annelise bissett
1/5
I booked the Broadway property through Booking.com months in advance for a combined work trip/family holiday with my husband and 1 year old. Accustomed to the standard payment through the booking.com platform or on arrival at the property, I was surprised to receive a text message a few days before my arrival requesting off-platform payment through a link. Thinking this seemed surprisingly dodgy for a reputable chain I called them and was informed that this was in fact how they wanted me to pay so they can avoid booking.com fees. The funny thing was, despite expecting me to literally go against all online safety advice (including the advice of booking.com itself) and pay through a random text message link to save them a service fee, they also ADDED their own booking fee that would see me pay $20 more than my original booking. Like I said, dodgy.
Anyway, I requested to pay at the property and was told that I could, and that a special note had been added to my booking. Cut to two hours before check in, I receive a notification that my booking has been cancelled. In shock, I immediately called and was informed that my booking was cancelled because I hadn’t paid via the text link. Oh, and also we’ve IMMEDIATELY rebooked your room and if you want to rebook you have to stay in Green Square.
Anyone who has travelled with a 1 year old will understand that planning an enjoyably holiday requires every single aspect to be considered beforehand, so being shunted to a totally different location was less than ideal. Trying to get any genuine acknowledgment and appropriate compensation for the mistake from management was tortuous, like getting blood from a stone. There are many things I’d like to call the manager we spoke to but to get past the moderators I’ll stick with “used car salesman”. Apparently the fact that they were honouring our original booking price was actually already giving us a discount because the same day booking rate is much higher. No matter that the only reason we were rebooking was because of Veriu’s mistake.
Despite being promised an equivalent room in our new hotel - we booked a kitchenette suite to prepare meals for our baby - we were initially placed in a cheaper room with no kitchenette. This was resolved and id like to give them the benefit of the doubt that it was an honest mistake but after my experience of them trying to cost cut at every point, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a further attempt to give me less for more.
Even without this unfortunate beginning, Veriu feels like a cost-cutting budget hotel branded to be higher-end than it is. It looks nice, the rooms are comfortable but the service feels cheap. Things like cleaning every second day and making people pay $5 for toiletries. It’s basically removing all the little luxuries people like about hotels. If I felt like they advertised this as being the case, or if the price point reflected the cost cutting measures i wouldn’t have a problem but I paid equivalent to other hotels that would provide better service. I travel to Sydney regularly and can name about 5 other chains at the same price point with way better facilities and service.
They have a loyalty program where you can get discounts and things for free but, again, I’ve never had to sign up for things like that at equivalent chains, so I’ll just go elsewhere next time.
In the interests of balance I will say the rooms are comfortable and quiet. Green square is a good location if you haven’t already organised an entire holiday around being in a different location. I did end up receiving free parking in compensation but only after multiple phone conversations calls taking up half my day at work.
A overall unfortunate experience. Will not visit again.
