Having previously stayed with Medina Executive in St. Kilda, Melbourne, the expectations were not very high.

We got a very nice twin bed studio on the 21st floor. The studio had a balcony with 2 chairs and was facing an office building across the street. It was clean, quiet (from traffic noise) and had everything we needed. The beds were once again very good.

The service from the reception and the staff was very good, and at the level you would expect from a 4* hotel. The location is ok, as it takes about 25 min. to walk to the Opera House, less than 10 minutes to Darling Harbor and 5 min. to the tube station..

The main problem was the noise from the neighboring doors being shut. The door handle outside the doors are locked when the doors are shut from outside, and hence makes a terrible bang when the doors are being closed. Having neighbors in and out the doors several times early in the morning or very late at night, disturbs a good night sleep. This is a sort of a contradiction to the fact that when you check in you have to sign a document saying that disturbing other guests by parting, etc. gives the hotel a right to ask you to leave the premises.

We booked the hotel online for New Years Eve but when it came to confirm our booking actual copies of credit cards both sides and passports were required which made us very uncomfortable about the security of the booking process. No other hotel has ever asked me for this amount of proof for booking. Felt bullied into giving it all in fear of loosing the room.

My boyfriend and I spent 4 nights at this hotel and loved it! We were upgraded on arrival to a one bedroom apartment on the 23rd floor with a balcony and amazing views of Darling Harbour and the city. The apartment was spacious, spotless and extremely comfortable. The hotel was not noisy - we couldn't hear the traffic or our neighbours and it had all the amenities we could have wanted (including foxtel which we are sadly addicted to now!).
The hotel pool and sauna was very nice and the hotel staff were all very helpful.
It was only about 5 minutes or so walk to Darling Harbour and a couple of minutes to Town Hall station so the location was perfect for us!
We will definitely book this hotel again.

Stinky, loud and countless moths.
Understaffed and overworked reception.