I stayed at the Crest hotel for two nights in April. I had a room on the 14th floor. And indeed it looked nothing like the photos on the hotel-website. There were stains in the carpet, the in-room fridge did not work. Some of the light switches were cracked. In the bathroom there was mold in the shower and plaster peeled off the ceiling...so far so bad.

But the hotel is in a great location, good restaurants and bars nearby, excellent train and bus connections to all major city-attractions. And since I only needed the room to sleep and not to hang out all day, I must say the room smelled surprisingly fresh, the beds were clean and comfy, and I got an unbeatable rate considering it was easter-weekend.

We got a taxi from the airport which was about a 20 minute drive at a very reasonable rate. On arrival at the hotel, the area didn't look too bad (how wrong I was) and from the outside, the hotel looked OK. The reception area looks fine, but the staff were miserable and didn't seem to want to be there.

The room was an average size, with a mini-fridge and TV. The view was of Kings Cross, very noisy and not a pretty sight at night! The carpet and wallpaper was stained, would not walk around bare-foot! The bathroom was very small, shower curtain was filthy and some of the towels were stained.

The air-con did not work in the room (we later found out that the air-con had broken in the whole hotel) which made for a very unpleasant night sleep.

The area surrounding the hotel is Sydneys red light disctrict, lots of prostitutes, strip joints and beggars around.

On the plus side, the breakfast is decent and the hotel is around a 10-15 min walk from the city centre and the city sight seeing bus stop is a few metres from the front of the hotel.

Hotel is ideal for anyone who is on a tight budget and doesn't really mind about the standard of accommodation.

it does look tired in place, my room had stains but was clean. Area is ropey - there's slappers out at like 5 in the afternoon. worst Macdonalds in the world in the area - now man thats dirty

My wife, my two children, and I went on the vacation of a lifetime in Australia this year. My travel agent booked this hotel for us stating it was in the city, close to nearby attractions, and has been given 3 stars. My travel agent has booked many outstanding family friendly hotels in the past, and I thought this would be no exception so I didn't even bother to investigate the details of this hotel.

When my family arrived in Sydney in November 2006, we took a taxi to the hotel. The taxi driver asked a few times if the destination was correct as if I had been mistaken. When we arrived I was shocked not only by the location, the local people, but the hotel itself. There were scantily clad women sipping from champagne bottles at 7 am in the morning. Men urinating on the street, and many what seemed to be minors either hung over or strung out. I'm from a small town in Minnesota, and I was not expecting our travel agent to book us into this type of area with my 2 children.

My wife freaked out at this scene, but I comforted her and proceeded to check into this "hotel." The front desk person was young and partially dimissive, but not rude. We had asked for 2 double beds and what we got was a large corner type room with a queen bed and a single bed. The room was dank and musty with decor from the early 1980s. The carpets were worn, stained, and in some areas burnt from cigarette butts. The window overlooked the street with the champagne sipping women, and the leather clad strung out men (were they pimps?). The windows would not open, and the air conditioner leaked water which may have explained the musty smell.

The bathroom was unclean, the grout was moldy, the toilet soiled not only with urine and faeces but pubic hair as well.

I frantically tried to call my travel agent, but she didn't answer. I went downstairs to report the state the room was in, but there were no more rooms with two beds. The receptionist did contact their version of housekeeping and the bathroom situation was partially rectified. Feeling exhausted from the flight I had no energy to look for another hotel that day and my wife and children slipped into the yellow stained sheets of the lumpy queen bed. I was too afraid to let my children attempt to sleep alone in that single bed. We had a decent rest and as it was the evening we thought we should get showered and go for something to eat. My wife was first to shower, and when she used a towel to dry herself there were small black eggs on the towel. I'm not an entemologist so I don't know what kind of eggs they were, but feeling energized I called the Novotel in Darling Harbour and we stayed there instead. And no, I did not receive any refund by leaving early. The Novotel was offering rates for about $55 a day more than this place which is worth it to avoid insect imbued towels.