but the shower leaked and it probably did need a bit of TLC to improve it.

The only thing is the bathrooms need an upgrade.

Room has no utensils or cutlery, drinkable water and only basic toiletries .

but very outdated bathroom with disgusting shower curtain and loud air conditioner which is freezing and not adjustable..

Breakfast was very nice, but cups not always available and many are chipped.

but the bathroom definitely needs updating.

but the shower curtain was just too skimpy which coupled with the very small lip to the shower recess made it impossible to shower without flooding the floor.

Our “suite” was a joke with NO sea view, dirty room, dated furniture and bathroom, shower that was that bad camp showers would rate higher, lighting in the room was about as bright as a candle from the 20’s

The room was not as clean as we expected and we did need to request a clean replacement towel on the first day due to a dirty one being folded and left in our bathroom.

Black mould on the shower floor and wall. Disgusting.

but I found hair in the basin, the toilet hadn't been cleaned, the view from my room was of a pool with leaves in it and 2 old wheelbarrow.

Moved to Room 421 where toilet was not able to be used due to its proximity to the shower screen.

We stayed at this hotel as part of a ghan train package and on arrival were disappointed to find that the swimming pool had been drained for maintenance and it wasn't until we were leaving that we found out from other guests that we could have used the pool at the hotel next door.

The bathroom was a little dated with a bath and separate shower and shower curtain instead of glass door.

When I entered the room I noticed some sort of burn marks on the bathroom mirror and there is general wear and tear in the room.

however the rooms need a refurbish, especially the bathrooms.

The tiles/floor in the shower was a little slippery though.

The small bathroom was like that of a cheap motel – very small and with a shower curtain (in a 4-star hotel in 2022!

Breakfast was included in our package which had more than sufficient for us, lots to choose from.

In particular, I wanted to highlight the following staff members that we personally interacted with; Dinushka, Smriti, the staff at breakfast (including Narindra and Bhavna) and Ms Poudel (who was servicing our room).

Breakfast was excellent, the hotel was very clean .the bed was super comfortable, which was well needed after travelling for 7 days .we would definitely stay here again .thankyou for amazing service .10/10

Breakfast was good and had a great range of options.

We loved the cocktails by the pool and the pool food menu, especially the pork belly “bites” - they were delicious!

but buffet breakfast was very good, no criticisms.

The restaurant was excellent and buffet breakfast was great.

Used the restaurant for breakfast daily as this was included in our package and also had dinner there on one night and food and service were of a good standard.

Breakfast in the restaurant was always very busy so I would recommend finding a local spot (plenty to chose from) and just enjoy the brilliant Darwin weather!

Breakfast was a great selection, and we had breakfast each morning.

Stayed 7 nights and had a good buffet breakfast each morning with a view to the pool.

but great to get a 5 am breakfast for an early departure.

Comfy beds and very clean sheets 
Great breakfast in morning with plenty of room to eat and be comfortable.

Special thanks to the restaurant team for opening at 5am on our departure for breakfast, much appreciated.

The complimentary breakfast was a full breakfast also.

The Gold complimentary breakfast was a full breakfast also.

I think they are on the cusp of renovating, we were offered to have our breakfast and swims next door.

The breakfast buffet was excellent and  the  staff friendly.

No water pressure in the shower and cheap shower head fitting.

Unfortunately a bit of artificial light comes through the main door at night and you can hear general noise outside the room thanks to the auditorium-like design for the main atrium which echos anything other than a whisper.

Unfortunately, these qualities and the dated rooms were not reflected in the price during our stay in September.

The hotel is in reall need of a facelift.

We stayed in the Hilton Doubletree twice - one before and one after a tour to Kakadu and Katherine Gorge - the rooms are a little dated

Whoever signed off the internal design should be shot.

An older style hotel so nothing really special about the rooms or overall look & feel.

It has no homely inviting features whatsoever and absolutely no atmosphere.

The decor snd atmosphere is completely bland .

Overall opinion; dated, average, over-priced, quality staff.

The bathroom linen is so badly worn and frayed, even my rag bag has better quality rags in it.

The room smelt of cigarette smoke and mildew.

My partner made the mistake of getting under the covers and woke up in a river of sweat!

To add insult to injury the room had a damp musty smell.

The room (515) is just so musty it has that lingering, almost damp smell.

In the bathroom, the shower had black mould around the silicon patch job on the base which needed replacing and a treatment with a bleach cleaner.

The carpe was aged, the paintwork shoddy, the lounges were something you would expect in motel accommodation, the water when run in the bath was brown, there was so much disgusting foot crap built up on the shower floor and only noticed this when I used something sharp to scrape it away.

However the smell of mould was over whelming at times and the aircon died on day two.

Stayed here recently and had to request a change of room because the first one was moldy.

We were initially given a room in which the bathroom in particular was absolutely filthy, it looked as if someone had thrown around a cup of coffee.

Bathroom paint peeling and moulding, shower tiles water stained curtains not hung/running correctly. "Balcony".

Kids pool was filthy, a layer of grime evident around the edges on top of the water, very unappealing.

but the air or air-conditioning in our first 5 days bedroom was definately smokey and stale.

however I really struggled with the mouldy old bathroom.

Upon entering the given room, I found it smelt musty and quite awful.

Couple of shortcomings for management to consider: no bottled water was in the room and the shower needed a good clean with bleach to rid it of caked on soap & mold.

DoubleTree by Hilton Esplanade Darwin

bathroom

decor

smell

Free parking

Paid wifi

Pool

If you have booked a rate that includes breakfast, you receive a voucher for a choice of three items:  Bacon and eggs, an omelette, or two pancakes, plus juice and tea or coffee.

The space was extra nice and the amenities perfectly suited our needs, allowing us to buy in breakfast supplies and self-cater.

The three options for breakfast, all featured fat, carbohydrate, sugar or cholesterol.

No cafe so a walk around the corner was our breakfast with a choice of three.

There are a lot of breakfast options around

The breakfasts from Salvatore’s are great.

Buffet breakfast a good way to start the sightseeing day ahead.

Must say the breakfast was excellent although hotel was very quiet, 

They serve a hearty buffet breakfast to set you up for a day of sightseeing.

First hotel I have ever experienced in my extensive business travels that didn't have a hot breakfast ready to go.

Absolutely fantastic breakfast selection, everything you could want.

The location is absolutely perfect and the buffet breakfasts were fantastic.

Enjoyed a buffet breakfast and a swim in the roof top pool, reception were happy to give us a late checkout because we ha a late flight and were happy to hold our luggage and allow us to spend the afternoon by the pool.

but the buffet was better than many we have experienced.

Very secure (have to use key card 3x before getting into room).

Payment for accommodation is done online so there is no money exchanged when checking out unless there is some other charges.

On balance, if someone asked me what it was like I would probably say "it was OK,

but the Rydges charged me the full cancellation fee that cover the whole cost of the two days without any explanation or communication with me.

but the card activated roller door was not working and the card activator on the lift wall was hanging off the wall and not operating (no signage)
3.

Make yourself aware of what happens regarding the scan they take of your credit card.

Management were rude and inconsiderate
Staff never smiled 
Must not be a nice place to work
Room smelt
Accused and charged for watching a movie were as I didn’t
Horrible hotel and wouldn’t recommend to anyone
A lot better hotels nearby

So sick of Rydges charging me for things I didn’t use. Robbers.

There was no Mini Bar charge schedule in my room, so if I wanted to have a drink, I did not know the charge.

Again, I told her that we have already requested for early check in and asked her why all these charges were not conveyed to us.

Oh and if you have a child make sure they don’t have an accident at night or you will be charged $100 and harassed with phone calls.

but we were told most mornings that there would be an extra charge.

but it showed they negleted to request handicapped room,they fixed the problem straight away even though it was more expensive,at no extra charge.

Imagine her disappointment when I advised I already had my room card and it was only their insistence around the copy of my license not completed.

If you prefer to leave a cash security rather than a credit card, you will have to wait while the staff go and take everything out of the mini bar and then, when leaving, you will have to wait while staff check that you haven't damaged the room in any way before they refund your deposit.

I was disappointed that we were charged for having four champagne glasses and a sharp knife delivered to our room.

You also need to pay a $100 deposit at check-in and even the major cards take a 1.5% surcharge which I think is wrong.

I was telephoned after close of business the following day (30 hours or so later) and told that I would be billed $100 to hire 'specialist cleaners' and that that these issues caused the rooms "to smell mouldy".

but very basic for the prices they are charging.

Cannot get anywhere without a swipe card.

but by the 18th we had had enough of staying in a poor run hotel.

BUT this Rydges was poor in service like no room serice .

Do you have any clue how hard these people are working for you under such poor conditions ?

In summary, an old, outdated hotel that smells, has cockroaches (of all things), poor breakfast offerings and time consuming parking arrangements.

Breakfast was terrible, sloppy scrambled eggs, bacon not cooked and just a very poor selection so I ate elsewhere for the other 3 days.

She returned shortly trumpeting well we will just check you in differently to everyone else shall we - poor attempt to embarrass me.

I found the staff on front desk far from welcoming , the rooms dull and musky, and the general condition of the Hotel very poor.

Quality of food for breakfast was very poor.

could be a lot better, customer service was poor.

The free Wifi has poor reception and constantly break-up and need reconnection.

but feel it is poor value for money and not worthy of it's Lonely Planet recommendation.

First the receptionist staff had very poor English.

average place to stay, no in house restaurant for dinner with restaurant referral being of really poor quality in regards to service and food.

Our customer service experience was :-
- we had to carry our own 6 bags to our room, no help offered;
- the check-in experience was poor (the man on the desk may have been in training??

Morning breakfast was too mobbed for the poor lady waiting on us!

Worked out $150 per night - much cheaper than the other big name hotels - who appear to be old/dated and with poor reviews.

The whole building stunk like stale cigarettes, (nowhere for smokers, except the alley-way at the entrance,so I guess people have been smoking in the rooms).

The towels smelt disusting and no one to contact to rectify.

No one at check in, check out, foul smell in the parking that you pay for and continues into the rooms via filthy dated lifts.

but the area was at best disgusting, the paint was peeling off the wall and was black with mold and a door at the area of the changing rooms black with mold and also the water in the pool was a milky color so we never used it.

The room we had was musty, the tropical humid aircon smell that the older hotels have, The room had a window,

The moment I opened the room I was overcome with the musty, stale smell, which was off-putting.

Windows don’t open, room was dirty and smelly, air con caused headache (probably hasn’t had a clean filter in years), breakfast for $28 is a rip-off, staff looked like they didn’t want to be there (can’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to work there either).

No ventilation, so room smells like cleaning detergents, nor natural light.

Pastries were stale and we felt it was a little disorganised.

but adequate, but smelled musty, as others have commented.

Went up to room and very musty / stale smell .

There was a mild smell of urine from one of the beds

From the 20 odd people standing at the front entry (from a conference) smoking and blocking the entry somewhat, to the lack of parking, I know this is inner city, and I know the hotel offers valet parking

But I would visit again because their are more pros and cons, because I am comfortable telling drunks to p*** off when approached whilst smoking at the door - others might find this a deal-breaker.

but our room had quite a strong musty smell.

Rydges Darwin Central

creditcard

poor

Paid private parking on-site

Free internet

The restaurant had delicious food and the bar had a little nice atmosphere .

We enjoyed an over night stay cation at a great price that included the buffet breakfast.

Breakfast was rushed, lights off promptly at 10am, leaving us to finish our delightful poached eggs in semi darkness 🫢.

The highlight was the service from Ashi on check in and Alex at breakfast and check out, was amazing.

We rea;;y enjoyed the Sunday delicious Buffet Breakfast.

Sneha was our breakfast waitress she like all the other girls were great.

On the 2 days where we had early tours and so left before breakfast was open, the hotel made up breakfast boxes for us, which were appreciated.

The mocha martini was delicious and creative, and she talked me through gins with excellent recommendations.

Breakfast Buffet had a lot of good choices.

Although the decor is a bit on the worn side, the people are extremely friendly, the included food (breakfast and hors d'oeuvres at the Executive Lounge) was excellent and the location good.

A superb restaurant offering some excellent items for breakfast.

Buffet breakfast was nice (Pepperberry) and also dined for dinner at Pepperberry which was a very nice dinner.

Coming from a lot of standard USA Hilton accomodations, Hilton Darwin stood out with it's stellar complimentary buffet breakfast to it's amazing evening executive reception.

The restuarant has plenty of food options for dinner and the buffet breakfast has everything you would want to cater for all tastes.

All my room service breakfasts and dinners were excellent, and I liked the room service menu offering.

Breakfast was also amazing, along with the excellent location.

Dee was amazing, always making us feel special at every opportunity during breakfast and the executive lounge.

The service industry is tough - Jessica deserves a full paid week off.

When we tried to check in where the hotel had no record that we had prepaid; I had to pay again until my UK travel agent intervened.

Not what you expect when paying Hilton prices.

You can go to a cafe that charges less and provides table service and barista made coffee.

Only complaint would be that the only parking available is valet parking which at $39 per day is expensive.

We said we had paid for a twin and it appeared!

A bottle of Aussie Shiraz that you can buy in a shop for $17 cost $70!

I did not mention the other issues - I do not like to complain, was very busy with work, and simply expect better for Hilton and the price point.

No, not for the price and current condition of the rooms.

but they are simply not a 5 star facility charging 5 star rates.

Service is appalling had to fight with front desk upon arrival for the room i had paid for, said that Qantas hadn’t notified them properly ( not my problem) fortunately i hade documentation.

It's just really bad that the worst experience was on a special day and the most expensive at that.

Parking wasn’t included in the cost, we were not advised of this until arriving at the hotel where we were given the option to pay $39 a day for parking or find alternative parking.

Valet is $35 a day ( I’d say on the higher end of cost).

the wifi is also not free in a time where most hotels it is entertainment is limited to only TV which is boring and with no wifi access its even more difficult to entertain yourself unless you’re will to use your own data at your expense.

Prices in Darwin for food is higher than most places in Australia

Valet Parking was ridiculously expensive, particularly when you can park for free in the street from 5 pm to 8 am.

I am an asthmatic and super sensitive to any form of tobacco smoke or the residue of such smoke.

The decor was a little dated , and the room a little musty for the first day,

but the room old, and dated furniture and carpet, which smelt musty and old .It gave us stuffy noses and was not pleasant,Maybe stay at  the newer doubletree or on the waterfront as not far away.There were people fighting outside the hotel and across the road .It didnt feel safe or nice.Wouldnt ever stay there again.

Reminded me of the carpets at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC before its recent closure for a full refurb.. ie.. decades of chemical shampooing and hoping on the part of the owners.

Showers sometime don't work properly, rooms can be mouldy and not smelling the best.

First room offered had a major damp and mould problem.

Room on 15th floor was filthy - a very musty/mouldy smell when you opened the door; hair on bathroom floor; shower screen and tiles filthy; coffee marks across window ledge, stains on headboards and walls above the beds, dust everywhere, big sections of wallpaper falling off walls; no hot water and when I spoke to reception was asked if I “had let the water run 10-15 mins before it heated up”.

I had to buy mould killer to get rid of the mould.

We complained to reception about the smell the next day and I got told that they would spray some freshner in there.

The smell got increasingly worse over the next day or so and much to our disgust we found a rotting mouse in the corner of the room under the arm chair.

Booked board room for a meeting and ended up drenched in sweat because there were no individual air conditioning controls.

however its rather inconvenient if you smoke they have no balcony.

but can see old furniture and dust and mold.

However , the corridors smell damp , the breakfast seating area is actually threadbare with the seating actually holed through in places and the whole hotel could do with updating .

The hotel seem quite old, whole corridor smells of damp and some other areas have bad smell, bathroom in our room was OK, the carpet ripped near the walls, furniture seems old.

I know the climate in Darwin can be a challenge and the room certainly had that musty odour the wet season brings.

As soon as we walked into the hotel you could smell the mould  / dampness in the foyer - and upstairs in our room - I bought eucalyptus spray which covered the room smell

Hilton Darwin

price

Valet parking

A roof panel on our balcony was missing as they had obviously repaired the air con and not replaced it.

but the room carpet was worn and stained, the shower was cramped and tended to become overly steamy (there was even a perplexing warning sign in the shower, in English only, that we could be charged AU$1200 if we let the steam escape into the room???

The hotel does not have central air conditioning

We had to be moved due to a terrible noise in the vents.

but did not work, the air conditioner was faulty.

However this will be the last time I stay at Novotel Darwin CBC, as the hotel has gone down so badly, The AC unit barely worked, and when I opened the front cover to check if the filter had been cleaned it was putrid, light fittings were not working, the cable TV was disconnected.

The shower curtain was full of mould, the kettle was growing something inside and the ac was not cold.

Booked for 2 nights, left after first night with no aircon, despite being assured three times ‘someone would come to look at it’,

I stayed in 2 different rooms and didn't have any functioning aircon, one was barely blowing any cold and the other one was

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