Manly Paradise Motel & Apartments

The rooms are simple, clean and comfortable, and the location is great, right opposite the beach. After hours, access is secure. Keep in mind there’s no 24-hour reception, so if you arrive late you’ll need to call a number to get in.

We stayed five nights and hardly slept on two of them because roadworks were going on at night. Double glazing would help. The toilet also didn’t flush properly. The website was misleading: it showed a pool, but when my husband asked if we could use it, he was told there wasn’t one.

The view and location are doing all the heavy lifting here. I booked a room and got upgraded to a Corner room with views of both the beach and the street behind. That was easily the only good thing about it. If your Corner room has a window facing the back street, expect not to sleep. For a very exorbitant price, I arrived to find the beds still unmade from the previous guests. Street noise was the worst part of the stay: a commercial truck and cherry picker were making a lot of noise outside from 6:30am every morning, so I got no decent sleep. The owner is too cheap to invest in double-glazed windows or soundproofing. The archaic bathroom has no exhaust fan, and its window is permanently open, letting in more noise. A thin sliding door separates it from the room. At around 300 AUD a night on average, they can easily afford soundproofing and double-glazed windows.

My motel room was so small when I checked in that I asked to upgrade. Reception switched me to Studio Room 121, which had a separate lounge and was twice the size for just $30 more per night. Thanks to the receptionist for changing the room, since it had been allocated to someone else. It was a great room with a great view! If there are more than two of you, don’t book a motel room. Go up to the next room type, it’s much more comfortable.