Alfred Apartment

I've stayed here several times for work. Some rooms are okay, with good sized bathrooms and, in some cases, balconies. Most are fairly clean, apart from the cockroaches, but the walls are so thin you can hear the next room talking or the upstairs neighbour using the toilet. Maintenance is severely lacking, and customer service hasn't helped. There were broken windows, holes in the flyscreens and gyprock, broken bulbs, and an entry door that stuck on the floor. There were two TV remotes, and neither worked. In room 3, the large TV was on a dangerously undersized bracket that had sunk into the gyprock and crushed the wall, bending the noggin. The TV was bowing down and away from the wall, right where it could hit your head coming in or out of the room or bathroom. I wish I'd saved a photo of the bracket. It's amazing the TV hasn't fallen off yet. My colleague's room had a huge gap under the entrance door, so he rolled up towels to block it enough to dim the light and noise and get some sleep. One time we were sent the same room codes and walked in on my colleague. I called reception about getting a working remote, and they said someone would bring one the next day. Nobody came, so I called again the day after and got the same answer. I spent over an hour trying to program it before finding out it wasn't compatible with that brand of TV. That was the last straw. One night the cleaners came into the next room at 9:30pm, banging and vacuuming until after 11. The foyer door alarm also goes off in the middle of the night. On another stay there was no toilet paper, a soft drink can behind the curtain, and rubbish in the bathroom cupboard.

The manager didn't seem to care that my son had a serious accident and broken his leg, and was in the emergency department at GC uni hospital. I called to find out if my booking had been cancelled, only to be asked if I was calling to book in. I told her to check my email, where I'd requested a refund because of what happened the night before. She still didn't care or even try to see if the dates could be changed. She did nothing to help. Communication was poor. I'm pretty sure the apartment I booked looks and smells just like their attitude. If you want to work and live in Australia, maybe learn our language as a sign of respect for this country. I hope you're happy with the outcome, because this was absolutely disgusting behaviour.

We were travelling 10 hours from Victoria, and the apartment didn't match the pictures online. The location in the text messages was confusing and misleading, and when they finally sent the check-in details, the foyer access codes didn't work. We called management and got very little help. They swore on the phone, and we had to open a window and reach through to unlock the door. Before arriving, we'd called many times to ask about check-in because we hadn't heard anything and needed reassurance. They said the room was being cleaned, but it was disgusting when we got there, as the pictures show. Alarms went off randomly, loudly throughout the building and in our bedroom. Management said other residents had left a door open. Why should we be punished for that? We could hear people through the walls and upstairs moving furniture, and other residents were loud and disrespectful. There were only three parking spaces for the whole building, and they expected us to park at a nearby shopping centre. So disappointing.

The smoke alarm battery was failing and the alarm kept beeping. I called the after-hours number and they said they'd get back to me, but nothing happened for 40 minutes. When I called again, they said they'd deal with it in the morning. I said that wasn't good enough, so they said the manager would call in a few minutes. After another half hour, I took the battery out and went to bed.