Crest On Barkly Serviced Apartments

We had booked a roomed and upon arrival were informed of an exhorbitant and unexpected security deposit of $300 which we did not have in the right format of card so we could not pay it, they then proceded to promise us a refund which we applied for that night. However the next day we were informed by email that our refund was rejected and they would be keeping our money. This felt like blatent robbery and on our 10th anniversery was extremly upsetting and cruel.

This is definitely not a 4 star hotel as advertised. It doesn’t even meet the definition for a three star hotel according to Star Ratings Australia. We stayed in a 3 bedroom apartment. The wifi never worked during our stay so we went to contact reception on the hotel phone which was completely dead. Contacted reception on our mobiles twice on two separate days and were told someone would be up to look at it in 30 minutes. Nobody ever came. The building also appears to be in a data hole so there’s minimal internet at all. Ever the optimists, we decided to watch telly in the lounge instead.. Except the tv requires internet and isn’t connected to an antenna. No TV then. With continued optimism, it’s time to bath our 1 year old. Except there’s no bath despite us booking one based on the photos on the booking page. Another call to reception who state none of the apartments have baths and the photos online are ‘generic’. A shower it is then. Dodge the mouldy bits and it’s fine. The mattresses are tired and lumpy old things but the sheets are super clean. The toilet is across from the kitchen which would be fine however there is no exhaust fan in there. At least I felt refreshed as the cool breeze from the broken window (refer to photo) cooled my neck. Make no mistake, this is a VERY old building that has been tarted up with carpet, cheap cabinetry, broken curtains, and a paint job that a blind man would be proud of. Despite this, we did enjoy our stay. But we are optimists.

We arrived in a taxi in pouring rain in the dark and it wasn't obvious how to get our luggage up two flights of wet stairs. After searching in the dark we noticed a button by the side of the garage door and pressed it but couldn't understand the person who answered so I walked up the stairs and went to Reception leaving my brother with our luggage. This is not an ideal introduction to the hotel and the hotel could have provided advice about this in their email tto us after the booking was made. We were given a spacious room but there wasn't enough storage space for clothes. There was a desk for us to use our laptops but no nearby power outlets. The power outlets were on the cabinet on the opposite wall which housed the fridge and crockery. This meant that the power cord had to stretch across the room which was a bit dangerous. There was only one chair in this twin room. The hotel had a policy of conserving water by only laundering towels which were left on the floor but we got fresh towels virtually every day of our 11 night stay. on three occasions we put out a service the room sign and on only one occasion was our sink cleaned. The waste paper basket was emptied every day, which we appreciated very much. The linen didn't appear to be changed throughout our stay. The cleaning staff didn't replenish our soaps and shower gels when. we put out the service room sign so one evening I had to ask Reception for the items we needed. They apologised and got us what we needed immediately. The people at Reception were always friendly and helpful and the location of thje hotel was excellent, being so close to St Kilda Road and its trams and buses and a short walk to St Kilda beach. We found the steps to enter the hotel a challenge and were not prepared to use the lift to the garage to avoid them.