My family stayed at Red Cedars for one night in a non-smoking family room. As soon as I opened the door the stench of stale cigarettes hit me - it was unbearable. Fortunately, our total time spent in the room amounted to 8 hrs as we were at a wedding until the early hours of the morning. My complaint to management on checkout fell on deaf ears. Not only was the smell unbearable but my husband now has bed bug bites as a souvenir. Next time in Canberra I will pay slightly more and stay somewhere else.

I arrived 4ish and the carpark was looking dodgy with workman having drinks at the bbq. Reception was ok. Surprisingly, the room was good. It's been renovated, decent size tv and the bed was comfortable enough. Air con worked well. Need to drive back in to Canberra to get takeout dinner etc but it's convenient for drive out towards Sydney. Noisy in morning waking up to sound of school kids and the plumbing. No place for a sleep-in. Price was good. Prefer to stay at Olims for same price but better location.

New management obviously lack experience. Woken at 7am as builders started renovation work on room next door. They also shut down power at 9am as the builders needed the electricity down. I was outraged they took my money for a room knowing this work was going to happen.

This motel looks quite okay from the outside, the staff are friendly.

We arrived on an evening when it was going to be minus 5 degrees. After reading the well written operating instructions we attempted to get the air conditioner in our room to work for some 60 minutes, however without any success. Went across to the office and told them as above, and they then said you must be doing it wrong. The gentleman from the office came across and made an effort to get it going saying you must be doing it incorrectly, and repeated what we had done but again to no avail, he then said he would leave it and thought it may start after what he had done, and he would come back and check, after waiting around for a further thirty minutes in the cold I told him it still was not working, he then gave us a heater for the room. Which was fine to us.

My wife placed a sticky note on the air con to remind them that it was not working, when we returned to room the next day, the air con was still not working, and the note was still on the air con. Our coffee cups had not been washed when the room was cleaned!!!, the floor had not been vacuumed because, and all that had been done to the room was the towels changed and the bed made up. The exhaust fan in the bathroom was not operational.

The rooms are comfortable, however they look "tired", and whilst we were paying only $125 per night, one would expect a little better for a room.

Of more serious health concerns the ceilings "appear" to have "spray on rough type coverings" I was involved with commercial buildings for many years and during that time we identified very similar type of spray on ceiling finishes which contained asbestos, we removed the coverings because occasionally pieces would drop off, and be a danger to people working in the office. I just hope the ceilings in the Red Cedars Motel have been checked and cleared as being safe.

Apart from the above, the Motel is reasonably located some 5.4 K's from the centre of Canberra, and there is a very good bus service outside, all of the staff are very courteous, there is good safe car parking in the grounds of the motel.

With reservations, I would still recommend this motel as reasonably good value, providing they lift their game in servicing the rooms, and also providing there is a certificate somewhere that is able to be viewed by occupants that the rooms do not contain any asbestos.