Veriu Camperdown

The room was enormous and very white, with every surface painted white. It felt empty, as there wasn’t any functional furniture, not even one chair. The appliances worked well, and the washer and dryer were useful. But the room was dusty and hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned when we checked in. We were also short on towels, and I had to air dry before my meeting the next morning. Emails to the “out of hours” contact went unanswered, and the emergency numbers didn’t work from either the room phone or our non-Australian mobiles. Amenities were meant to be replenished every two days, but weren’t, and after four days we had to remind them a cleaning was due. On our third night, people in another room held a huge after-hours party directly above us, with booming bass, dancing on our ceiling, and furniture moving all night. Reception was closed, calls didn’t work, and our complaints went unanswered until security happened to stroll by very late. We got an email apology at 5pm the next day, with no compensation or real recognition of the inconvenience, mostly a justification of their hours. The hotel is on a busy road between run-down shops, piles of rubbish, and empty buildings. It didn’t feel safe or clean, even though there are lots of bus services right outside. Reception is only open from 8am to 8pm. When we arrived late, we got an email with a key code that worked fine. There are lots of nice parts of Camperdown, but we wouldn’t recommend Veriu Camperdown to friends or enemies. Such a terrible experience for such an expensive place to stay.

We had booked through booking.com and entered our information, including that we had a car and its registration number. When we got there, reception said the car park was sold out. We parked in the bus lane after 3pm and got a $330 fine from Sydney council. A very bad experience with this place.

The hotel itself is quite nice, and there’s a wheelchair lift on the ground floor. On the third floor, at least, there’s a lip to get over to enter the rooms. My main concerns were how the bed was made and the safety around the location. The mattress had just a flat sheet, not fitted and not tucked in, and the doona was sandwiched between two flat sheets instead of having a doona cover, which felt weird. I found out not long into my stay that there’s a brothel nearby, and the street felt a bit sketchy at night. I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable bringing kids, despite the hotel itself. Some kind of key card verification for access to floors 2-4 would be a good idea.

My friend stayed in 407 last night and had many bed bug bites. Hygiene and maintenance at this level are unacceptable.