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Jul 24, 2023

Review: Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport (SYD)

For the last hotel stay of my round the world trip with dad, we spent a night at the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport (SYD). The 247-room hotel only opened in 2020, so it’s one of the newest hotels

For the last hotel stay of my round the world trip with dad, we spent a night at the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport (SYD). The 247-room hotel only opened in 2020, so it’s one of the newest hotels by the airport.

While we would have loved to go into the city, we only arrived in Sydney at around 9:30PM, and we left to the airport the following morning at 4AM, so this was the most practical option to get at least some rest. Given our short stay, I apologize for not being able to review all the facilities, though I did my best.

Anyway, this ended up being a great property for our purposes — the hotel is modern, our limited interaction with staff were good, and I even managed to redeem some hotel free night certificates.

In this post:

When I knew we needed to spend a night near Sydney Airport, I first considered booking Rydges Sydney Airport, since it’s the most convenient hotel, and is connected to the international terminal. However, the rate there was over 400 AUD (~$270) for the night, which seemed steep, so I looked at other options.

Fortunately IHG has both a Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express near the airport. I had two IHG free night awards that were expiring within a couple of months, so this seemed like a good opportunity to use them. I ended up deciding on the Holiday Inn Express, because it was closer to our arriving terminal, and also because it was a newer property.

For what it’s worth, the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport was charging 200 AUD (~$135) per night, and I booked two rooms with free night awards. While not the highest value redemption ever, the cards have annual fees of under $100 and offer a free night award annually, so without another specific use in mind, this seemed worth it.

We had arrived at Terminal 2 on Virgin Australia from Perth, and were departing from Terminal 1 on Qantas to Los Angeles the following morning.

Getting from Terminal 2 to the Holiday Inn Express was easy, as it was just a 10-minute walk. I was easily able to navigate us using Google Maps — I wouldn’t say it’s the best setup in the world for walking, but if you’re traveling light, the walk is very doable, though you’ll have to cross a couple of streets.

The Holiday Inn Express is significantly further from Terminal 1, so don’t plan on walking there. The hotel offers a shuttle service through a third party for 10 AUD per person per direction. However, the first shuttle didn’t leave as early as we needed to depart, and for that matter, an Uber will be roughly the same price if you’re traveling with more than one person.

I’ve always found it interesting how in the United States it’s pretty standard for airport hotels to offer complimentary shuttles, while outside the United States it’s quite uncommon.

We entered the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport through the ground floor, while the lobby was one level above, on the first floor. The ground floor just had elevators and a bit of seating, plus some cute propellor art.

Upon exiting the elevator on the first floor, the reception desk was straight ahead, and there was also plenty of cozy lobby seating. The check-in process was efficient and friendly. I was thanked for being an IHG One Rewards Diamond member, and was informed that we had both been upgraded to king rooms on a high floor.

With keys in hand, we headed up to the eighth floor, where our rooms were located. I was assigned room 828, located a ways down the hall and on the left.

At 21 square meters (~226 square feet), rooms here are compact, but well appointed. The room featured an entryway with the bathroom to the right, and some exposed closet space and the minibar area to the left.

The main part of the room had a king size bed, a desk with a chair, a wall-mounted TV, and then a chair for lounging with an ottoman in the far corner. Given the size of the room, I think they did a good job making the most of these little rooms.

The room had views of some nearby buildings, so there wasn’t much in the way of airport views.

As an avgeek, I loved the aviation-themed touches, like the exterior of the bathroom area being made to look like an arrivals board.

The bathroom had a sink, a toilet, and a walk-in shower. I don’t think I’ve seen this before at another hotel, but the bathroom had one door that could swing — you could either use it to separate the bathroom from the bedroom, or to separate the walk-in shower from the rest of the bathroom.

The shower had excellent water pressure and temperature control, and toiletries were in reusable bottles from Urban Skincare Co.

Back near the minibar area, the room had a kettle with instant coffee and tea, as well as an empty mini-fridge.

Honestly, I was very happy with this room — it was clean, modern, and used space efficiently. Wi-Fi in the room was fast and free as well.

On the second floor, the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport has both a gym and guest laundry facility.

The gym is open 24/7, and features treadmills, an elliptical, two bikes, and some free weights.

I also love how the hotel has guest laundry, which is a feature that sure comes in handy in some situations. I didn’t need it this time, but I’m sure it’s something that those on longer trips would get value out of.

Since we were at the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport for around six hours, we didn’t eat or drink anything here. However, as is standard for Holiday Inn Express properties, the hotel offers a complimentary breakfast in The Great Room, across from reception. Furthermore, the hotel has partnered with Menulog, a food delivery company, for lunch and dinner orders.

The hotel does sell a selection of drinks in the lobby, and many people seemed to be sitting around there to enjoy those when we arrived.

For our purposes, the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport was great. It was within walking distance of the domestic terminal, and the hotel was modern, clean, and functional. Best of all, I could use credit card free night awards for our stay. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again in the future under similar circumstances (though hopefully I’d plan a longer stopover, so I could properly visit Sydney).

What do you make of the Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport?

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Have had issues sometimes in the AM with an Uber pick at SYD early at hotels NEAR the airport. Other option is walk back to to T1 and take the Free T-Bus to T1 from T2 - starts from 5:30 AM. That comes by every 15 min

The aviation themed decorations are very cool! As someone who does quick stays with the family (a night here…a night there…out by, if not before, breakfast, etc.) we are often on the lookout for ‘convenient-comfort’ for our use of points/certs. I know that the bulk of points-and-miles readers are on the hunt for the luxe-experience or outsized value, and I do love reading those write-ups, but in terms of my family’s travel style we aim...

The aviation themed decorations are very cool! As someone who does quick stays with the family (a night here…a night there…out by, if not before, breakfast, etc.) we are often on the lookout for ‘convenient-comfort’ for our use of points/certs. I know that the bulk of points-and-miles readers are on the hunt for the luxe-experience or outsized value, and I do love reading those write-ups, but in terms of my family’s travel style we aim for more mid-tier targets, so I really appreciate the coverage here.

I really do think you are an exceptional blogger but might I recommend planning a little better around how to turn your IHG certificates into quality blog content? What about a Crowne Plaza in Florida in the heat of summer? A Kimpton even? Give us something we can use! Redeeming a $90 certificate for a $130 room is not why we got into the game! Even the Candlewood Times Square would be more operatively useful for your readership.

I think you're rather missing the point. If this was a post about 'How to get value from an IHG certificate' you'd have a case, but it's not. @Ben was writing a 'I in Sydney for a few hours and this is where I stayed' post. The certificate was incidental to that. People would prefer to read about a NYC Candlewood or Florida in the hurricane season? Umm, yeah nah.

*I was in Sydney ...*

I can’t believe you didn’t cover the coolest feature which is the self service car elevator in the parking garage! So crazy, they would never allow that in the US.

Also ask for a room facing the arrivals (when the wind is right) and you can get some amazing passes of the heavies coming into SYD

Rydges have totally lost the plot. What price convenience. Been using them for years when sub-$200 tariffs were around. Now, it's hard to get a quite forgettable room under $300.

Off to the HI I go! Bye Rydges!

The door that opens both ways like that is standard in new-build HIX. I’ve seen it all over the world.

I have a beef with this hotel because the times they offer breakfast were/are given incorrectly on their website. As well I think it’s a little overpriced for what it is. The Holiday Inn, which is 5 minutes walk away is probably a better choice.

The door that opens both ways (but not inwards into the shower) is a poor design (at least in this specific hotel). Stayed there a few months back, and if you put a bath mat in front of it, the sweep at the bottom just pushed the mat away causing a wet floor. And since the entire bathroom is glass, if your travel companion needs to use the bathroom at night, they're either lighting up...

The door that opens both ways (but not inwards into the shower) is a poor design (at least in this specific hotel). Stayed there a few months back, and if you put a bath mat in front of it, the sweep at the bottom just pushed the mat away causing a wet floor. And since the entire bathroom is glass, if your travel companion needs to use the bathroom at night, they're either lighting up the entire room or using it in the dark.

To top it off, not all of the flights listed on the wall art of the bathroom glass here are real routes

When I was there, there was also no sign of cinnamon buns at breakfast. And that's really the only thing that sets HIX apart from other chains in the US, so disappointed to see this wasn't the case in Sydney.

We stayed there in January , booked using dayuse.com , 6 hours stay :9.00am-3pm , good breakfast included upon arrival. We had an afternoon flight to WLG and was perfect for a 5 hour nap . We used Uber both ways and cost less than 10usd , each way to T1

Quite nice, I must say.

Since you didn't have time for breakfast, I guess we'll never know if they had avocado toast or not?? How cruel and unusual for you to keep us hanging like that. :)

Seems a travesty not to spend a night or two in Sydney . Although I’m bias.

Love a good review for a hotel based on convenience, price and what its function is.

I’m sad you didn’t review United’s new partnership with virgin and connect a flight in first to Bne onto the Eva 787-10 to tpe which I think is brilliant. Not bad at 57.5k miles.

It seems like this "around the world" trip was mostly a few days in Qatar and a few hours in Perth?

He wrote an introduction to this trip where he outlined that it was mostly lounges, hotels and flights with a stop in Doha and a few hours in Perth. So yes, you're exactly right.

@ Mick -- I would have LOVED to spend a few days in Sydney, as it's a great city. In this case the trip was unfortunately centered around the Qantas A380 first availability from SYD-LAX, which was only available on that exact date. Furthermore, I wanted to stay in Doha until a particular date so that I could check out the new Louis Vuitton Lounge on opening day.

Hope to take my dad to Sydney again sometime soon for a proper visit!

Yep that’s all fair. I know about having to plan whole vacations around unicorn dates on Qantas :)

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@ Mick -- I would have LOVED to spend a few days in Sydney, as it's a great city. In this case the trip was unfortunately centered around the Qantas A380 first availability from SYD-LAX, which was only available on that exact date. Furthermore, I wanted to stay in Doha until a particular date so that I could check out the new Louis Vuitton Lounge on opening day.Hope to take my dad to Sydney again sometime soon for a proper visit!

I think you're rather missing the point. If this was a post about 'How to get value from an IHG certificate' you'd have a case, but it's not. @Ben was writing a 'I in Sydney for a few hours and this is where I stayed' post. The certificate was incidental to that. People would prefer to read about a NYC Candlewood or Florida in the hurricane season? Umm, yeah nah.

Have had issues sometimes in the AM with an Uber pick at SYD early at hotels NEAR the airport. Other option is walk back to to T1 and take the Free T-Bus to T1 from T2 - starts from 5:30 AM. That comes by every 15 min