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Welcome to Rydges Canberra, accommodation in the beating heart of Australia’s capital. Whether visiting for business or pleasure, guests can enjoy some of the best features and amenities available in the city. Relax at The George Bar with one of our signature cocktails or let yourself be taken on a culinary journey in The George Grill. Enjoy our complimentary on site fitness facilities or take a dip in our heated swimming pool. Let the stylish surroundings and convenient location of Rydges Canberra inspire you to discover the Nation’s capital. Our hotel is located within close proximity to some of Canberra’s leading attractions, including Parliament House, the National Gallery of Australia, Questacon and The National Library. Free WiFi in rooms and throughout the hotel allows guests to stay connected to friends and family even while travelling away from home. Our onsite Canberra conference facilities are ideal for those looking meetings and networking events at the capital. With some of the largest accommodation rooms in the city, Rydges Canberra is the ideal choice for those who like a little more space to spread out. The cosy Rydges Dream Beds will have you sleeping soundly and waking up fully refreshed and the in room dining menu will have your mouth watering.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
City View
Quiet
Languages Spoken
English
Location
17 Canberra Ave, Canberra 2603 Australia
Rydges Canberra
356 reviews
Getting there
Somewhat walkable
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Rydges Canberra often garners appreciation for its central location, which guests find convenient and quiet, close to various attractions. However, some travelers express disappointment with the rooms, which they feel require updates and improved cleanliness. While the atmosphere in common areas is welcoming, the outdated decor in the rooms doesn't escape critique.
Guests have mixed experiences with service; some praise the attentive staff, while others encounter responsiveness issues. Despite comfortable beds being a highlight, the value proposition is questioned by many who believe the hotel's services are overpriced.
Location
Central
Atmosphere
Outdated
Rooms
Dated
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Underwhelming
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Let’s start with the good: room was spacious (honeymoon suite), clean and warm; bed was large and comfortable; the promotion at the time ($30 a day, used as a lump sum) meant that we could have an incredibly cheap 3 course dinner in the restaurant one night; the food and drinks in the restaurant was fantastic, and we liked the privacy the set up of the tables afforded; location was great - we walked to Manuka, Kingston and the art gallery and lake; undercover parking was easy, secure and well priced.
However, there were too many small things that weren’t right, which all added up over the stay to make us feel that the hotel may be struggling and cutting corners and costs: on our check in day of a Sunday, there was only one staff member working reception and lots of guests in reception, resulting in check-in queues that weren’t necessary; the bar and restaurant were not open for the Sunday night (or Monday night), which was disappointing after a 5 hour drive to not be able to relax with a drink or something to eat without heading out; when we got to our rooms after check in, the key cards didn’t work, so had to return to reception and queue again; once in the room, we discovered the TV didn’t work, and when I picked up the phone to call reception, the phone didn’t work either, which meant another trip down to reception and a wait in a queue (tv was fixed within half an hour, phone was not fixed for the duration of our 4 day stay); when I went to iron my white shirt for dinner, the iron was leaking from the base and resulted in a rust stain on my white shirt (iron was replaced the following morning); we used the lovely bath salts on our first night but these were not refreshed again; there were only 2 cups, 2 glasses etc in the room, which were not always cleaned or replaced when the room was made up, so we had to wash these with hot water and fingers (no dishwashing clothes or soap provided) in order to reuse; ironing board had a cheap thin cover which meant that the pattern of the Iron board itself was always ironed into clothes unless we put a towel underneath. As I said, all small things, but when added up leave you with a sense that it’s a cheap hotel dressed up to pretend otherwise.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: April 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Edwin Erftemeyer, General Manager at Rydges Canberra
Responded 25 Apr 2021
Dear Klimtemille, Thank-you for taking the time to share your feedback. Your comments are important as they help us to improve our service and product. I do wish to apologise that you experienced some maintenance and service breakdowns during your stay. We have made this a focus over the next couple of months and our department managers are working closely to ensure a better standard across the Hotel. I do hope we can welcome you back again as I am sure we will exceed your expectations.
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Stayed at this hotel as a couple over 2 nights on a weekend using a Groupon voucher that offered a discount rate of $145 per night for a standard Queen size room including free parking, $50 dining voucher and a late checkout of 11am. This represented excellent value. We found Sonya at Reception was exceptional and made our stay an incredibly enjoyable one. We arrived early for our 2pm checkin. Although our room wasn’t quite ready, Sonya thought to organise our checkin and recommended we head to nearby in Manuka for lunch and assured us when we returned the room would be ready to go and it was. When we got back as soon as she spotted us arrive in the foyer, she left her desk to come across to us with the room key ready - simple as that. When we returned to the hotel after realising we had accidentally lost one of our bags, Sonya and the Housekeeping team looked everywhere for us, eventually finding it and returning it to us. I would have rated the hotel 5 stars, but I took 1 star off as we were unable to contact the hotel for 45 minutes when we realised we had left the bag behind. The phone kept going to an engaged signal. We discovered upon return to the hotel that there must have been a problem with the phone network as the reception had not been receiving any calls but no-one had noticed the problem or thought to report it. We found the room spacious, comfortable, clean and quiet. All we needed for the weekend. We enjoyed breakfast one morning at the restaurant and found the egg and bacon roll and the full breakfast served in a small pan incredibly tasty and great value at $14 and $22 respectively. Very convenient location - walking distance to so many of the best sites to visit in Canberra along with an excellent range of restaurants and cafes in Manuka and Kingston. Thank you to all the staff at this hotel for making our stay in Canberra a throughly enjoyable one. Look forward to returning and seeing you all again next time we visit Canberra.
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Date of stay: May 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sales Team, Sales at Rydges Canberra
Responded 14 July 2021
Dear Klewi, Thank you so much for providing us with such positive feedback from your recent stay. It was pleasing to read that you received great customer service from Sonya and that we were able to assist you with your lost bag. We look forward to welcoming you back to the hotel when you plan your next visit to Canberra
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In short, it’s a good looking modern hotel, but look beyond the surface is was found to be lacking.
The night we arrived the restaurant and bar was closed.
The lady at the found desk fell just short of rude. Very unhelpful and misleading.
The room - while impeccably clean lacked a safe and mini bar. Something you would expect from a hotel of this standard.
The beds were also pitiful. Yes we are a family and knowingly booked a room with 2 double beds, but these so called double beds were too small for 2 adults to sleep in the same bed. They bordered on the width of a king single and so we ended up sleeping one adult and one child per bed. The beds we also so soft I felt like I was sleeping in a hammock.
The bathroom was modern and nice (again - to look at), but the glass screen between the shower and the rest of the bathroom was only about 1/2m wide. As such, unless you only stood so the water only hit you on the chest, the water would spray everywhere. You need to designate a towel to wipe the toilet dry after every shower.
Our car would only fit in the entry part of the car park as the height of the roof is under 2m. Therefore every time we wanted to leave someone had to walk outside the hotel and buzz the intercom to open the entry door from the outside to exit. We only discovered this on our third day after we were told be reception staff each time to do something different. First it was press the intercom to exit and after looking for one it did not exist. The the next day and same helpful [NOT] lady at reception said okay “if there is no intercom just tell me at reception when you are heading down and I will watch for you on the camera and open the gate when you’re ready to leave”. On day three I asked at reception to watch the camera and let me out and the guy this time told me that there wasn’t any such camera and he could watch me waiting to leave. He was the one who eventually told us to send someone outside to get the gate opened from the outside. I just don’t get some people!
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Date of stay: April 2021Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Edwin Erftemeyer, General Manager at Rydges Canberra
Responded 25 Apr 2021
Thankyou for taking the time to share your feedback. I do apologise that your experience on this occasion was not at the high standard Rydges pride itself on. At present our restaurant is only open 5 night Tue-Sat, this is something we do advertise on our website. Like with minibar these services have been reduced during Covid for operational purposes. We will be looking at reintroducing to a permanent basis as occupancy increases with the recovery. Staffing also has a major impact on our return to full operations as shortages has present with multiple challenges across high demand times. Thankyou again for your comments, I do hope we can welcome you back in the future as I am sure we will exceed your expectations.
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I recently stayed at Canberra Rydges the bathrooms are nicely renovated but the furniture is outdated. While our room was clean on arrival we were disappointed there was no room service to replace coffee, milk, towels, soap, shampoo, and toilet paper. We had to go out and purchase these items ourselves. There is no washing up detergent or dish clothes/tea towels to wash up mugs and glasses. If your not supplying room service how are you supposed to wash up? We were not told on arrival there was no room service. There is no Foxtel available or smart TV to log into Foxtel/Netflix. The spa was out of order for the majority time we were there and the car park gates were having a lot of issues opening causing a lot of traffic to get in and out. Overall it was a very expensive weekend which I don’t very often get to experience. Unfortunately we won’t be back and didn’t enjoy our stay at Canberra Rydges.
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Date of stay: June 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sales Team, Sales at Rydges Canberra
Responded 13 July 2021
Thank you for taking the time to provide this valuable feedback from your recent stay with us. Your comments regarding no room servicing is extremely surprising as we have a full housekeeping team that service rooms daily when the "clean my room" sign is placed on your door. If the room is "do not disturb" guests are able to receive any amenities such as towels, tea and coffee, milk etc from our reception team. The hotel does not offer Foxtel or smart TV's at the moment but we are in the process of looking at upgrading the hotel accommodation rooms over the upcoming months and these items are part of the upgrade plan. Unfortunately, our spa is under maintenance at the moment which I appreciate can be disappointing for guests. We really appreciate this feedback as it assist us with ensuring that we improve on the service and standards in the future. I hope you reconsider and stay with us again in the future.
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I was very impressed by the Rydges Canberra Hotel. The location was great for accessing all the necessary meetings I needed to attend, and taxis that staff called for me were basically instantly there.
All staff were very helpful and friendly, the public spaces were pleasant and my room was very satisfactory. It was very spacious, clean and had everything I needed. Some people might wish to have more options available in the room fridge (milk only for making tea or coffee), but this was not a problem for me.
The only thing I would suggest is to have some handy written instructions to guests on how to use the TV for entertainment, but I did not have to pursue it as I used my own mobile phone for accessing TV series and movies.
I visited the George Grill and Bar for evening meals and was amazed at the generosity of meal sizes, always very tasty, and there was at least one yummy-sounding main option for vegans, too. Reasonably good variety of meal types in general, but they were not on the cheap side, so I decided not to have their $34 breakfasts (generous though, I'm sure) only because I'm not a big eater.
The atmosphere at the bar was very cool and pleasant, and although my 3rd floor room window looked down to the bar area, I never had any noise issues at any time of the night.
I was very happy with my Rydges Canberra experience.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: April 2022Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Katie Smith, General Manager at Rydges Canberra
Responded 18 Apr 2022
Hi 404jaanas, thank you so much for your fantastic feedback, I am so happy to hear you enjoyed your stay and we look forward to welcoming you back again soon.
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Well we had just stayed at the jamala wildlife lodge so we just found somewhere close I picked up a Groupon but wait for this $149 with a $50 drink or food voucher. Ken and I wasn't sure what we where in for , room lovely large had all we needed we enjoyed a spa , a cocktail and a beer at the bar staff very friendly . We had a little miss Communication this morning which reception sort out quickly and I appreciate the professional service we received. Enjoy two lovely cappuccino this morning would recommend and stay there again and would include breakfast bed comfortable room we had room 177 clean only 10 mins walk for lovely cafes and shops
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Date of stay: March 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sales Team, Sales at Rydges Canberra
Responded 18 Mar 2021
Thank you so much for your positive comments and it is great to read that you enjoyed your stay with us as part of your road trip. I hope that we can welcome you back the next time that you plan a trip to Canberra
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Disgusting house keeping. we asked the room to be cleaned when we were out for the whole day. after we came back, we saw the rubbish was left as is, sheets were not replaced (wrinkles), there was food scrap mark on the bed (wasn't there last night). New glasses were changed but they were dirty. Cups were not changed, No tea bags, sugar and coffee were refilled. When I tried to contact the reception/housekeeping and found out that Phone was not even connected to the wall socket. :(
Reception / pool area / lift were clean air-condition was working but little noisy (can't complain) good location.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: July 2022
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip:Remind the reception for better housekeeping when leaving room for refresher.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Katie Smith, General Manager at Rydges Canberra
Responded 19 July 2022
Hi mpopli2022, thank you for your feedback. I was very disappointed to hear your experience with housekeeping during your stay. Please accept my apologies this happened. I can assure you this is most certainly not Rydges standard. I would appreciate if you could contact me directly with your booking details so we can follow up with the attendant that serviced your room. katie_smith@evt.com Thank you
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Only stayed for 1 night, but we were very impressed with Rydges Covid 19 safety. Many sanitising stations (even in the lifts), staff very safety conscious and extremely helpful and obliging. Breakfast was great, only downfall, was the limited dinner menu.
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Date of stay: September 2020
Rooms
Cleanliness
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sales Team, Sales at Rydges Canberra
Responded 12 Oct 2020
Thank you bandkwood for letting us know that our COVID safety measures that we have in place in the hotel impressed you. The hotel is doing everything that we can to ensure that our guests feel safe while staying with us. Breakfast by The George has been a bit hit with guests since we opened so it was wonderful to read that you enjoyed it. Our dinner menus is currently limited but soon we will be opening The George Grill which will offer an extensive menu offering which will include prime cut steaks and fresh seafood. When you next come back and stay you will have to come and experience The George Grill.
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We had 2 rooms here for 2 nights as part of a visit to relatives in the ACT. We got a room with natural light as did note that there are some that face onto an atrium which would be dark. The hotel was fully booked but it is so large it did not feel crowded. We like the renovation that has been done since we last stayed. We got 10% off as priority members and free parking. There is plenty of parking but the spaces are tight. The location is near Manuka which is good for eating and we enjoyed a long walk to the NGA and War Memorial.
I like the pool but on the second morning there were no towels. I asked at reception and 30 minutes later nothing had arrived. I was about to go through reception all dripping wet when a guy arrived with some towels. He had an attitude which was not called for - if you don't want to be hospitable, don't be in hospitality. All I asked for was a towel which should have been there as the pool had been open for hours!
We did have a noise issue one night with some carry on from a next door room, but reception came up and asked them t be quiet.
We would stay again for the rate of $128 per night.
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Date of stay: December 2020
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sales Team, Sales at Rydges Canberra
Responded 9 Dec 2020
Thanks so much wombatdavid for your feedback from your recent stay with us. It was great to read that you enjoyed your stay overall with us but it was a shame to read that one of our staff were not as friendly as they should have been. The pool area should always be stocked with towels for guest's convenience and this will be addressed with the department responsible for this. Thank you for choosing to stay with us and we look forward to having you come and stay with us again on your next visit to Canberra.
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This is my fifth stay at a Rydges property in Australia and second stay at the Rydges Canberra. I have also stayed at QT, Canberra which comes under the same banner.
Our last stay at the Rydges Canberra was almost 2 years ago (2019) and we loved the rooms, the indoor pool, Spa and the Gym. The only let down was the room service which took almost an hour to deliver the food, but the food quality was good.
There has been a makeover of the Lobby and common areas since we stayed here last which we definitely noticed. I believe the rooms however have not been improved on during this makeover.
This stay was in an Embassy Suite and had a day room. Rooms were definitely large and roomy overlooking the restaurant. The in room telephone was dead and the day room TV had a Universal remote that didn't quite work but we used the bedroom TV remote to work around that (thank heavens both TV's were the same brand). The restaurant had a nice ambience and the food was fabulous as was the serving sizes (Larger than the usual fine dining servings). We had a fair few issues with our room access cards not working on multiple occasions during our 2 day stay which was rather annoying because our room was far from the reception. Upon checkout the reception charged us for a breakfast which we didn't eat (Not sure how that came into their system). The reception also did mention upon checkout that they had been having issues with access cards and communications for the past 3 days. It would definitely have been worthwhile if they had mentioned the same to us, but they didn't during the stay. Again we enjoyed the indoor pool (which unfortunately isn't heated) and the Spa.
The only other Rydges we stayed in was at Fremantle, WA which was absolutely amazing. Stayed there thrice and would definitely go there again.
To summarize, would I stay at other Rydges properties - Yes. Would I stay at Rydges Canberra - No.
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: March 2021
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Sales Team, Sales at Rydges Canberra
Responded 18 Mar 2021
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback from your recent stay. I am pleased to read that you enjoyed the dining experience in the hotel but it seems that our room product may have let us down. We are in the process of soon having a soft refurbishment to our rooms which should alleviate the issues that you have raised. I hope that once we have completed the upgrades to our room product that you will come and stay with us again.
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Thanks for your email Courtney. The hotel's swimming pool is 25 metres and is heated. Our gym offers basic fitness equipment such as treadmills, weights, stepper, rowing machine etc.
Good afternoon Jennifer, the hotel offers two areas for car parking, one being the secure, undercover car parking which is charged at $12.00 per day or alternatively, we do offer car parking spots at the front of the hotel that are free. All parking at the hotel is subject to availablity.
There are more places to choose from in the Canberra area.
PRICE RANGE
AU$134 - AU$197 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
rydges capital hill canberra hotel canberra, rydges capital hill hotel canberra, canberra rydges capital hill
LOCATION
AustraliaAustralian Capital TerritoryCanberra
NUMBER OF ROOMS
186
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect total costs of the stay, including all taxes and fees known to our partners. Please see our partners for more details.
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