PackJetRoam

The building features a residential and the hotel, there are multiple entrances which is slightly confusing and they could provide a better signage for the hotel entrance. There was also no place to park to unload baggage so my Uber had to park in a random lane way and I had to drag a bunch of my bags to find the entrance.

LOCATION

This hotel is located in Southbank just behind Crown Casino. The location is great for people who may want to explore the Southbank area but it is also not far from the city centre with a couple of stops by tram.

CHECK IN

The check in was fairly quick and I was assigned to the 8th floor, 2 bedroom apartment which I was upgraded to from the original 1 bedroom but I was not informed of the upgrade, nor was I being acknowledged of my Gold status verbally, but they did provide a welcome amenity in the room, which was a bottle of sparkling water and a packet of roasted & salted cashew nuts.

ROOM

Upon entering the apartment, the kitchen is located on the left, with a corridor on the right leading to the bathroom. Along the corridor hides the refrigerator and the washer dryer, I do like that they provide washing powder as some places do not, although the fridge was not stocked.

The bathroom was spacious and clean, with hidden storage behind the mirror above the sink and also the plug is hidden inside, which for some people who may not be aware might be bringing the hair dryer out to the room.

The kitchen area has a good variety of plates, cups, cookery and utensils for a cook meal, there’s also an oven but I couldn’t find a tray to put my food, there is a tray on the bottom but I was hoping to have an oven safe plate/dish that I can put my food in and also mitt to take it out after, so I instead use the pan to cook my food. They do provide washing liquid as well but it’s a small packet and also a very small sponge to wash, it’s sufficient for small amount of washing and they also have a dishwasher that you can use along with the dishwasher powder. Although it would be good if they have instruction on how to operate that as I thought it would run after pressing the play button but I found it the next morning that it hasn’t started.

Opposite the kitchen is a dining table that sits 4, further into the apartment is the living room with a sofa and a chair. The TV is not that big but it’s ok for general viewing, they also provide a speaker with Bluetooth function but I couldn’t get it to pair for some reason. There’s also an indoor balcony with 2 chairs and a coffee table, it’s not the best ventilation wise but it’s a non smoking property so it’s ok.

Both of the rooms have a built in closer space, which is fairly spacious. The main bedroom doesn’t have a TV though but the 2nd bedroom does. The main difference between the 2 rooms are the bed configuration, the main room has a Queen bed while the 2nd has 2 single bed. I couldn’t find this configuration on their website as it stated there’s 2 Queen beds, so if you do want this sort of configuration you’ll need to put it down on the note.

As I was getting ready to go to bed, I pulled the sheet on the Queen bed and the first thing I noticed was the hair, there were quite a few and upon further inspection, I found a big yellowish stain, now I can’t confirm what stain that was but it seems to be “bodily fluid” and I don’t understand how this was not noticed by housekeeping, if the stain cannot be removed they shouldn’t use that sheet anymore, I then moved to the 2nd room and upon pulling the sheet, I found a couple of black marking on the duvet sheet, while it was not as bad it is still not ideal. Before I moved to the 3rd bed, I stumbled upon a candy wrapper under the bed, which is again a sign of oversight by the housekeeping team. I then pulled the sheets of the 3rd bed and didn’t notice anything so I ended up sleeping on that. Fortunately I had 3 beds to choose from, but these things should be noticed by housekeeping when they were making the bed and it seems like this is not an isolated incident, upon checking the Google review there were quite a lot of complaints regarding cleanliness. This is a big issue that they will have to address if they want repeat customers, unfortunately I cannot recommend it myself if this is the standard being set.

During the evening after coming back from dinner, I asked the reception where is the swimming pool located because there was no signage or information sheet in the room to indicate where the amenities are, and I was told the pool was under maintenance. If they were sorry about charging people for amenities that they couldn’t access, they would have added something extra to compensate, like free breakfast or even a fruit platter to the room as a compensation. The fact that they just go oh so sorry the pool is closed for maintenance bad luck, well then maybe people should also pay a reduced rate for the room.

As the night was winding down and I was watching some videos, it started buffering and I could barely watch any videos, the Wifi speed was significantly degraded, it may be because most of the guests were in the room and using it, but this should be something to be foreseen and appropriate Wifi package should be used.

CONCLUSION

I was impressed by the amenity being offered, after all it’s an apartment style accommodation so you would expect to feel right at home. The only thing is I would like to have some additional tools to utilise the oven, some information sheet in regards to the usage of the appliances and also the amenities that are being offered.

The 2 bedroom apartment is spacious and great for family or group of friends, you still get good privacy and the freedom to move around within the apartment, or even to do day to day necessities like washing and cooking.

The biggest concern for me is the oversight with the housekeeping, the stain sheets should never be reused and cleanliness issues seems to be a consistent complaint by guests who posted on Google review. This is a very bad look for the property who is in the luxury category and is charging such a high rate, there are many competitors within the same area and if they cannot keep up to the standard, people will go to one of their competitors who can deliver, for me at least I wouldn’t return to this property given that I have had a bad experience with their cleanliness.

They need to have an overhaul of their housekeeping procedures which is the biggest concern and issue from my experience, there are definitely more room for improvement for other areas of the property, to me this is not a 4.5 star property and shouldn’t demand these rates if they cannot keep up to the standard, I’ve stayed in 4 star property which is better than this. There’s a lot of work for the management and property owner to get it to the level that would leave guests feel like they are staying in a 4.5 star property.

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