Having read the reviews, I was expecting University House to be retro in its decor, with good bathrooms, no lifts and a pleasant central grassy area. It was all of those. I was also expecting it to be quiet and appealing. Sadly, it was neither.
I had asked for a quiet room when I rang and booked, instead we were put in a room close to the gate and facing out onto the carpark, and it was anything but quiet. Not only was there an extremely rowdy group of people gathered around the gate, smoking, on our first night, we could also hear people clattering up and down the stairs and we had to jam a suitcase against our front door in order to stop it rattling every time a door slammed anywhere up the stairwell. Added to that, the room smelled old and there was long black hair tangled through the plastic mat in the bathroom.
The next morning, we asked for another, quiet room for our second night. It turned out to be further away from the gate, but still facing out onto the carpark. The bathroom looked as though it had been cleaned but it smelled awful, and I could hear the person in the room above us getting in and out of bed and going out onto their balcony in the middle of the night.
The only reason I am rating University House as “Poor” instead of “Terrible” is because they did at least shift us into another room on request, although the woman at the counter seemed initially reluctant to do so.
Thankfully, we had a wonderful day sightseeing in Canberra to make up for our disappointing stay at University House.
- University Hotel Canberra
- University House Canberra
