Cedar Lodge

Location: Frequently praised as central, near shops, cafes, and attractions like Mona Farm.

Everything was there - TV, air-con, bathroom , desk and chairs etc. The location was good - close to shops.

My partner and I had an event in town so decided to rent a room for the night. We booked the Cedar Lodge online the day before our stay and received a confirmation of booking that day. The booking said to bring photo ID for check-in. It was fortunate that someone I know recently stayed there and that you are supposed to receive a code number for the room door, so I wondered why we'd need ID. I expected the code would arrive just prior to check-in the following day but by 1pm we hadn't received anything. So began the process of calling the Cedar Lodge. I tried the 1800 number on the booking conf but that was disconnected. The other number was in the US (???) which I decided against calling. We found a card with the motel local number and called, only to be put through to a voice mail for Mona Farm? I left a message and waited. And we rang again...and we waited. My partner went to the motel and rang the number on the door but that also went through to voice mail. We tried that number and the others several times and in the end were close to giving up. I even emailed the website in the hopes someone would see it. Nothing. Eventually I tried one more time and got through. But by this time it was 3.15pm and we were stressed to the max not knowing how we were going to get into our room, nor even which room we were in. We finally got into the room which was severely underwhelming considering we'd had to fork out $244 for one night. $75 of which was "service charges and taxes". I was gasping for a cup of tea but when I took one look at the kettle I changed my mind. A quick survey of the tiny box room, saw peeling paint, holes in walls, stains on carpets, and a bathroom straight out of 1980. The TV only had about 4 channels and we didn't get the free wifi code. The message on the 'reception' door said "call us if you're having trouble with the wifi"...after our previous phone fun we decided it wasn't worth it. We were exhausted and had planned to rest before going out but had wasted so much time trying to get in. There were a couple of plusses.. the beds were comfortable and the shower pressure was good - although I tried to adjust the head at one point but water started squirting out from the pipe joint so I felt it best to leave it in case it broke off. Overalll, for the price, it was a really disappointing and stressful experience. Might I suggest, if you're going to run this kind of quick-buck, no staff, operation, you should at least spend a little bit of money and pay someone to make a call to each guest prior to check-in to ensure the guest has access to the room and everything they need.