Daceyville Vacations from $1,319

Stayed at the Courthouse Hotel Darlinghurst and had a mixed but generally decent experience. It’s an older building converted into a budget hotel, and the biggest plus is definitely the location. It’s very central and convenient. About 20 minutes’ walk to Central Station, 20 minutes by bus to the CBD, and around 30 minutes to Bondi Beach, making it easy to get around Sydney. The surrounding area has plenty of restaurants and bars (LGBTQ-friendly), and despite that, the room was mostly quiet. The accommodation is small, with only four rooms on the first floor sharing two bathrooms and showers. Hot water can be a bit inconsistent, likely due to the age of the building. On weekends, the atmosphere changes with more short-stay guests, which can get quite noisy late at night (around midnight to 2am) and occasionally messy. However, a cleaner comes in daily around 10am to tidy up. A convenient point is the downstairs bar, open from 9am to 2am, where check-in is done with the staff and you collect your room key (no reception desk). Lighting is good during the day with natural light, but quite dim at night. Because there are restaurants below the building, occasional bugs or cockroaches may appear, which is worth noting. There’s also a small shared kitchen/pantry area with a large fridge and basic essentials, but no stove. Overall, it’s a budget-friendly and well-located stay with some trade-offs typical of an older shared building.

The hotel is excessively darkly lit, feels very American. Rooms and restaurants all have very low light. Breakfast was good however there are blinds that drop down preventing access to the food area at exactly 10:30 am on weekends, and at 10:00 am on week days, the latter we didn't realize until we were shut out mid-breakfast on a monday (morning two of our stay so was a surprise and staff were not flexible). Location is good, as is the gym and pool area. But I would look elsewhere next time. The electronic check in and check out felt impersonal. Finally, check in is at 3 pm and we arrived at 2 pm. They wanted to charge extra to check in at 2 pm so we checked 6 bags and went elsewhere. I like to know these things in advance. If you do too, beware. Late check out also possible for $20 per hour after 10 am. It's fine, but not excellent.

Very Calm environment, simple and elegant interior, nothing flashy or shiny. At the time of Checkout, we met "Moss The Boss", oh, he was such an amazing person and the best asset of any Organization.