Jacqueline O'Donnell
21/08/2022
Horrendous! We received a text message while we were in transit to say that our room was unlocked with the key inside waiting for us. When we arrived our name and room number were written on the front door. Get to the room and it is locked! Although it is supposedly during their opening hours there are no staff on site. No one is answering the reception phone or the after hours emergency number. We left messages on both numbers explaining we were not able to access the room.
We arrived at 3 pm. The text message saying the room was unlocked was sent at 2.20pm We left multiple messages on both phones but at 6 pm decided we would have to find another room somewhere else or we would be sleeping in the car! It was difficult to find another room - quite stressful when you have a child with you!
Just as we were getting ready to leave, someone from the motel turned up. At first he seemed apologetic with some tale about why no one was there and why no one was answering the phone or returning messages. When I mentioned that we had actually just found somewhere else to stay, his tone changed dramatically and suddenly we were informed that our card had bounced and he couldn't let us into the room due to failure to pay anyway. Supposedly they'd tried the card at midday and had tried to call to fix the payment but we hadn't answered. Aside from the fact that the card worked perfectly fine at the L'amor Holiday Apartments (a truly beautiful option near Yeppoon with gorgeous ocean views and stunning rooms) when we check in there at 7pm, I had no missed calls from the Sail Inn around midday, no messages (voice, text or email) with regard to my card, and - as mentioned earlier, we had a 2.20 pm text telling us to enjoy our stay and the room was unlocked for us!!
If there had been any issue with the card (there wasn't), we could easily have paid on arrival anyway - if the motel was actually manned during the advertised opening hours! And had there been any message left regarding payment (there wasn't), with no one answering the phones or returning messages, we were left with no way of being able to rectify anyway.
The entire situation was so poorly handled but to be lied to on top of the poor service was just ridiculous. They then cancelled our booking so we couldn't leave a review with the booking service. We've since found out this is not the first instance where this has happened.
If you want a motel with staff on site, do NOT book here. If you are looking for any kind of service, do NOT book here. The location seemed good but not a great space to have to sleep in your car... which is a real possibility if you book here!