Ben B
Google
Great Location - Poor Accommodation & Service!||We first stayed here 11years ago and were VERY disappointed (my last review is still listed here on Trip Advisor - September 2013). |My partner thought she’d give us a night away and after reading some of the more recent 4-5 star reviews, we thought that things had changed. |Unfortunately, we were wrong.||I’m not sure if other people have a different expectation than us when paying $200+ per night, or they were lucky to get a better room, but things have only marginally been upgraded and our experience doesn’t come close to what some other reviewers have written.|For $200 per night for a one bedroom unit, we expect better than what Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges provide.||We were placed in a centre unit of three. |The interior of this unit was better than the one we inhabited in 2013 and had been given a facelift with newer furnishing, upgraded floors, ceiling and walls. However, whilst renovating the walls I think they forgot to include any sound proofing.|The noise by other guests next door, from both left and right of the unit, was ridiculous. What sounded like doors or cupboards being slammed shut went on and on during the late evening and early morning. ||There was no mould this time and a de-humidifier was going flat out when we arrived. |This seemed to be working well and the room was dry. We don’t use a de-humidifier where we live, were not familiar with it and as there were no instructions or notice to turn it off, we left it going. Not a good idea, because at 1:45am the unit decided to start beeping loudly to advise us of something wrong. I immediately turned it off.||Although we didn’t expect anyone snooping around outside, the bedroom curtains didn’t shut completely (see attached photo) and there were NO curtains in the front room, apart from see-through white mesh ones.|Privacy was non-existent.||The bathroom lights didn’t work - virtually just glowed - a candle would have provided better light.|We had to compensate for this lack of light by using one of the bedside table lamps (see attached photo) which was ridiculous and it looked like the wiring at the damaged lamp plug could potentially be dangerous (see attached photo).|When we told the reception about this, it was made out to be our fault for not turning up the dimmer switch. Funny thing was, they didn’t have a dimmer switch, just on on/off switch.||As I said at the start, there have been some improvements, however, they forgot to sort out the gas cooker. The control nobs on the cooker were basically unreadable (see attached photo) and badly damaged.|The gas was barely coming out (maybe the bottle was empty?) and was only just enough to warm some steak we’d purchased for dinner.||As to the wildlife, we saw a sugar glider, a long-nosed bandicoot, a honeyeater and a whip bird. We also heard a wompoo pigeon.|The sugar glider and bandicoot looked like the ones we saw being feed last visit but I don’t think they’d have lasted 11 years.|We actually see more wildlife where we live near Kuranda. Not that that is the fault of CWRL.||So to sum up - although there have been some improvements, sadly, it does not measure up to comparable $200 a night accommodation we have stayed in in the past and although the location is very nice and the surrounding country-side is beautiful, I’d recommend staying in some better accomodation in the nearby areas and visiting the free rainforest reserves and national parks during the morning, evening, or at night, where you see far more birds & wildlife.|Very disappointing that the General Manager at Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges doesn’t use some of the profits to make sure the units and facilities are of a better standard. When fully booked, their income is over $2,000.00 per night!||We won’t be staying here again (we’ve learnt our lesson) and we WOULD NOT recommend Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges.
