We got an Opera View Room on the 24th floor. The view was terrific, although if you looked to your right you would be practically into the neighboring hotels’ rooms. So I wouldn’t advise you to stay in City view rooms, because it might be quite suffocating.
The room was very spacious, but rather old looking and equipped with the worst amenities I ever saw in a 5-stars hotel. On the first night, the cotton of my pillow cover was worn out. Our bed’s mattress was really spongy, the springs squeaked just if you’d sit on the bed - a sign that the mattress has been there for quite a long time.
The spa is really basic, the sauna small and dark, the pool is indoor (in a city that claims to have 300 sunny days per year) and it's the size of a big bathtub. The changing rooms looked like those of a low-key gym: extremely basic, completely unattended and quite filthy. The other common areas (lobby, restaurants and bars) look ok both in terms of design and maintenance.
Overall, this is probably one of the worst Shangri-La property I stayed at, and definitively brings down the name of such a prestigious brand. The funny thing is that, while in Sydney, I read an interview of the Shangri-La’s GM stating that the property had been renovated in 2007. Well, if that’s the case, it is a terrible combination of bad taste and low quality equipment.
The service was OK, not up to the Shangri-La level - but passable for Sydney’s standards. The location is perfect for both tourism and business. However, I wouldn’t recommend this hotel overall. For the same rates, I am sure you could find better hotels in Sydney.

Having booked through the Amex, we chose to stay on the club floor for this stay.
We were greeted with an in room checkin and an upgrade to an executive suite that overlooked the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
The room was large, clean with two comfortable beds.

The bathroom was huge with a tub sitting right next to the window and view of north Sydney, a separate shower and thick white towels.

My only complaint about the room was that the comforter on the bed was rather thick and a little too warm for me. Having said that there was a blanket in the cupboard that was perfect.

For me the best part was the service.

Each night we enjoyed the free drinks and nibbles on the 30th floor club lounge.
The concierge Jerry was very helpful and friendly. He was very helpful on the stay finding some great restaurants for us to enjoy.

If you are able I would strongly suggest paying to stay on the club floor as, at least for us, the additional attention was wonderful.

The buffet breakfast was pretty stardard 5 star hotel fare. Good selection of fruits and many asian hot food choices.
At night the dinner buffet is great with heaps of fresh seafood, and many asian choices. Please note tho it was a special chinese package they were promoting as part of the olympics?

On a slightly down side I found the spa to be dissapointing.
There was no cold water in the showers when I arrived and this took over 40 min to fix.
The sauna in the mens area was small as was the tiny plunge pool. There was no steam room which I was hoping for.

Checkout was swift and done on the club floor. There were not many people waiting when we left for the airport at noon on the Sunday.

Overall a great hotel.
Nice location if you are wanting to do some of the more touristy things in Sydney. If you are in for business you may need to check on a map.

I would recommend this hotel to friends.

Just returned from 5 nights at the Shangri La, and overall had a very nice stay. The location of the hotel is excellent, and all the staff were pleasant and helpful. We arrived very early in the am and our room was ready early for easy check in. I did have a problem in which I requested a king bed and was told there was none available. I also did not get a room with "the view". Many of the rooms have a beautiful view of the Opera house and Bridge. Not mine. I tried to change but again was told there was nothing available. Otherwise, no complaints, the room was very average.
We could walk to almost all attractions in Sydney from this location and that was a plus.

If first impressions count, check-in did not do very well. We arrived about 7am totally exhausted from Singapore having not slept. I had emailed the hotel in advance to request an early check-in if possible. I understand that if they have full capacity from the night before, this is not possible. I am a reasonable person. However, the way we were treated was oh so professional but oh so cold. If you know the character from Little Britain who says after typing vigorously on the keyboard "computer says no", it was a little like that. We were told to go and have some breakfast. A room would be available later - some time and apparently because I had informed the hotel in advance we were on the priority list. We waited and waited losing the will to live. I went back and asked again several times. More vigorous keyboard tapping. It should be ready "some time soon". "They are probably working on it". It was quite clear that she had not contacted housekeeping to check. In fact, the woman on reception made us (my partner and I) feel as if she really did not care the slightest bit about when we actually did get checked in.

The other negative point was that our room key kept on getting demagnetised. We had it nowhere near a mobile phone or anything that might cause this. Having to come back down to reception was fustrating.

On the positive side, the concierge was helpful. The room itself was spacious and very comfortable. We had a Opera House view which was nice but a pity that the windows could not be opened (a City regulation forbids it apparently or something like that).

Our stay was enjoyable but I felt that we could have done better somewhere else.