I am impressed that we got an upgrade on checking in. The renovated rooms are very nice. Bathrooms are very clean.
We were very happy with the room and it was an an excellent price.
Would have liked a meal when we got back after our function but the restaurant was closed.

I was really disappointed to find that this hotel has been taken over by the Mecure chain but decided to give it a go. We were offered a heritage room which was so small, and the bathroom was the smallest I have ever seen for the price of $160.00 per night. We changed to a superior room. Firstly, they have increased an average superior room from $139.00 to $190.00 per night including breakfast, from a year ago. After discovering that there was no bath in our room we were told they have no baths in the hotel because they found people were having accidents in them. Considering I went there to have a bath, I was told they are all ripped out. When I went to our room I noticed some changes worth noting.

ROOM ENVIRONMENT:
Firstly, the main wardrobe had the clothing racks taken out, which previously made it easier to place your clothes in separate sections were removed. Left you with 6 coat hangers. The nice comfortable quilt covers have been replaced with a boring white thin covers. I asked the housekeeper if we could have another doona or quilt cover, we received nothing. There were no more lace curtains only a grey thick jacquard one, which blocked the light. The style of furniture has changed from lovely antique furniture to asian quality. Unfortunately, we watching t.v and we missed the end of the movie because the television was playing up and trying to reload itself which was a pain. We received a problem notice on the television. Considering we did not know the name of the movie because it was on ABC2 which was not on the television guide.

The kettle is located in the fridge cupboard, whereby you have to leave the doors open because the stream can wreck the wood work.

BED:
The double bed, had to two single kingsize double unevenly placed whereby it was very uncomfortable. This effected our sleep, because of the hard barrier undernealth one's body. Unfortunately, we previously had a lovely and firm single queensize bed.

BATHROOM/TOILET:
The bathroom had no bath, but shower which was difficult to organise your water temperature, which wasted not only water, but time to get the correct settings. While there was options on water pressure, this was an ordeal. The water also went over the shower border wetting the towels on the floor which was an inconvenience. I also noticed that there was a old soap which was from another person's stay left in the shower. There was very little shower rack room for your items. Yet the bathroom was an average size.

Our toilet seat was broken, and could not be repaired until the next day. The problem was that the toilet seat was not correctly mounted on, and it kept sliding to one side. We reported this problem, when the lady came to check it out, she mentioned alot of toliets had this problem, and the tradies had not done the job correctly. Unfortunately, at the reception area, I was told that we can change rooms or we can wait to the next day to have it fixed. Unfortunately, we were not offered to have our things removed to another room by staff, perhaps it was too much to expect. So we just put with it.

POSTITIVES:
The good things were that on most days the housekeeper's did a great job. The mecure products like biscuits, bathroom supplementary items were good. The airconditioner was good. The balcony was good for smokers, and the two chairs and cane table was relaxing to read. The red cushions were comfortable so were the pillows.

BREAKFAST:
We entered the new breakfast area. Firstly, the seating was good with wooden frame and comfortable brown mattress which overlooks the garden and fountain area. The waiteress and chef were friendly. The breakfast display included: a bread toasting area with white, brown, fruit bread, then a coffee/tea area. You had a coffee machine which was self-serve making cappucinos, latte, hot chocolates which was good. Then a fruit platter (Watermelon, pineapple, kiwi fruit, grapes, strawbery not many, and rockmelon). Then tinned fruit i.e. peaches, pears, appricots, rasberry and berry frozen fruit and a plain yogurt section.

There are small danishes which are: chocolate, custard, apple and appricot and some mini muffins which were nice. The cereal section included sustain, cornflakes, special K, weeties, coco pops, but no nutrigrain or weetbix.

Another thing is placing butter in the ice-box with the fruit was annoying because it was hard and not on the table setting with the quality assurance packaged jams, vegemites, inconvenience the customer. The diversity of breakfast of options was good, the choices of juices included orange, apple and pineapple juices to choice from with small glasses. The quality of food was okay considering alot of it was bought in, with little creativity of nice dishes, just stock standard basics.

HOT BREAKFAST
The hot breakfast was fried tomato, mushrooms, small finger size sausages, which were not gourmet, but basic woolworth basic brand ones. The eggs were of normal varieties, then bacon and baked beans. The silver food containers, were better than last years because you lift these new ones up and they slowly go down by themselves.

ATMOSPHERE:
Unfortunately, you have this really nice music which is relaxing, with really noisy radio music when staff open the kitchen doors which was really annoying.

INTERNET:
You have free access to 30 mins of internet which was good, but it was extremely slow considering when connecting and at times it felt like dial up. This was disappointing.

PEACE/QUALITY:
It was a lot peaceful the first time we visited. I had specifically requested a quiet room, as we stayed and booked it for three nights. The first night there was loud shutting doors, loud people which I heard to about 11.00. On Saturday night at 3.23am in the morning I had a loud group of people swearing in the room next to us. I had to call the night manager to tell these people to quieten down. To the night manager's credit, he did this quickly and we did not hear any further noise. At 9.00am my partner heard the work people talking very louding on their telephone which echoed through the hallways and heard it in his room which was inconvenient. Perhaps they need a separate room. As they were talking on the bridge it reverberated throughout the court yard. The doors shut rather loudly, which was inconvenient when people kept on entering and leaving their room. It was not very peaceful and quiet, as it could be.

RECEPTION STAFF:
They were extremely helpful with taxi bookings. As far as asking about eating places, they recommended surburbs instead of good restuarants, so I found that that Canberra knowledge may be a little lacking. The best information was from the taxi drivers for where to eat, visit, etc. The reception did have alot of tourist information, but little on eating places. The good thing is that there was a good restuarant book in the room as a guide. But it is nice to have a personal recommendation to go by.

In conclusion, we will not go back again. While new wood pannelling on walls and floors looked inviting, unfortunately there was no plants inside the building. A good thing was a convenient flexi-teller available. While the building had lovely window decorations, the masculine decor looked quite stark in the lounge areas. I found this place really not value for money which is really disappointing because I really liked the Olims the first time I visited.