Sydney: Meriton Serviced Apartments Campbell Street

There is a reason why I always bring a bottle of rubbing alcohol with me every time I travel - housekeeping agents usually do not care about the cleanliness of the rooms they clean, but I'll get to this later.

Here's what I loved:

1. There are literally tons of great dining options within walking distance from the hotel starting with Chat Thai just two doors down.
2. Darling Harbour is 15 to 20 minutes away depending on how fast you walk.
3. The free shuttle bus (route 555) stops practically beside the hotel.
4. Free wifi.
5. World Square Shopping Center is at the next block and it has two supermarkets.
6. Capitol Theater is right across the street.

Here's what I didn't like:

1. Leftover poop on the toilet seat cover (not in picture is the other end which was just as problematic). I had never encountered this before in the other hotels we've stayed at.

2. Another first is the huge cockroach that greeted me on my second night at the Meriton. I didn't want to squish it because of the carpet, so I emptied a tissue box and trapped it with one of the hotel information cards. I then hurriedly brought it out to the balcony and left everything there.

3. The carpet wasn't clean as every time I took a shower, the water beneath my rubber slippers turned black. I did not use my flip flops outside so I can't think of anything else to account for the dirt. This also hasn't happened before.

4. The soap dish in the shower had soap scum from previous guests.

5. Dust under the swivel TV mount. It was so thick I wrote a note for the housekeeping agent and it never disappeared during the four nights we stayed there.

I told the duty manager about the toilet problem and he offered to let housekeeping go back and clean it. I declined by saying that since they couldn't get it right the first time, I'd rather do it myself. He also offered to give us late check-out, but I told him that we didn't need it as our flight was early in the morning.

Tip: Unless you want water dripping all over the place, bring your own soap dish because the one they have is a wire basket that's located on a ledge away from the sink.