Beachside Resort - Kawana Waters

Being able to walk to the shopping centre in about two minutes and have the beach right across the road made this a really convenient stay. The staff were friendly and helpful whenever we needed anything, and the resort had everything we needed. We’ve returned to Beachside Resort many times over the past five years and plan to keep coming back. We stayed in Beachside Resort (6D) again recently, and since our visit a year earlier the apartment had been beautifully renovated. It was clean, fresh and very well equipped, with beach views from all the main rooms. We watched the sunrise from the balcony each morning and saw the moon rise over the sea at night. I can highly recommend the resort.

We booked the South Penthouse 18 months ahead for our daughter’s wedding, but a few months before the trip we were told the owner had decided to use it and we couldn’t stay there. Management offered what they called their best three-bedroom ocean-view apartment, 6D, saying it had recently been renovated. We agreed, only to find that it hadn’t been renovated at all. The bathrooms were very old, with dirty grout, a cracked drain, tape around a shower fitting, black mould on the shower doors and no extractor fan. The master suite had no air conditioning, and the fan control had no markings, so it was impossible to tell which setting it was on. On the second night, a cockroach crawled over my daughter’s arm and woke her. When we reported it, a man came to look and suggested we must have left a door or window open, though we hadn’t. He left us a can of spray to use ourselves. We sprayed around the apartment, but cockroaches bothered us all week. We were so worried that we left a light on in every bedroom all night. There was hardly ever anyone at reception, and the shutters were usually down. When we did speak with staff, they were unpleasant. Management never checked whether the cockroach problem had been sorted out. I emailed twice with our complaints and plenty of photos of the bathrooms and cockroaches, but got no reply either time. I wouldn’t recommend staying here.

Our stay never happened, but we were still charged the full $400 after a simple mistake with the booking dates. They wouldn’t let us reschedule or offer even a partial refund, despite there being no cleaning, utilities or servicing costs. Extremely disappointing from Beachside Resort Kawana Waters. I can’t recommend it, and I won’t book again.

The pool was a real hit with the kids, and the surf club across the road was a great tip. Guests get 5% off there, and the beach and park were handy too. Being behind Kawana shopping centre made it easy to walk everywhere. We also appreciated having a second car space. The booking was a mess, though. We’d reserved and paid for the three-bedroom penthouse, but the hotel emailed afterwards to say it wasn’t available. We booked on the day, but the listing was still on qantas.com, and the hotel is responsible for keeping its availability accurate, not the third-party site. I expect the manager will rebut this, as they do with every low rating, so I want to be clear about that. The refund they first offered didn’t match the listed price. They proposed a credit with a six-month expiry, which wouldn’t work for us as Australians living in the U.S. It took a lot of negotiation to get a fair refund, and then we cancelled through Qantas and booked directly with the hotel. Sorting it all out took over an hour. The hotel later offered us a two-bedroom apartment instead. There were four adults and two children, so we were short a bed. Our four-year-old had to sleep with us, and the seven-year-old got a trundle that wasn’t made up, so we had to do it ourselves. The room was clean but very worn. The bathroom window was taped shut and wouldn’t open, and its fan didn’t work. The living-room AC wasn’t very cold and smelled stale. We didn’t get enough bath towels after the downgrade, there were no pool towels despite signs saying not to use bath towels, and the balcony doors were very difficult to open. The beds weren’t comfortable either. The soap was extremely cheap and felt like plastic. Given how expensive the place is, they could improve the soap and shampoo. The spa looked nice but was cold and out of order, and everyone at the desk had left for the day.