Hope Harbour Hotel

I noted that there were a lot of negative reviews but I found them unjustified. There is no Reception staff until 2pm, certainly but so what... Work with it. Situated right on the Marina. 2 pools (both excellent), lacks access to a convenience store but it's within range of the shopping Centre. Room was very clean but the Bar fridge needs replacing... It cools 😂

I give this place 2.5 out of 5 stars. I’m going to go into the pros and cons. Pros: - Amazing location! Absolutely love the view from my balcony. The surrounding area is also extremely nice. - The food from the restaurant on the ground floor was really nice, had great meals and it was in a great location right on the water. - It has free underground parking with plenty of space. - Price was great for the area. Cons: - While the staff were friendly, the person at the front desk wasn’t really helpful at all. I asked to change my room and he said he will see what he can do and give me a call. He had my number but never did, and when I saw him the next day he didn’t even mention anything. - The rooms are nice but banging noises from people walking around travels through the walls, and there’s no way to block it out. Our room also was right next to the door that people use to go to the pool. At 5am people would use the door and it would slam shut, vibrating the walls and waking me up multiple times! It was the most frustrating thing! - There was a space in the carpet were it was really brown and dirty. You can see in the photos the difference in colour. - The food was great, but one night I ended up waiting over an hour for some pasta, and there was 4 people in the restaurant. There was only one person making food, which is just ridiculous! Overall it was fairly good.

Firstly, the room was excellent, ultra clean with bath and shower. The sheets were exemplary, bed very comfortable as were the pillows. Bar fridge and microwave, toiletries in the bathroom. Towels excellent. Airconditioning excellent. I was excited to see a very large, modern wide screen TV with onboard Android system. Disappointed that no internet connection (so I could have used my own passwords for my streaming services. Even more disappointed that there was no aerial connected, but I had brought my own tech and internet. I just switched off the TV. Imagine my extreme displeasure to board the 3rd floor lift at 05:00 to have the doors closed - but no button worked! I WAS TRAPPED IN THE LIFT!!! I pressed the yellow emergency button for 5 seconds - no answer - pressed multiple times. I phoned the hotel main number, so they could press the lift call button - no answer. I phoned the 24/7 emergency 1300 number. The operator said she would send someone out - who would phone me with an ETA. Getting anxious, being 60 years old with a heart condition, I dialled 000 to call the POLICE! The dispatcher commended me on remaining so calm. I assured her, being very hot in cramped spaces with very little air was definitely not conducive to my remaining calm. They said to call 000 back if I got out before the fire brigade arrived. Five minutes later I heard voices outside. Someone heard my banging on the lift doors and cries for help. I GOT OUT That night the guy on reception said sorry. I explained that, although the room was marvelous - and that I did eventually get out, a man of my age and I'll health could have died - why wasn't anyone on duty to answer the damn lift emergency phone? He said he was sorry.

Front desk service was awesome but unfortunately that’s where it ends. The room had a infestation of cockroaches and not clean. So if you like cockroaches then this is your place to stay.

1 room they gave us was stinky(there was 2 refigerators and one was upowered and smelled like something is dead inside). Then i asked for anorher room that was okay but in the morning there was no water. Went and asked abot it and they said there is constucton by concil and no water. So i was unable to use water.

The paradox is that this hotel could be, and probably was in a different life, a lot better than it was at the time of my visit. The key issue they had was understaffing, This was immediately apparent when checking in. The process took an abnormally long time. The guy trying perform that task was also the Kitchen Manager !? who appeared remarkably composed as the queue lengthened. Reception is un attended for most of the day. There is also no table service in the restaurant- I'll come back to that . The room was actually ok. It was clean enough but a bit tired in terms of decor and presentation. I got lucky and was given a ground floor poolside room. Pity it wasn't really swimming weather. The beds were comfortable enough, the linen was clean, and the shower pressure was great. The room safes though, were decommissioned due to outdated technology and insufficient security. I also had to go searching for a plug for the hand basin in the bathroom and a couple of face cloths. The WiFi was also slow and kept timing out. The air con worked adequately. Outside of the room, while the lobby and entrance areas were kept spick and span, the carpets in the hallways were in dire need of a vacuuming. Also, someone staying in a nearby room but on level 2 or 3 appeared to have taken a dislike to some food so literally threw it out over the balcony onto the paved surface around the pool. While the seagulls cleaned up some of it , the rest of the mess remained up until to the time I checked out. I did mention the issue but it didn't seem to be a priority. This leads me to the food. A big disappointment here! especially the breakfasts. No buffet except for what for they describe as being a Small Breakfast. i.e. a choice of two cereals (if lucky), some bread for toasting , butter and a choice of a couple spreads (if lucky) No fruit except for some tired grapes and watermelon (if lucky) a couple of flavoured yoghurts and some small bottles of apple juice and an odd tasting Guava juice - the juices mysteriously disappeared after the day 1. I ended up buying my own brekky components from a supermarket.! A cooked breakfast i.e. Big Breakfast was also available but was ordered a la carte (by touch screen system) I tried the poached eggs (ok) and the scrambled eggs (awful) then gave up! I only ate one evening meal, from a menu which could be best described as Pub Grub. It was ok and reasonably priced. The restaurant itself also fell short of the standard I expected . It was more like an office or factory cafeteria. The big TV blaring out the morning's fake news didn't help matters. There is quite a back story to this property which has involved a continuum of owners with differing agendas. In its prime it was branded a Ramada . Right now, I'm not sure what it is trying to be but my feeling is the the current owners want to dumb it down to more of a self service model relying on touch screen technology for everything possible. That may suit some but it will fall well short for most I suspect. Shame, It could be so good with the right investment and commitment