St Marks Randwick - Randwick, New South Wales

Amanda Park

DO NOT STAY AT ST MARKS RANDWICK

I have stayed at the St Marks many times prior to covid. It had faults, tiny bathrooms, noisy rooms etc but after staying recently I would strongly strongly suggest you don’t stay if you value sleep, cleanliness and service.

I stayed last week and here is an explanation of the horrendous experience.

The first three nights. The rooms are now dirty. Stained carpets, lots of mould on the bathroom ceilings and cornices, carpets that feel like you don’t want to walk on them they are so dirty, off putting stained bed end ottomans, filthy sheer curtains etc. My room was serviced once in the three nights and I use the word serviced loosely. The towels are so cheap and thin and shed. I came back to my room after the “once servicing” in three days to find the shedding still on the carpet, wishful thinking they would have vacuumed. I had pulled up my bed before I left so all the “cleaners” had done was change the towels and empty the bin. They did not vacuum, they did not touch the bed. I had two little tubes of body wash and two biscuits for a three night stay. The room was musty, damp, noisy and the ridiculous cheap single beds did not have their wheels locked so every time I moved in bed they rolled around the room and they had a nasty cheap seam running around the top edge that hurt every time your caught your leg on it.

This was nothing compared to the fourth night which literally was the worst hotel experience I have ever had in 53 years of travelling extensively throughout the world.

I contacted the hotel about this and days and days later I received a ridiculous generic blah blah blah email that meant nothing. “So sorry about your experience we look forward to welcoming you back for an elevated experience next time” Are you joking?!?!? Exactly how will you elevate my experience To elaborate. After my noisy horrible three nights I unfortunately needed to extend my stay due to work commitments. I requested online and in person a quiet room. I was reassured that room 101 was the room for me. I’m no prude but I never expected a crazy insane pornographic nightmare!! I can’t be sure but I know rooms in this area are used for staff overnight and I did see staff entering this area while I was looking for my room on the fourth night. I had only 1.5 hours broken sleep due to the occupants of room 107 having been the most wild intense night. I am not exaggerating to say that the male in the room did not stop speaking solidly without break (except for when he was having sex) until just before 5am. The repeated sex they had was next level loud - the bed banged so loudly on my wall that the coat hangers on the portable robe in my room swayed. Obviously the wheels on their bed weren’t locked either!! Rolling around the room didn’t stop the intense sex, the groaning, the talking or the music. Of course I know you can’t stop guests having sex or talking but this was intense, extreme and almost certainly staff members literally non stop till 5am!!!! The hotel management response was that I should have pressed the after hours button on the front door. Thank you for your amazing help but let’s be honest you make it so incredibly clear that if anybody dare, dare need after hours help - you are going charge them for it as stated in your unfriendly welcome letter. Along with you charging for anything single extra you may require. Which could be a lot as you have stripped the rooms bare. Back to the sex den—-I repeatedly knocked on their door, this required me leaving my room obviously but also the hotel and then reentering due to the location of my room. They heard my knocking as I could hear them saying “shh shh shh - is that reception” But they did not open their door. So the moral of this story - if you want sleep and want any kind of service DO NOT STAY AT THE ST MARKS. Thank you St Marks for your amazingly kind response, offering absolutely nothing. I will never be back, thank goodness!!!!!

Fiona C

Myself and my Mum stayed at St. Marks for 2 weeks earlier this year. It's a really stunning property - the whole place is picture perfect and spotlessly clean and the gorgeous courtyard at the rear of the property is a huge bonus. It's located on a lovely quiet residential street so you're not kept awake at night with noisy nightlife etc. The staff are lovely also. The only downside is the fact that they don't serve food and there is a lack of cooking facilities apart from a toaster and microwave. For this reason only, I wouldn't recommend it for a stay of a week or more as it isn't ideal to get back after a days sightseeing and having to go back into the centre of Randwick to have a meal. That was the only issue for me. Apart from that, everything else was great.

Tao Qu

A bit disappointing during days we were staying there. On first day, we arrived late, the hotel stuff we met didn't show good attitude. The room only been cleaned on fifth day since we arrived, bed textile never been changed, no elevator, if you do have heavy luggage with you, it is not easy to move up to second floor :(. But the stuff at reception she was super nice.

Aaron Chen

Location is perfect, the venue is well kept.

The service was bad, we stayed 3 nights, and our rooms didn't get serviced once, even after asking and the team confirming they would. We asked for new towels and they acted like it was the biggest hassle. One room got new towels, the other didn't.

Every morning the staff would walk to the laundry area out the back, I understand you have to work but there was no effort in keeping somewhat quiet. They staff were just yelling.

We accidently locked our keys in the room and had to call the after hours phone to have them come open the door. We made this call at 7ish at night, we knew this would incur a $50. Which we didn't mind as it was our mistake.

The staff member came from on site. The staff member was extremely rude even though we were apologetic.

Enno G

We stayed for 7 nights in St. Marks to explore also a bit the suburbs of Sydney. The house and the rooms are beautiful and nicely decorated. However, we had a problem with the shower and mentioned it to the reception, it was just fixed after the second reminder and the fix lasted for one day. The room service was announced for every second day. However, during the full week our bed was made once and otherwise the "room service" was emptying the waste bin. So for us it was not what we expected and have wished for considering this was our main summer vacation. It had more from a Air BnB then from a Hotel, for just a bit more money we stayed the first week in a known chain hotel in the city centre.

Paul McLean

The air-con turned on but was not working no air flow and marking a noise. So we used the ceil fan and this also had noise keeping us awake. It was warm nights and needed these to working. We advise reception that the air-con wasn't working, she said she re-set it but made no difference. The room was ok, bathroom was nice and whole place was nice to stay at. But these two issues didn't make for a pleasurable stay. Paul

Maddie Percival

Firstly, the hotel was clean and in a good location.

Unfortunately, our room was directly across from reception (door was about 1m from where receptionist sat) and therefore quite loud. Not only from foot traffic but predominantly from the old pipes that caused constant wake ups during the night each time upstairs guests turned on their water it was like someone was turning on a radio.

We asked earlier on when we checked in to be moved to a different room but were advised that the hotel was now full. However, upon checking the website we booked through we found lots of availability in our room type for the night. Very restless sleep.

If booking try avoid bottom floor. Overall quite disappointed.

Annette Welsford

I visited in winter and it was not enjoyable at all. The room I was given was dark and very cold. The aircon only blew cold air and was extremely noisy. Both windows were open and it was nigh impossible to close them because the winder was behind a wide bar in the middle of each shutter. The girl on reception was not the slightest bit helpful about any of these issues. Did not offer any help at all. Thank heavens a young male English receptionist came on and immediately moved me into a warmer room. He was extremely helpful and she could learn what customer service should be from him.
It was a better and warmer room, but unfortunately I was woken up a lot by guests entering and leaving and by people buzzing the intercom when they lost their room keys.
There are absolutely no amenities onsite. Although in a nice quiet street, if you don't have a car, be prepared to spend a fortune on ubers to get food, ( taxis don't come there) and it is nowhere near any shops or cafes.
Terrible experience I never want to repeat.