Halswell Lodge

We were moved from studio No. 23 to No. 21 with no apology, and the second room had its own problems. The TV didn’t work, the toilet wouldn’t flush properly, and the shower flooded. A plumber came at 9pm, nine hours after we called about the shower, and didn’t fix the toilet because he hadn’t been asked to. The cupboards smelled, the beds made us itch again, and the old mattress rolled toward the middle. We were told, “if you're not happy we can refund you,” but I wasn’t willing to wait 14 days for my money back. The first studio smelled strongly of BO. It looked clean, but we itched all night and woke up covered in bites. I’m sure they were bed bugs. The towels also smelled of BO, the carpets were dirty, the fridge froze everything, and the pots weren’t clean. The studio was meant for three, but came with one bowl, two teaspoons and one dessert spoon. The shower flooded there too. The iron board was broken and the iron wouldn’t heat up. Then the ceiling leaked and left the kitchenette flooded when we woke up. The free laundry was disgustingly filthy, as if it hadn’t been cleaned in months, and the dryer smelled like a sweat shop. What a waste of time and money. The female receptionist was rude and inconsiderate. Why bother?

The location made it easy to walk to restaurants, museums, public transport and the wharf. Parking is available on site for an extra $15, though the spaces are a tight squeeze for every vehicle. We managed it. We had an easy check-in and stayed in the king spa suite. The building is a beautiful old hotel, and the architecture in that suite is magnificent. There’s a huge bedroom and a nice jetted soaking tub. No microwave in the room, but there is a mini fridge. We’d stay again and recommend it, especially for the value.

The clean sheets and bedding and the convenient central spot were about the only good parts. We were in the family unit, where two of the four beds were broken. The windows wouldn’t open, the outside timbers were rotten, and the place reeked of cigarette smoke. The showerhead holder was broken too. It looked nothing like the photos on the website.

The water tasted so foul it made me feel ill, and there was an unpleasant, peculiar smell throughout the place. I won’t come back or recommend it. Our room door was a nightmare to close. The walls were so thin we could hear everything from other rooms and people talking outside. The shower barely had any pressure and wouldn’t drain, so a shower longer than a minute would flood the room. The TV remote had no batteries, so we couldn’t watch anything. In the single bed, even a small movement shifted the whole bed, and I’d end up waking somewhere else in the room. Parking was disorganised despite the fee, and squeezing our car out was difficult. Thank goodness we only stayed one night.