Serviced apartments Melbourne- Empire

Good

This is a serviced apartment, not a hotel room. The map shows the location of a small car rental company, not the building itself. After finding the building, I was directed back to the rental company to check in. That information was not available, except from the reception staff who are working for somebody else. What a waste of their time, and mine. The room was clean and tidy, and just right for 1 night. The location is in the education district, and the local bars and restaurants reflect that. HWKR and Workshop were well worth visiting. Check out was simple, leave the key behind. I'm still waiting for my $300 deposit to be returned, but that could be anything from 7 to 31 days! Without a proper check out I didn't tell them the lock needs to be serviced. It's very hard to operate.

The hotel is fine, clean, albeit without much charm. I was totally annoyed by a $50 additional charge when I turned up 4 minutes after 7pm. Not the bargain I had anticipated.

Advised, as required, wished to book in at 2pm as had Doctor appointments and needed 2 keys - repeated calls to no avail with just answering machine - eventually got contact and told 10 minutes. After an hour the Apartment management contacted and advise NOT good enough! Arrived after 3pm! ONLY 0ne key! Missed appointment! NO COFFEE, door unlockable so open when we went out and whilst in room - did not feel not safe. Rancid dead smell was so bad we looked for a body - human or animal - even under bed - little to no sleep and felt ill from smell - left early in morning!

Check in was a nightmare. No apology from the service desk after the run around and being left outside stranded on the street, not to mention ticking up a roaming bill from trying to ring through to the customer service number which was always busy.