My husband and I stayed at The Establishment in March 2008 for 1 night. It was our second visit, our first being in February 2005. On both occasions, we absolutely loved the hotel. Special mention must be made to the bathrooms, they are huge and very luxurious with a lovely bath in the middle of the room and an enormous shower at one end with the largest shower head I've ever seen.
The bedrooms are spacious with a great sound system and flat screen TV and the beds are incredibly comfortable. We found the front desk staff and porters really friendly and helpful.
We also visited the bar downstairs and had a cocktail before heading out for dinner, again the staff were really friendly and served up a great cocktail. After returning from dinner we visited Hemmesphere, the cocktail bar at the top of the hotel, again we encountered friendly staff and great cocktails.
The only problem we had during our stay was that we spent so long in the shower we flooded the bathroom slightly which in turn went into the bedroom, not a massive flood but we informed front desk about it when we left who were very apologetic and said they would have it checked out.
I would highly recommend this hotel. It may not have the amazing views that other Sydney hotels have, in fact it doesn't really have any views, but everything else is so perfect and for A$280 per night, it's well worth every cent.

My husband surprised me for my birthday by booking a night's accommodation at the Establishment Hotel. We found the service to be very friendly and thought that the room was spacious, modern and well presented - the way the old building has been refurbished as the hotel is quite impressive. The views were nothing to speak of - straight into the offices across the way and overlooking the rubbish buns of the lane on which the hotel is accessed - but these are easily blocked out. We liked how we could easily access the other parts of the hotel also which made it easy to get to Hemmesphere and Sushi-e where we enjoyed some outstanding cocktails and a fabulous dinner. The only downsides from the experience was the overpriced and overcooked breakfast in the morning (although sitting in the garden bar was very pleasant in the morning) and the clock in the room being one hour slow which meant we were almost late to check-out (lucky we checked the time on our phone).

We stayed at the Establishment for our wedding night and the evening after and were bitterly disappointed. They were informed numerous times that it was our wedding night and they didn't even bother to turn the air-conditioning on, much less do anything special. The water pressure in the bath was so bad that we didn't bother waiting for it to fill and just went to bed. Est. restaurant, pretty much the only reason we were staying here was closed on a Sunday evening, something we were not informed of until after we booked, and the room service menu was very, very poor with a choice of very few bland, American friendly meals. I'd say this was a satisfactory business hotel, although when I travel for business all I ask for is a bath, a movie (there are no movies on demand, just bad blockbusters from the 90's you can request from reception) and a decent room service meal, none of which The Establishment provides. This hotel is boutique only in that it lacks services, and like most Merivale establishments is all about the predictable east-meets-west decor and style over substance. Boring.

My partner and I took a trip around the world and made Australia our first stop. We considered many hotels in Sydney before selecting The Establishment. Boy did we make the right decision. We knew we would be arriving in Sydney from America around 9AM in the morning. Therefore we booked our hotel room for the night before to ensure we would NOT have to wait for a 3PM check-in. We were initially told there was no record of us requesting a room for the previous night at which point I was prepared to make a lot of noise. Lucikly for them a room was available and simply had to be cleaned. We went to the restaurant to have breakfast as they prepared the room. This was the only snafu during our stay. Beyond this.....everything was sensational.

Our room was simply stunning. We both love the "modern" style and were not disappointed with The Establishment. The room had a very soothing color palate and a very large bathroom. An extra bonus were the Bose speakers and receiver which allowed us to plug in our iPod and have our room filled with music.

The restaurants associated with The Establishment are some of the best in the city. We enjoyed breakfast each morning and on our last night dined at their exquisite sushi restaurant.

The concierge treated us as if we were the only guests in the hotel. They were so, so helpful with arranging tour guides and providing assistance with everything we needed.

If you want a great hotel, great location, great concierge and great restaurants.....then The Establishment is the place for you.