We stayed in the 4 1/2 star 'James Kelly' Penthouse. At first glace, the room was very nice, luxurious and spacious. As we spent more time in the room, we found more and more things that weren't really up to 'Penthouse' standards.
For example;
* The only heating in the room (which was freezing when we arrived) was a movable upright fan heater which took a long time to heat the room and which we had to move into the bathroom with us because the tiles in the bathroom were so cold. And we also had to turn off in the middle of the night because of the noise.
* The toilet light didn't work at all and one of the down lights in the main room had fallen out of the socket
*The advertised bathrobes, bath salts and handmade soaps were non existent and I have no idea what the 'Cleopatra's Secret milk bath' is, but it wasn't there either.
* The TV was tiny, and not what you would expect of a Penthouse
* On the deck was a pot full of cigarette butts that had not been cleaned from the previous guests
* I think the thing that shocked us the most was having to wash up our dishes.....in the bathroom sink! I would not expect to wash dishes in a 4 1/2 star Penthouse room. If we wanted to do our own cooking and dishes, we would have stayed in self contained accommodation.
* On returning to our room after being away for most of the day, our room had been cleaned and restocked, but the heater had been turned off, leaving the room cold again.
* On the second morning we didn't receive our continental breakfast as advertised.
* Personal taste - but the bed left both my husband and I with aching backs on the second morning as we found it quite soft and sagged in the middle a bit.
* Reception closes at 5pm in the winter months.

Seeing it was not peak season we didn't pay the full $350 peak rate, and we felt like we got less of a room because of that.

There were some good points however;
* The views of Strahan were beautiful.
* The basket of 'goodies' that I had organised to be in our room and fully expected to pay for were not charged to us.
*The king size bed had electric blankets and plenty of comfy pillows, cushions and a fluffy throw rug
*Plenty of shower caps, and little bottles of shampoos, conditioners and bath gel


All up the room was ok, but I would not have been happy if we had gone in the peak season and paid $350 for it. I'm not sure how it got the 4 1/2 star rating.

I have just travelled around Tasmania with my Dad and the only accommodation that left us disappointed was the Gordon Gateway. The view was spectacular and the location convenient if you have a car. However, there were lots of little things that needed improvement. Reception closes at 5pm so if you arrive after this the key is taped to the door, you are too late to place a breakfast order and the complimentary milk for tea/coffee isn't available. There is a phone number to ring if you need help but twice I just got an answering machine. The towels were nothing better than rags. We stayed for 3 nights and the beds were left unmade each day and the toilet and bathroom not cleaned. The rubbish was left in the bin on our first night and the toilet paper was not replaced. There was a communal laundry but the washing machine wouldn't work and I had to ask for the $4 back the machine had taken. We had one free continental breakfast included in our room rate but I had to ask if we could get it. I enquired if there was a car washing facility on site and I was told that there may be a hose at the entrance. When I went to find it I found a sign saying that washing equipment was available from reception where I had just been. There was cooking facilities in the room but the microwave wouldn't work properly and the dishwashing liquid was empty after the first day and not refilled. The shower had just a shower curtain and there was dust over the furniture. These may seem like trivial matters but an improvement in service would have made this a most enjoyable stay.

We arrived in Strahan to find our arranged accommodation had been double booked, so were left without much time to research some alternatives.

Gordon Gateway was recommended at the visitors centre as being of a similar standard as what we had booked, but they could not have been more wrong. Whilst we paid the same price as where we thought we would stay ($220) per night, instead of the modern, contemporary self contained apartment , we ended up in a dated, overpriced, flowery A frame. The $220 per night (in the middle of winter) got us just the A frame, we even had to pay $2 for laundry powder plus the $2 per machine to do some washing.

Whilst it was generally clean, and the owners very friendly, it was dated - something out of the late 80s. Too many flowers!!!

The settee in the lounge was terrible - you sunk down in it and we thought it was the most uncomfortable thing - until we went to bed. It was terrible, neither of us got a good nights sleep, it was small (come on owners put in decent sized beds) and sunk in the middle - just how many years old was this bed.

Great views of the town - but not a good location when you consider almost all the other accommodation is central, or just on the edge of Strahan town centre.

It was no surprise that there was only one other booking whilst we were there. Dont be fooled by the brochure - the rooms are very dated and not modern at all

This was the one place I was really looking forward to staying in, as we spent more money on it and it really did look beautiful on the website.
We were disappointed to arrive and not even be acknowledged at reception, it took the five minutes to get to us and even then it was less than friendly.
The A- frame studio itself was quite nice, until we got into bed!
It had to be the most uncomfortable bed we had ever slept in, it was to soft and we constantly woke up, not the sort of bed you would expect in a 4 star accommodation.
We won't ever be going back again.