I recently took the opportunity to spend a night at the new Hyatt Regency Sydney, which is the re-flagged Four Points by Sheraton on Sussex Street overlooking Darling Harbour.

As I hadn’t had a chance to get through all my Diamond Suite Upgrade certificates, I decided that I may as well use one for this stay even though it wasn’t necessarily a great use of one.

The rooms

At check-in I asked if it would be possible to get a suite in the new building. Unfortunately none were available so we were assigned a suite in the older building which is the old Four Points building. These suites have refitted modern bathrooms but the rest of the suite looks to be just as it was prior to the re-branding.

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The suites in the older building do have one massive advantage over the ones in the newer building, they have balconies overlooking Darling Harbour! The new building has no balconies in any of the rooms which apparently is a result of stricter council regulations being in place now than there were at the time the Four Points was built.

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Regency Club and Zephyr Bar

During my stay, the new Regency Club had only just been open a couple of days and the new rooftop bar, Zephyr, had not opened yet unfortunately. I’ll be checking the bar out soon for a couple of drinks and from the photos I’ve seen it looks like a top place for a few sundowners. The new Regency Club was fantastic and we checked it out for evening drinks and canapes and also for breakfast. The views over the Harbour are awesome and the spread was pretty generous.

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Rates for NYE 2017/18

As this stay was at the end of December, we were getting pretty amped for New Years Eve and so I had a quick look at room rates. Even though the view isn’t of the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House, there are fireworks in Darling Harbour and I thought since it was a new opening they might have a decent rate available. It was definitely too expensive for New Years Eve just gone but I checked for NYE 2017/18, as I’d recently noticed Hyatt have extended their calendar out to a little over a year, and sure enough there were rates of $270 a night for bookings of at least four nights over the 31st of December! So, I booked the room and then got on the phone to Hyatt and was able to apply a DSU certificate. Not only that, as I was currently staying at the hotel, I was able to get my room allocated (more than a year out!) and reserved the top floor in a corner suite over looking the Darling Harbour and the city!

New hotels coming to Sydney

The new Hyatt Regency is a great addition to Sydney and it’s awesome having a Hyatt in town for when the Park Hyatt isn’t in the budget. If the Hyatt Regency had a pool that would be the icing on the cake but there are a couple of new hotels coming to that part of Sydney that look like they’re going to have amazing pools. The first to open will be the Sofitel Darling Harbour which is currently due to open in November and looks pretty awesome. I’m looking forward to the Sofitel as it’s opening this year but I’m way more excited for the W Darling Harbour and the Ritz Carlton which are both coming in the next couple of years. The there is of course the Crown hotel opening in Barangaroo as part of the casino complex being built.

Conclusion

The Hyatt Regency is a nice midscale hotel in a great location for Darling Harbour and the CBD. It’s not a patch on its big sister in the Rocks but it’s perfect for what it is. Well, it would be if it had a pool. I’m already booked to stay there over New Years this year and if I get another chance to stay again I’ll definitely take it.