Mercure Pakenham

The room was lovely and clean, and the stay suited our needs. It was a bit far from everything, and I had to wait quite a while to check in because no one was at the front desk. Still, it was a lovely stay.

The restaurant was closed for remodelling, but the Cardinia club is right next door and served a good dinner. The hotel itself is new, with very nice, comfortable rooms and great Wi-Fi.

We were locked out of our room for over an hour, with my son waiting outside too, and no one could explain what had gone wrong. The place itself looked amazing when we arrived, smelled good, and our room was picture perfect. We went to dinner with our card, but couldn't get back in. I called after hours and explained the problem to Samantha. She tried security, couldn't reach anyone, and said she'd call back. I felt brushed off, as though it was our fault we were locked out. About ten minutes later I called again. Samantha answered rudely and said security wasn't answering and she couldn't do anything. She said she didn't know if we'd done something wrong, and spoke as if it was my fault she had to work. She never checked in to tell us she was still trying. Another woman answered my next call. I can't remember her name, but I think it was Chantel. She understood why I was frustrated, called security, and reached them after about seven minutes. She said they'd call back with an estimated arrival time in two minutes. Ten minutes later, security still hadn't called, so I rang again. Another five or ten minutes passed before I heard they were on their way. The next day, someone called to ask what had happened, and that was the end of it. If Samantha hadn't spoken to me that way, we would have been okay. Security was also very wrong to be unreachable. If you're on call, you need to have your phone with you.

The day after the wedding, a pipe burst across the street and the water was off for 12 hours. It wasn't the hotel's fault, but it was tough for guests, especially anyone recovering from the wedding festivities. The staff were fantastic and very accommodating throughout our weekend stay. When we arrived, there was a hole in the wall. Staff promptly offered to move us, but we said we'd stay and went out for dinner. After we returned and the staff had gone home, we found the TV had been hit by something and had a line through the picture. We also had trouble connecting and casting to it. We told staff in the morning, and after a bit of arranging between two other rooms, they moved us without any fuss and gave us a bottle of champagne for the hassle. It's unfortunate there have been unsavoury guests in the past.