AndyR

Just thought I should let people know about our recent experience staying here, as they did come highly recommended from searching this forum, but this is not something I am going to do.

We arrived in Brisbane last week and had pre-booked 16 nights in a 1 Bed Apartment at Spring Hill Gardens. The location on Bowen Street is excellent as your about a 10 minute walk to Queen Street and only a couple of mins from the Central Station, but for us this is where the positives stop.

When we checked in the manager on duty couldn't find our keys so she called her husband to bring them over. We waited about 10 minutes and we he arrived he just dropped the keys in my hand with a face like a smacked bum and walked off without saying a word!!!

The apartment we had was filthy dirty! The more we looked the worse it got, we had to wipe all the shelves down in the room ourselves because they were thick with dust. We rang the managers up about it and all they could say was the room had been cleaned and that was it?!?! Anyway, first night we got in bed and noticed the sheets were all stained, not just a little but proper bright yellow stained! We rang in the morning to complain and all they could say was "OK". No apology nothing.

Next night the misses got bit by a White Tail in the bed, which gave her a nasty infection which she is on antibiotics for now. A couple of days later we realised how it got in because we saw the maids lying clean bed sheets for other apartments on the floor outside while they did the rooms!

Also, when we checked in we paid for internet access for 1 week but it didn't work as they need to plug in a specific modem into the phone point in the room. We rang to get it installed, the manager comes down 3 hours later, comes in, plugs the modem in and leaves without saying a single word!!!! It still didn't work for 3 days and when we did ring to tell them all they said was "yep we know its not working" and that was it. Nothing more!

Anyway, our 3rd day we get up in the morning and all the taps and shower are giving out bright yellow water We go and tell the managers who were both in the office and all they can say is "your room is nothing special, we are all on the same pipe!" We basically had to force him to say he would look at it, but when we came back 4 hours later it was still the same and when we rang to check they told us he hadn't either been to check! We filled the sink and bath with the yellow water and told him to come and check as we were going out. We come back 2 hours later to find a note under our door from the manger saying "I have drank the water and don't see the problem?". In the room was his dirty cup on the side, sinks still full of yellow water, but thankfully the tap was working, but he obviously thought we were making it up!

Last straw was on the 6th day. We had been spotting the odd ant in the kitchen in the morning but on this morning the kitchen was infested with them. They were everywhere!!!! We killed all we could and rang reception who said they would come and check. You can see where this is going......

We came back about 8hrs later, walked in the room and the whole kitchen counters were swarming with ants!!! There must have been 100 ants on the counter so I rang up the manager to tell him and he said "I checked earlier and there was nothing there", so I told him there are tons now and he just again repeats "well there wasn't earlier!!!" We eventually managed to get him to come down and all he does is come in, wipe the ants of the counter into a bucket, using our dishcloth which he then puts back in the sink, before giving us a can of ant killer and then walks out!!!"

We'd had enough by then and checked out yesterday morning, only having stayed 7 of 16 days. The whole experience was a nightmare, not helped by the total "I really don't give a toss" attitude from both the managers there. They were our first experience of Ozzies and was a total shock to be honest. We have traveled a lot in the past and stayed at hundreds of hotels around the world, but have never experienced managers or such poor accommodation as this. We stopped in a Youth Hostel in New Zealand before coming here and that looked like a 5 star hotel compared to this place.

Thats our experience anyway. I know everyone will have different experience of hotels but this is ours so I hope you find it useful if you consider this as a place to stay in Brisbane. We only found positive reviews on BE before this, but since have found plenty of stories like ours on the web so I know we are not alone.

Basically, avoid Spring Hill Garden Apartments!

The Bloke

It sounds like Fawlty Towers was run better, but then again, it's not one of the classier of Brisbane's accommodation establishments.
It could have been worse, alot of the similar class establishments are used by certain "professional" women to conduct business in.

Bernieboy

A certain witchy type woman i know says the same things about your place

Pollyana

Oi! I didn't want him to know what this place gets used for when he's at work

cookiestar

Sorry to hear you seem to have a bad experience. We thought it was great for the price when we stayed there, but that was over a year ago now.

Are Sue and Wayne still the managers? We thought Sue in particular was lovely. Always took time to have a chat, and offer advice on places to eat/drink locally and things to see and do.

The Bloke

AndyR

Yep still Sue & Wayne. Sue was OK when we first arrived but then didn't say much after that and Wayne, well.......

Eastend Girl

That's terrible - drove past there yesterday and it looks nice from outside

Rudi

Oh that's horrible. What an awful start for your time here. It puts a real downer on it all. I hope things are looking up for you now.

Love

Rudi
x

AndyR

Thx. Since we moved out into another apartment we have been much happier. Oz isn't what we expected so far, well the people aren't anyway, but we're hoping its just because were stuck in the CBD most of the time, so once we get out and about next week when we get a camper hopefully it'll all change.

Apart from that though everything has been good, esp since we left Spring Hill Appts!

Potato_potato

Sounds like a nightmare. Get used to that "I don't give a toss" attitude. Almost everyone here seems to have it in varying degrees.

I've been back 3 months in Brisbane (big mistake) and I think the only nice person I've come across (getting set up dealing with all types of people) was a kiwi guy who delivered a bed I bought. He had only been here 6 weeks and was shocked at how rude people were compared to NZ.

AndyR

I can beleive it actually. We'll give it time in Oz and see how it goes anyway, but yeah still shocked at the attitude of people we encountered in brissy. Been in Surfers Paradise area for a few days now in our campervan, and apart from the shockingly bad weather down here, the people seem a lot better so far (that is apart from the drunk irish football fans parked next to us!!).

dejags

Whilst I am not dismissing your opinion, I just find the accounts of rudeness and racism so difficult to believe.

I have not ONCE encountered a rude person. Australians have been unfailingly polite and helpful since the day we arrived.

It's bizarre how different people's experiences can be.

sonlymewalter

Going by this post and your other, it seems like Australia isn't your cuppa tea mate.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=614926

mpgrewal

Andy,
As Australia is known for its graceful, jovial and helping people. How many like that have you encountered in the past 2 weeks?

I am worried after seeing your posts