With limited accommodation options in Windsor, my family thought we were very fortunate to secure a room at the Windsor Terrace Motel for the duration of the 2012 FUTSAL National Championships being held at the nearby Hawkesbury Stadium on the second week of January. We were particularly surprised as we’d only booked weeks in advance of the tournament rather than months. My wife even rang twice to confirm details of the room and all was good for our arrival. As we were driving down from Brisbane, we were horrified to get a phone call from the motel on the day of our arrival that we had been “double booked”, particularly as we were already at Newcastle. The Windsor Terrace Motel did state that they had found us alternate accommodation at a 2 ½ star motel across the road. When questioned further about the alternate accommodation booking, it turns out that they also own this hotel as well. Double booked, alternate lesser accommodation in a hotel across the road which is coincidently owned by the same people – I smelt a rat. To be fair, the alternate accommodation was offered at a slightly discounted rate, however it wasn’t what I had booked or expected, nor was it a motel room of equivalent standard. Luckily experience has taught me to always travel with at least a plan “B” which was quickly put into place (and it didn’t involve dealing with this motel). In this highly computerised age with modern accommodation booking systems, I find it incomprehensible that a room could be “double booked” (hence my scepticism that this was accidental). To make matters worse, it was lunch time on the day of arrival before we were notified of any issue, thus limiting the available options to us.
This was the worst experience in dealing with Motel owners/management I have ever come across. I’ve had better experiences staying at a $14 a night hotel in Phuket.
