My family and I stayed at Mantra Wollongong for 1 night as part of a family road trip. When we arrived at the front of the hotel by car, there was nowhere to stop the car so I had to park a block away and walk to the entrance.
The receptionist was very quick to check us in and charge my card. After all the paperwork was signed (and my card charged for the full price), she said “Oh, by the way, I’m sorry but the only elevator in the building is broken, so you’re going to have to use the stairs.” Our room was on the 6th floor.
I asked her, “You mean we have to bring our luggage up 6 floors by stairs?” To which she replied “Yes, we’re fully booked, I’m sorry but there’s nothing we can do.” There was no offer of any compensation, not even a 10% discount or bottled water.
Still, my sister and I, both in our late 30s, lugged 2 x 20kg suitcases and 2 small ones up 6 floors via dusty and stuffy fire stairs.
When we finally reached the room, NONE of the 4 key cards worked. NONE.
So I had to go all the way back down again to get replacement key cards, and walk up the 6 floors again. All this on a 36 degrees day.
On top of all this, the 2 bedroom apartment was advertised as air-conditioned, but there was only 1 aircon unit in the living room. The 2 bedrooms had no aircon.
The ‘eco-friendly’ body wash and shampoo pump bottles provided were half-full and extremely diluted from spending months under the shower spray, and just didn’t feel sanitary at all. All this for $400/night.