Fraser Suites, Sydney, offers the best of both worlds for guests
Should a hotel be a home away from home, or offer a complete change of scenery?
It has always intrigued me that many hotels advertise a “home away from home” experience when surely the whole point for most guests is getting as far away as possible from home, with all its domestic duties and familiarity, to somewhere completely different. Fraser Suites, at the southern end of Sydney’s CBD, presents an opportunity to explore both possibilities: a change of scenery with many of the comforts of home, plus the added unknown of COVID-19 regulations thrown into the mix.
How does a hotel look, feel and operate with all the restrictive health protocols that must be followed? And how do guests react when some of the expected luxuries are missing, when guestrooms feel oddly bare or certain facilities remain closed?
The 201-room, 41-storey Norman Foster-designed Fraser Suites, standing tall on Kent Street and facing Darling Harbour, works on the serviced-apartment model, including a kitchenette fully equipped with Fisher & Paykel appliances, laundry nook and the spacious dimensions of an inner-city residence. The accommodation is on levels 13 to 41, with only seven units on most floors. All suites are filled with light, and from the higher-up storeys of one-bedroom executive apartments, in particular, floor-to-ceiling panoramas to the west and across office towers and diminutive heritage buildings to the north gleam when the sun shines on mirrored facades and glow with big-city lights after dark.
The design template is pale grey and swish, with quality contemporary furnishings and well-considered arrangement of ergonomic workstations, dining tables and chairs, and large sofas. An ensuite bedroom with sliding wall-style door creates divided spaces. There are configurations with two or three bedrooms, too, ideal for family stays, and a floor of swanky penthouses plus deluxe studios at entry price level. There is free high-speed internet and USB charging ports, including beside the bed. Since last month, hallway carpeting has been updated and the restaurant refurbished; in the first quarter of next year 43-inch TVs with casting ability will be installed in all guestrooms.
The striking double-storey lobby, part of an overall $4m refresh, has a shine of NYC chic about it, including a cascading chandelier. Check-in is contact free, staff members wear masks and stand behind tall acrylic screens. If guests are expecting visitors, they have to formally check in, too, and provide all details for contact tracing. Ditto for couriers or contractors who enter the hotel. So far, so good. Staff report that the entire property’s public areas are cleaned every two hours and surfaces thoroughly wiped down. Hand disinfectant is available in the lifts as well as at the front desk, gym, pool and restaurant.
My one-bedroom apartment is seemingly spotless. All bedding and cushions are dry-cleaned after every stay, and there’s no extraneous bedspread or other potential germ-catcher. TV remote controllers also are disinfected. All those little luxuries we hotel junkies love, such as fluffy bathrobes, extra pillows and towelling slippers, are no longer in evidence, although additional pillows are available from housekeeping. Refillable pump dispensers are now so last February and back in favour are single-use containers of Malin+Goetz liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner, skin lotion and body wash; shaving or dental kits must be requested.
The 10th-floor breakfast-only restaurant provides table service, not buffets, and seating is spaced well apart. But the more popular option each morning, and the one I choose, is room service. The meal arrives on a trolley, the waiter is masked and gloved. The silver cloche on the hot dish is promptly removed. There’s no physical contact or hanging about to chat.
Because of the building’s mid-city location, adjacent on its George Street side to Regent Place shopping centre, Fraser Suites management has been collaborating with some arcade restaurants. Meals can be obtained from Chinese eatery Chefs Gallery, and hotel staff provide menus and take care of all details, including COVID-safe delivery. The izakaya-style Yakitori Yebisu has a terrific selection of sashimi and sushi that guests can order and pick up themselves. Fraser Suites actively promotes these arrangements rather than guests ordering in from third-party operators such as Deliveroo but, given the kitchen facilities, longer-term guests could easily self-cater, including microwave reheats.
Other changes? It’s a COVID reality that leisure facilities must have restrictions. The 20m-long heated pool in a private health club-style oasis on Level 12 is open to only six guests at a time and there are limits on numbers in the sauna and gym. From the hotel’s perspective, it’s a matter of changing focus from international arrivals, which were 60 per cent of the mix pre-COVID, to the domestic market, which now forms almost all of the average 50 per cent occupancy rate.
I don’t miss dinner-suited butlers and minibar concierges and all the frankly non-essential services that have crept into luxury accommodation in the past decade or so. Maybe from now on we’ll all just be content staying somewhere super-clean, efficient and safe. No hotel is perfect and, in this case, a drinking glass in my kitchen with a prominent thumbprint on it gives me momentary pause just after I’ve checked in. I decide to report it. Two housekeepers arrive almost immediately with a replacement and a thousand apologies. I could have opted to put the glass in the dishwasher but that would have been way too much like staying at home.
In the know
Frasers Hospitality’s global portfolio covers more than 140 properties across the world, including four in Australia (Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne), and Malmaison and Hotel du Vin boutique brands in Britain. Fraser Suites Sydney has a Park and Stay package of one night’s accommodation, undercover parking and Wi-Fi access for an average $149 per deluxe studio or $194 per one-bedroom deluxe executive apartment, depending on dates; add about $50 to include breakfast for two.
More to the story
City hotels have been forced to adapt and innovate this year, with most CBD properties reporting midweek sales of about 40 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels of 78 per cent. Some Sydney hotels have reported dives of 64 per cent, with cancellation of conferences and fewer corporate bookings accounting for much of the drop. But leisure travellers are benefiting from “staycation” deals with reduced rates and category upgrades as properties lure locals to holiday close to home. Extras typically include parking, meal packages, tickets to attractions and flexible cancellation policies. The Old Clare Hotel in Sydney, for example, has full 24-hour and 48-hour stays based on guaranteed early check-in and late check-out. But regional hotels in “drive-to destinations” are trending as the big winners this year, thanks to Australian holiday-makers rediscovering the joys of road trips.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Jo Makito was a guest of Fraser Suites.