not stay the latter 2 nights my partner advised that she found the new room to be significantly better, especially the bathroom and lack of noise (mostly due to being far from the lifts). Positives The hotel location and amenities are good. The front desk staff were all really good. Room 351 was also very good. Opportunities for improvement Room 204 was relatively disappointing. I wonder, without knowing, if one wing of the hotel has been renovated/upgraded and the other has not? This is the major call out - I would not wish to stay in that wing on a future visit. Additionally, the hotel appears well geared to children, which is understandable. However, it might be nice to try and keep adults only bookings to a particularly wing/floors of the hotel if at all possible. Coming from someone who has a child, when we getaway it's nice to have a complete break. I realise this might be challenging in terms of bookings management but it's a suggestion I believe is worth making nonetheless. The soundproofing is definitely a concern. The lighting from the car parks, especially the lower concrete one, is not great. Some better way-finding would be welcomed, especially on cold, foggy nights. On a related note it turns out that 2 people I know have stayed at the hotel recently, in each case as a family including children. Both commented that whilst the hotel is well geared towards children it looks and feels old/dated - consistent with my thoughts. Happy to provide/discuss further if desired.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to comment on my stay. This is my second stay in 4 weeks (and i have another one in August). My first stay in early July for a single night was great. Everything worked as promised (i had zero expectation) and i left wanting to return asap (and i did from the 24th to the 27th July). This time, my experience was completely the opposite. I am writing this as feedback but also to ask that if i were to receive the same horrid level of service i experienced, I will cancel my next stay. Hence I will appreciate some clarity. My experiences: 1) I checked in. The lady checking me was polite enough. I knew from my previous stay that I had to book gym and pool hours (which i missed out as i checked in at 3.30ish for my stay). I checked in at 12.45pm this time and was told that the room was not ready but it was made available at around 1.10pm seeing that i had a 1.30pm high tea booking and i am a platinum member. I booked in for the gym and pool and was surprised that the lady was rushing me and was not keen to look at my entire stay (and just book me in for the 1 day). I mentioned that i wanted to book in for the other 3 days too. At no stage was there a mention that I had to book in for the room service. Another guy called me at 1.10pm and gave me the key and welcome letter. So far so good. 2) There were no hangers in the room. I called soon after and requested for some hangers. Nothing came. I called again after 6 hours and this time, it was sent after 30mins. 3) I booked gym sessions and pool hours but found that the requirement to clean after every hour of use meant that the poor person at the entrance had 30mins in between sessions to clean the areas. This meant that we (2 of us) walked into the area and noticed that it was still closed (e.g. 1.30pm session - the main door to the area opened at 1.40pm. Coupled with temperature checks and sign-ins, we went into the gym at 1.55pm and we were asked to leave at 2.30pm. So a 1 hour gym session turned into a 30-35 min session. The same for the pool use. You advertise that the hotel is an escape to nature, a journey to reguvenation and tranqulity but due to lack of staff and overworked staff (from what I can see), this was clearly not working. You do need to revisit this. Every single day, I had the same experience and it was at best frustrating. I understand that we live in unprecedented times but i am paying a higher amount (flexible booking rate) and receive an inferior service. As a consumer yourself, do you think that this is reasonable? 4) On the second day, we waited till 4pm for our room to be made up and towels changed. Nothing was forthcoming. I called the reception and was told rather abruptly that I had to book in. I mentioned that I was not told at checkin and the response was that it was in the welcome letter (and i read the letter and it was not mentioned). I was told "i will see what I can do". I then requested a 2.30pm clean the next day. Waited till 5pm. No one came. Went back to reception to request the room to be cleaned. 15 mins later, someone walks in with a towel and says that he can't do the bed or clean the room. I went to the reception again, spend another 10mins queuing and was told that someone will come and clean the room. It was past 6pm - no one. I went back to reception again and told them and was promised that someone will come as apparently the previous requests were not registered. So. someone came and made the bed. At this stage and because the hotel was full, i had spent a good hour queing and following up on a basic room cleaning service. 5) On the third day, room service did not come as booked in (2.30pm). Went to the reception at 5pm and was told that they have forgotten/missed our room. Waited 15mins and someone came in and said that they can change towels but can't do the bed. I went back to reception and was told that someone will come back and clean the room. So all up, i had spent about 30mins going to and fro to request a service that i expect a 5 star hotel to provide. 6) On the third day, i asked for late checkout as our gym was booked in for 12pm to 1pm and pool 1.30pm to 2.30pm. As a platinum member, i would have expected that my requests be actioned but i was offered only a 11.30am checkout time. Not a big deal. I changed my gym time to 7.30am to 8.30am the 4th day. 7) Went down for dinner at 7.30pm and after ordering and waiting for 30mins, we were told that the kitchen had misplaced our order. The order was taken again. We were given one of the desserts we had as compliments of the house. 7) On the fourth day, i got up at 6.30am and went down at 7.30am. Waited for 20mins and the door was shut. I went to the reception and with no apologies or whatsoever, the lady said that she will get someone to come and unlock the room. I went to Level 2 and waited another 15mins and gave up. Went back to my room. I received a call at 10.30am to advice me that the gym is closed for maintenance. I don't know what happened but i had just wasted 40mins of my morning waiting around for someone to open that door to let me in as i was booked in at 7.30am. 8) Over breakfast (8.20am), we noticed that the fruits on the table were making streaks and there was a thick liquid on the plate. I had a fruit and it tasted ok. But we decided to ask the wait staff and found out that the fruits were not meant to be served as it was left in the fridge from the day before and had gone off. There were apologies. I mentioned all of the above and the overall frustrating experience to the front desk and that staff didn't really follow up on requests and at times seemed overworked. I was given a discount towards accommodation and food. I had 3 dinners, a high tea and a spa. The purpose of my stay was to come and relax. I did not expect a discount or apologies. I simply wanted people to do their jobs and have a nice relaxing stay. I was neither demanding or wanted to treated like a royal. I am booked in for another stay on the 27th to the 29th August. Yes i know now that I have to book in for a gym, a pool and a room service. I also know that i may need to call the hotel reception if i need something. What i don't know is if i have to go through all the other frustrating experience which just kept piling up. I would like you to advice me so that i can decide if i should keep or cancel my stay. Having said all of the above, the restaurant staff over dinner in Eculupyt were excellent - especially Lauren and the 2 wait staff on the first night of our stay. There was a smile and we came to celebrate a birthday and your staff over high tea had arranged for some chocolates to be given to us over dinner and this made us feel special and a quality of service that i would have expected throughout my stay especially being a Fairmont branded hotel. As a platinum member, I have stayed in many many hotels and i would stay that my most recent stay has been one of the most frustrating ever. Some mornings over breakfasts, there was pepper and salt on the table. Some mornings, some tables had them and so we had to request. The same for dinner service. Maybe there should be more consistency with what you offer over breakfast and dinner. It is not a big deal for us to ask these but then again, we couldn't understand why some tables had and some didn't. You are in an amazing location and can be amazing. Please don't treat customers with disdain or question our intelligence. We don't have alot of options to travel but we do have choices and opportunities to share feedback. I hope you would take on board my experience.

The hotels friendly staff added to the bonus of great location and lots of things to do with the kids even in winter.. i will definitly look forward to staying here again

We have been to this hotel before and although we had a lovely stay, and the staff were great although a bit understaffed for the amount of people staying there, the rooms have started looking a bit tired. All the staff we interacted with, made the most of the COVID situation and were very careful with everyone. Room service didn't start until 18.30 and the restaurant was booked for the Friday night when we arrived which made it extremely stressful with young children. Luckily Nathan on the front desk helped us out and arranged early room service for us - could not thank him enough, he certainly went above and beyond for us. All in all, a really lovely stay and we had a great time.

We were hoping for a luxurious 2 nights away and were very disappointed with our stay. Our rooms were not make up on the 2nd day and when we queried this, were advised that rooms were only serviced if requested. We were not advised of this at anytime when checking in. This meant there was no milk replacement, paper cups are being used and were not replenished, as with towels. The staff did say they would arrange but told us it was after hours for house keeping. A couple of hours later we had to ask again and was eventually done, but bed not made up. The shower is over the bath and the seal was leaking so water went over the floor. Getting through to reception or concierge on the phone took repeated calls before anyone picked up the phone. No bath robes in the rooms and had to ask for them in order to use the swimming pool. WiFi was $10.00 for 24 hours, but free if an Accor member. I rang reception and advised we are members and was advised not to worry as the $10 would not be charged to my account. Disappointingly it was on the bill when we checked out, and was removed when I queried it. Who charges for WiFi anymore? The other thing that I found over the top price wise was to be charged $15.95 for a movie. This seems very excessive also. The rooms do not have great sound proofing as the sound from the people next door was quite loud. It has a beautiful view from the foyer that you walk into, but sadly that is where the beauty ends. The Fairmont it very tired and in need of a makeover. It was expensive to stay there and we did not feel that we got value for money. We did dine at the restaurant on the first night and had a very nice meal with lovely service. We were expecting a beautiful stay as it is part of the Sofitel group. Very disappointed.

We stayed here during the July school holidays. The resort was very busy with lots of children. We had two teenagers with us. There was plenty to do. My recommendation would be to book as much as you can beforehand. Due to social distancing we couldn't book in for breakfast on one of the mornings. There is also set times for dinner bookings, pool times, kid's games areas etc. Staff were doing a fantastic job under the circumstances. Special mention to Lauren, Melissa and Shan Ash for the excellent service they provided

As Accor members there are perks to each trip. We had to ask for ours and only got half of it. We were given our vouchers for the free drinks but they were mixed in with other paperwork and we didn't see them. As they were dated for the first of our two nights we were unable to use them when we saw them the next day. The fridge had a half eaten fruit platter in it and rubbish was strewn around the hallway. COVID measures were blamed for not making up the room each day but surely the opposite should be the case that there is more cleaning, not less. The King bed was the usual 2 beds pushed together but they were so old that when we tried to cuddle during the night we had to roll 'uphill' to get to each other as the mattresses were a bit saggy. Dinner was lovely and as members we got it half price. Breakfast the next morning was $27 each and we were told after the fact that it wasn't included in the half price for food. Apparently breakfast isn't 'food'. I do not eat eggs and as a result my $27 breakfast was a bacon sandwich that I made myself out of one slice of dry toast. There were a couple of small pastries that were nice. We had two nights there for a midweek break and there was construction going on for the rooms underneath ours. This meant that we were forced out of the room by about 0930 when the drilling started. For our full price room. With a late check out we couldn't take advantage of as the noise was too much. Overall we were very disappointed with the Fairmont. As a result we are re-thinking whether we stay Accor members.

We have stayed at this Hotel many times. I know that we are coming out of the Covid lockdown and that things would be different however we booked via the Accor app for 2 nights. The Hotel looked to be about 30% booked and we were given a room in a section of the Hotel which was being renovated. We stayed Sunday Monday nights and by Monday afternoon we could not hear ourselves think due to the construction noise. I have no idea why they would put us in a section for 2 nights while there was plenty of room away from the construction noise. We spoke to reception twice and eventually were given another room. As an Accor member we had our own marked car park which was great however I had to remind the reception that we would normally have complementary water and other gifts being a Gold member. The gifts did arrive the next day. Adam at reception was very helpful with the room change. I realise that there would have been a reduction in staff however there was a distinct lack of communication with regards to which bars were open on the Monday night ( I was told that they would be open ) and the were closed

We go every year. We enjoy the food and service at the restaurants. Great view, location and facilities. There is nothing to fault, except the parking. It is shared with the golfers. It can sometimes be a bit difficult

Was overall disappionted. Room being made took all day. We had to request room to be cleaned.Wasn't done till abot 4pm.

I arrived at Fairmont with my two children, one severely physically disabled. Upon arriving, all three disabled parking spots were taken. That's understandable although more disabled spots should definitely be marked. I was happy to unload my luggage and then drive to the parking area located past the Ubika day spa. I found a spot in the second parking lot farthest from the resort entrance. After parking and placing my child in her walking frame, I see there is no footpath to the entry. We had to walk on what was already a narrow road. To have two young children, one with walking difficulties, to walk along the road is extremely dangerous. And to add to the difficulty, there were only steps leading up to the resort entrance! We could not get up with my daughter's walking frame. This is unacceptable. The disabled should be given greater convenience and easier access to facilities. That was certainly not the case at Fairmont. We then had to continue walking on the road and come around the front through the car park. We're extremely disappointed. Then during our stay my children wanted to visit the ride on cars. Not surprisingly, from the front lobby, there were only steps leading down to the ride on cars. We then had to take the longer route down the path and back around to the meeting point for ride on cars. It's already hard enough having to take young children on trips away, let alone one who is disabled. She has so much difficulty and the last thing she needs to see is the added obstacles we have to deal with because venues like yours are not accommodating enough.

Enjoyed walking the gardens, staff very polite and helpful in these trying times.