• Cost: $269 per night (you may pay more as I had a loyalty discount from booking.com).
• Room Name: Sweet Urban Room.
• Floor: 4th floor.
• Parking: Onsite parking, cost $20 per night.
• Breakfast: Not included. No buffet available. Cafe/restaurant for purchasing food onsite.
• Features: 38 square meter room, patio with water views, air conditioning, spa bath, shower, kettle, mini fridge, queen size bed, arm chair, swivel chair, desk, TV with basic Foxtel and free to air.
• Days stayed: Friday to Sunday.
• Address: 194 Pacific Hwy, Greenwich NSW 2065.

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Do you need to stay in St Leonards for a work conference? Are you looking for a home-away-from-home outside the hustle and bustle (and inflated prices) of the Sydney city centre?

If so, then you may find yourself – like the beautful Lisa and myself did – considering a stay at the Hotel Urban St Leonards. We ended up taking the plunge and booking in for a weekend stay in October 2022. This article steps through our impressions of the room and our reasoniong for declaring it either CHEAPO or DELUXE (If you’re in a rush you can click here to jump to the verdict).

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Contents

• Cheapo:
  • Bed
  • Furniture
• Fine I Guess:
  • Vibe
  • Cleanliness
• Deluxe:
  • Spa & Bathroom
  • Patio & View
  • Air Conditioner
  • Food
• Verdict: Cheapo or Deluxe?

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Cheapo

Bed

At first glance we were pretty happy with the bed. Even upon first belly flop. We were lured in by the soft bedside lighting and the seemingly plush duvet (which a promo card on the bedside table advertised for us to take home for around $500).

But after actually sleeping overnight in the queen-size ensemble, it was a different story. What had appeared at first sight to be a regular, somewhat deluxe, hotel bed was in fact a ‘werebed‘ – bare with me for this analogy.

Much like the brawny muscles of a werewolf burst out of its restrictive daytime human clothing upon first sight of a full moon, previously invisible lumps, ridges and firm balls of mattress innard seemed to rise up as day turned to night in St Leonards. Any fantasies we had of getting a good night’s sleep were crushed by this dark transformation. In other words, the bed was cheapo.

(Note: I may have exaggerated slightly here, I’ve definitely slept in much worse beds. But for the cost of the room, we can’t put this bed in the deluxe category, based purely on it’s comfort.)

Furniture

The furniture in the ‘Sweet Urban Room‘ was a mixed bag. Disappointingly most wood in the room was the type of lacquered chipboard that you’d find in the budget school desks and painted book cases of a Fantastic Furniture or Kmart. This included the headboard behind the bed, the desk under the television and weirdly, the back of the armchair.

The rest of the armchair was actually quite deluxe – nice texture, colour and style. But the back was simply a board of cheap wood. In addition, the cupboard that housed the single bathrobe, miniature ironing board and overpriced wine was styled to look like a locker from a 90’s prison movie; with a cheap metallic veneer. The table and chairs on the patio also looked like they could have come from a decommissioned prison’s estate sale.

The most heinous sin regarding furniture, at least in Jazz’s mind, was the lack of a lounge or couch-like seating option. Providing this would have taken up some of the ample floor space in the room and provided a much needed sense of a ‘second place’, other than the bed. Without this, the room felt large but very empty and all the energy of the guests is focused solely on the bed, which wasn’t great for eating or lounging around.

Also the carpet was very brittle and plastic feeling. On the plus side it did feel clean and fresh. But the foot feel was not delightful. There was however, a lovely driftwood stool in the bathroom next to the spa, and a bamboo towel rack, both of which were deluxe. Everything else – not so much.

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Fine I Guess

Vibe

I was excited for this hotel. The listing on Booking.com looked great. The photos made it feel a little bit fancy. We were paying more than we’d been planning on for the extra luxury of a nice view and a spa bath.

While the view and the spa bath were both great (more on that in the Deluxe section), there was a disappointing overall lack of vibe. It was a case of the whole NOT being more than the sum of it’s parts. In fact, somehow, it was less.

Don’t get me wrong, this is by no means a room from hell. The view was lovely and so was the bathroom and we had a wonderful weekend. But that was despite the vibe created by the room, not because of it.

I don’t know if it was the cheap wood, the lack of a couch, the average cleanliness (see below) or the plastic feeling carpet, but somehow the overall impression of the space was just… meh.

Cleanliness

This was one of the biggest points of contention between Lisa and myself. While I didn’t notice anything out of place about the cleanliness of the room at first, Lisa picked up some issues almost immediately.

There were some cobwebs in the corners, marks on the walls and when we left and stripped the bed we noticed some concerning brown stains on the mattress protector (shown in the pic above). It wasn’t disgusting, but it definitely wasn’t pristine either.

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Deluxe

Spa & Bathroom

The bathroom, and in particular, the spa, is the main reason why I wasn’t painfully disappointed in the Hotel Urban St Leonards. If it wasn’t for the quality of the bathroom, my mild disappointment may have ballooned into a full blown depressing let down. Thankfully, the spa was wonderful.

Lisa was a little worried about the water colour, as it had a very slight hue to it. But one that looked familiar to me from my childhood bathtub growing up. Apart from that the tub was very clean and large enough for two adults to comfortably sit in (Note: you’d want the two adults in question to be okay with a certain level of intimacy as some leg intertwining was required).

The jets were strong enough that if you turned them on with the water not quite high enough you’d be treated to the excitement of an inside water jet fountain (a mistake we made only once).

There was also a nice bamboo towel rack, a cute driftwood stool to sit on next to the bath and a massive shower with fantastic shower pressure.

Patio & View

The view was everything I was hoping for – probably more. While the room was advertised as having water views, I wasn’t expecting to look down and see the ocean lapping at the wall of the building. We were in St Leonards after all. But from our balcony we could see a panoramic chunk of Sydney, including some nice stretches of water. It was lovely. The patio itself was spacious but quite bare. The table and chairs for enjoying the space were very basic.

Air Conditioner

The air conditioner was nothing special, it looked a bit old, and it was one of those wall mounted ones; nothing fancy like a ducted system. But most importantly, it worked really well. We both like crisp air so kept it running all weekend and the room temperature was perfect. The air con did not let us down.

Food

The hotel really can’t claim responsibility for the quality of local Uber Eats options. But be that as it may, the choice and service provided by local delivery restaurants really does make an impact on one’s enjoyment of a hotel. Luckily for the Hotel Urban St Leonards and its guests, the local uber eats selection is fantastic. We had an excellent Indian meal and a delicious Italian feast (pictured above).

We also made use of the hotel restaurant situated in the lobby, called Sure Cafe. We had a few coffees and tried their bacon and egg rolls at breakfast time. While only a simple meal, the trusty egg roll and coffee breakfast is a delight if done well, and we were very impressed with the quality of both the food and coffee at the Hotel. In fact, Sure Cafe‘s coffee and food probably claims top spot (equal to the spa) as the most deluxe aspect of the property.

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The Verdict: Cheapo or Deluxe?

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