SoYa on Davis Apartment Hotel

These refurbished 60s flats are really cute. Some parts are a little run down and the stove is old, but I loved the place. It was roomy and very comfy, with everything I needed: a coffee machine, streaming, air conditioning, an opening window, and a low-cost washing machine and dryer on site. There’s no 24-hour reception, but it felt very safe and the location is great. I’ve stayed in lots of Melbourne apartments and really liked this one. Great value.

The place was clean and felt private, and the staff were helpful from arrival right through checkout. I liked how quiet the area was, with cafes and trams and trains close by. The rooms are older than I expected, though. It’s a renovated boutique apartment complex, but some details seem to have been skipped, and I wish I’d known the other location was much more modern.

We came back to So Ya for another stay, this time with our two small dogs in a pet-friendly apartment. The location is great, near public transport but still quiet at night, and there are so many good pubs and restaurants nearby that we barely cooked despite having apartment facilities. The staff were friendly and really helpful again.

The room was noisy from the toilet plumbing and wasn’t very clean. The worst issue was that housekeeping skipped our room two days in a row, even though we’d put the sign on the door correctly. On day one I assumed it was an honest mistake and didn’t complain. The next day I asked calmly what had happened, and was told it was because we’d left things on the bed. We hadn’t. And even if we had, that wouldn’t explain why the bathroom and the rest of the room weren’t cleaned either. There was only one towel for the two of us, too. When I pointed all this out, I got an explanation that didn’t make sense and was made to feel like I was the stupid one. In 20 years of travelling, I’ve never heard that excuse before. It really felt made up. There were some good points, but too many things upset us. At check-in we were asked a lot of questions in a pretty intrusive way. We saw two other guests checking in, and interestingly, they weren’t asked those kinds of questions.