OVERRATED! That’s one perfect word to describe this hotel in a nutshell. I have stayed at better Holiday Inns than this so called luxury hotel.
That was quite an opening statement but I do stand by it because our experience just before Christmas was nowhere near worth the money paid. The photos on their website does ooze opulence but even from our arrival, I could tell that the hotel was way past its used by date. As we pulled into the porte-cochere, there were very clear signs of aging and a lack of maintenance. We could have easily overlooked that but the fact that we were welcomed by a doorman who evidently hates his job and the check-in process was handled for an inexperienced agent who struggled to use their credit card machine, we knew that it was only going downhill from there.
It was a long walk through a musky corridor to our rooms. It was certainly very Versace in terms of the decor but again, everything was breaking down. Scruff marks on the walls, stained carpets, water stained ceilings, broken emergency lighting, the list goes on. By the way, the corridor lights in one half of the wing was not working throughout our entire stay so we had to rely on our iPhones’ torchlights! The hotel manager apologised but did absolutely nothing to compensate us for the inconvenience.
Opening the door to our rooms, we were quite impressed with the size and furnishings. Again, there was the Medusa’s head on almost everything in the room from the bedhead to the cups to the bath towels! The bed was certainly very comfortable and the spa bath very indulgent. That said, everything in the room was clearly very worn out.
The pool area was very beautiful with its tall palm trees and cascading water features but again, nothing was well kept. There were broken sun lounges, leaves in the pool that should have been cleared, even signs of litter here and there. The hotel was not even busy at that time of the year!
We had high tea in the lobby lounge one afternoon and that was our only experience with dining in. It was mediocre. There are nicer places to eat just outside the hotel in the adjacent Marina Mirage complex or a short drive to Surfers Paradise!
The only highlight of our stay was the overly cute massive Christmas tree in the hotel lobby made out of teddy bears!