Newington Apartments

The beds were comfortable, and the room had a modern bathroom and two good sized TVs. But it wasn’t ready when we arrived after 2pm, and noise carried over from the hotel/pub across the parking lot. For four of us, there weren’t enough dishes or seats at the small table. The lounge chair under the seat was disgusting and looked like it had never been cleaned, and the doona cover kept coming loose. I’ve stayed in worse places, but this didn’t feel like good value. Next time I stay overnight in Ballarat, I’ll try somewhere else.

The skylights over the beds make it much too bright to sleep past 7am. The queen bed also faces the main door, with an AC unit right over your head. The layout is odd, and the doors and shelves are poorly aligned. One door doesn’t close properly, so it takes several tries entering the code and pushing it tighter before it locks or unlocks. The bathroom shelves aren’t screwed in securely either, and things slide off.

We stayed one night with our two kids in a twin queen room at the Newington Apartments, behind the Bunch of Grapes Hotel. These are fairly new motor inn style apartments. The price is reasonable, there’s a decent little kitchen and an allocated parking space, and the apartment was nicely fitted out. The attached hotel can deliver meals to the room, and the WiFi is reasonable. The bed area was warm, though the bed itself was very soft and saggy, which wasn’t comfortable. The door had a bad draft and made sitting on the couch very cold. Skylights directly above both beds mean a full moon or daytime light can make sleeping difficult. There can be some pub noise nearby, though it didn’t bother us much on a quiet Thursday night. Our bin hadn’t been emptied and had smelly old food in it.

The location was peaceful, the room was huge, and there was a shared washing machine and dryer guests could use for free. The room code came by text, so make sure you give the right number when booking. I’d recently got a new Australian number and didn’t receive the reception message, but when I called, they quickly texted me the code.