My review of Sydney’s Nr. 1 hotel - Meriton Serviced Apartments Campbell Street

Hotels in Sydney are very expensive

When looking for a hotel in Sydney, we were shocked by the sky-high prices. My husband is bound to certain hotels by his company, but weirdly enough their room-rates were above the allowed budget. So we looked further.

Ofcourse there is accommodation for every budget, for backpackers and businessmen alike, for short-stay and longer-stay. We were just limited in our permitted choices. But in general: just search on Tripadvisor and/or AirBnB.

Nr. 1 on Tripadvisor: Meriton Serviced Apartments Campbell Street

The accommodation that came up in our search as nr. 1 (rank-wise) on Tripadvisor, was Meriton Serviced Apartments on Campbell Street. And their prices were within the company budget. So we quickly booked us a Studio there for three weeks.

On the left picture we see the entrance to the Meriton; inside that black hole. Hahaha…

A decision that we don’t regret. At all. Because the Meriton at Campbell Street is perfect! Well….. almost perfect. More about that later.

What is so great about this Meriton?

You can find Meriton Hotels and Serviced Apartments throughout Australia. There is even another Meriton located very near to the one where we stayed. But the one on Campbell Street specifically tops the ranks on Tripadvisor. Why is that?

• A Studio Apartment in the Meriton at Campbell Street has everything you need: a living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and a big balcony. We asked for a quiet room with a view, which resulted in a Studio on the 26th floor. As long as you keep the balcony door closed, it is very quiet inside. When you open the balcony door, there is a lot of street noise. But hey, I’m not complaining. A big balcony with two chairs and a table; wonderful! That’s more than I expected. And the sunsets and skies were magnificent!
  
  The apartment comes with a dishwasher, a washer, dryer, ironing board and an iron. Soaps for the machines are supplied by the Meriton. In the bathroom, the soap, lotion and shampoo is replenished daily.
  

  On the right, just outside the picture, is a shower.

  In the kitchen that goes for the tea, coffee and small milk cups.
  There is a modest tidying and cleaning service in your apartment daily and twice per week you get fresh sheets and all.
  Both in the living room and in the bedroom is a flatscreen TV with a lot of channels.

  

  Frits was working within half an hour after arrival. Poor guy.

  The hotel has an indoor pool, a hot tub and a gym, all on the 12th floor.
  
  What more could you ask for, really?!

• Location, location, location.
  The hotel is at Campbell Street, also known as Thai Town, due to the numerous Thai eateries in and around it.
  The neighbourhood is Haymarket, also known as Sydney’s Chinatown.
  Across the street is a big, cosy Starbucks. With an outdoor seating area. Cool!
  There is a shopping mall (World Square) in the next block, including a supermarket (Coles), a post office, a medical centre, pharmacy and lots of shops and restaurants.
  There’s a railway station (Central) only a 7 minute walk away, you can step on the LightRail on the next street, and around the corner, on George Street, you can take the free bus 555 that runs the whole day (every 15 minutes) up and down George Street. It goes all the way to Circular Quay aka the Harbour and brings you there in about 15 minutes. Oh, and did I mention it’s free? I did, didn’t I? Still, what a great service that is!
  If you prefer to walk, then Darling Harbour is only a 15 minute walk, while Sydney Harbour will be a 30 minute walk. Very doable, if you have the time. If not, there is that free bus 555.
  Several cool neighborhoods are within walking distance from the hotel, like Surry Hills, the CBD and Chippendale.
• Value for money: I’m sure there are many other good hotels in Sydney. Some will have more style and character than the Meriton, others may offer better views or more luxury, but value for money-wise the Meriton Serviced Apartments at Campbell Street is fantastic!

Wifi problems

As said , I find the Meriton Serviced Apartments Campbell Street almost perfect. Almost, why? What was the issue?

Our big struggle was with the wifi in the hotel. Renting a Studio comes with free Wifi. Sounds good, right? It has some limitations though. You are entitled to 1 GB per day and you can hook up up to 10 devices. Could still work perfectly for us.

We brought 6 devices with us. Each of us has and uses 3. Me being a blogger and my husband spending his workdays on his laptop and phone requires quite some data, so yes, together we might sometimes reach that 1 GB per day. But 1 GB is fine on paper and it should and could have worked just fine.

In reality it did not. The connection was slow, unstable (not finding the network), full of errors (telling us that we used more than 6 devices which we did not, telling us that we used up our 1 GB when that was impossible, unable to login, etc.)
The staff did their best to help us out, by resetting and giving out new passwords all the time. But it remained frustrating, annoying and regularly flat-out impossible to work or blog.

Now my husband went to the office every day, so he did not experience the problem then. But I did. I found a way around it though.

Golden tip: Optus Prepaid Mobile

The Meriton offers Premium Internet Packages, which give you up to 5 GB per day. That costs you AUD 25 extra per day. Very expensive, especially if you stay for 3 weeks, like we did.
And besides that, it does not solve the other internet-problems that I described above.

My easy and relatively cheap solution is this:
I went to the Optus shop in the World Square Shopping mall and bought me an AUD30 prepaid mobile SIM card. Bring your simlock-free smartphone and your passport along. They can have you ready to go in less than 15 minutes.

Optus has different plans for different prices. The one I bought gives me 500Mb per day for 15 days (exactly what I needed) for AUD2 per day aka AUD30 in total.

Via an app, you can keep track of your daily usage and on top of that, Optus sends you a text when you almost used up your data for that day.

If you want the same thing for your iPad, just buy another SIM card plus package for that device. Together, this would set you back only AUD60 for 15 days, instead of 15 x AUD25 for an upgrade at the Meriton.

Ofcourse this solution only gives you data on your phone and iPad, and not on your laptop. So for that device you remain dependent on the wifi in your room.

Then again, many people may not be requiring so much data during their visit to Sydney, so for them the standard 1 GB may be more than sufficient.

Have you ever stayed in a Meriton? How was your experience? What is your favorite hotel in Sydney and why?

Note: when we booked this hotel, it was Nr.1 on Tripadvisor. While writing up this post, the Meriton at Campbell street was Nr. 2. That’s how things go on Tripadvisor. Tomorrow it can be Nr.1 again.