Daniel T
Google
I stayed here for three nights when visiting melbourne last week, the exterior of the hotel was stunning and is located in a quiet street in the inner city area. Inside is dated, but thats expected being such an older federation style building, however, I do feel like the place needs to be maintained a little better than it is at the moment. The pillows were thin and hard and no optional pillows in the cupboard like alot of other hotels have, which made sleeping difficult for me, I kept waking up multiple times in the night with a stiff neck, and every time someone would walk past, I felt like there was an earthquake, so I couldnt even have a little nap during the day that was much needed due to having had a bad nights sleep, so that part was frustrating, the quilt also had some light brown stains on it before I even slept in the bed on the first night, which isnt a good look.
I didnt mind how the private bathroom is separate to the room, its a proper spacious bathroom too with your own lock so that no one else uses it, its my first time being in room where your bathroom is separate to your room, I didnt love it or hate it, its just unique and there are pros and cons to having your private bathroom outside your room. The breakfast is complimentary which is lovely, for the amount you pay for your room, its a mini buffet style breakfast which is handy when there isnt many places to go for breakfast thats conveniently located close by. The lock on my door is a much older system, there were times where I would swipe my card and it opened my door and there were times where it wouldnt, it still remained locked, I reported this to the reception staff who came and had a look at it too and was surprised to see that it wasnt consistently working, it sometimes very stubbornly wouldnt open my door which can be frustrating when you just want to go to bed when you arrive home from a late night, I told them that Im okay with tolerating it until the end of my stay, but they should get someone to look at it before someone else takes the room after me. I hope they do.
In the room where the complimentary coffee/tea is, I wanted to use one of the teaspoons to eat something that I bought, and the teaspoon was dirty, it was coated in something light brown (tea or coffee) with what appeared to look like lipstick on the bottom of it that I very easily scratched off, I get it, dishwashers are not perfect, but if they just forgot to replace utensils with a clean one then thats pretty gross. Not sure what happened, but it is what it is, I had a dirty utensil in the room.
Housekeeping is not included, which is fair enough, some hotels are doing this now to keep rates down and I do not mind this, however, I was staying there for 3 nights, and when I ran out of towels, I asked reception and told them that I need more towels, "Towels" (plural), when I arrived back into my room from heading out for the day, I had one single towel placed in my room for my use, so its quite obvious that they're being very sparing with these kind of things to save a bit of money.
While I really appreciate the complimentary breakfast, I wouldve much rather they save their money on the daily breakfasts and just invest into some basic things that make a guests stay comfortable.
I do visit melbourne 2-3 times a year, would I stay here again? definitely not, but I have no regrets about staying here during my last visit as it was an experience and was happy that I gave them a try. There are definitely some pros and cons to this hotel, I would say to anyone staying here to judge it for yourself, I personally didnt have a great experience here, but I can imagine there will be alot of people who will have a great experience. The hotel is obviously a hit and miss kind of place, this is just an honest review about the place.
