Nightcap at Glengala Hotel

The person who checked us in gave incredible service, and the location was decent, near trains and buses for getting to and from the city. Those were the good parts. Our room was dirty, with stains all over the bedding on a sofa bed that had already been folded out. We had a family room, but it was a tight squeeze. In the end, we cut our stay short and went home.

The rest of our stay was fine, and once the booking was sorted Donna was polite and nice to us. The location was convenient, and we were busy working most days, though we didn’t get to enjoy the complimentary drinks we were offered. The stressful part was check-in. I’d booked four nights at Glengala Hotel through Booking.com. The booking said “pay at the property” and no prepayment was required. Before arriving, I used the online pre-check-in link and submitted my card details as requested. At the desk, Donna spoke loudly enough for nearby guests to hear everything. She kept asking how we could stay without paying and twice said Booking.com had cancelled our reservation because we hadn’t paid. I calmly explained what the booking said and that I’d followed the instructions. Donna went back and forth, later saying she’d been on the phone with Booking.com for an hour. She checked the screen and again insisted the booking was cancelled. We were told to pay a $250 inconvenience fee and rebook at a rate nearly three times higher than the original. I had screenshots of the confirmation and conditions. After I showed them and said we’d contact Booking.com directly, our original booking was suddenly honoured. Any dispute between the hotel and Booking.com should be handled internally, not put on guests in a loud, confrontational way at reception. The initial handling caused unnecessary stress, even though things were fine after that.

The family room had plenty of space for four adults and one toddler, and the mattress was so comfortable it reminded me of one at the Crown Hotel, though maybe that’s just me 😁. We had a really good stay and would definitely return. It was extremely hot in Melbourne yesterday (9/1), and since we don’t have air-conditioning at home, we decided to stay here in Glengala. The price was fair.

We arrived with a valid Booking.com reservation and were refused check-in. Booking.com later confirmed it was a hotel refusal and issued a full refund. We were left without a place to stay that night and got to work late. The whole experience was stressful and disruptive. I’m sharing it to warn other travellers. This account is from our firsthand experience, and we can provide video footage from the scene if its accuracy is questioned. We won’t stay here again and don’t recommend the property. We’d completed online check-in in advance using the official link the hotel sent through Booking, and entered my credit card details for the security deposit. The message said this would save time on arrival. Since we were short on time and had to go to work, I first went to the desk with my partner’s passport while he waited in the car. Staff repeatedly pointed at it, questioned his identity, said he was “not on a working holiday,” and demanded a bill to verify his address. I asked my partner to come in and explain in person, but staff still said we couldn’t check in without a mobile phone bill showing an address. We did have one, but it showed an old address. They seemed to assume we had no address because they weren’t communicating properly, and only later acknowledged an old address might be accepted. Then they demanded our full card details again to charge the deposit, even though we’d already entered them, including the security code, in the hotel’s online check-in system. When we raised security concerns, staff denied the check-in message came from the hotel, said Booking had sent it, and wouldn’t acknowledge their own system. They told us to contact Booking ourselves to cancel, saying the hotel hadn’t received payment. The staff’s manner throughout was aggressive and uncomfortable. When we asked if short-term travellers staying one night had to show the same documents, they replied, “Travel? No! You’ve been in Australia for so long, how could you not have a bill?” In the end, they still refused us check-in and told us to cancel ourselves.