Oaks Brisbane Festival Suites — Hotel in Brisbane City

First off, we booked through Airbnb, but this review is about the hotel itself – not the room or the Airbnb host.

We arrived on Monday, 19/05/2025, after a long journey and spent most of our first night in the hotel, just relaxing. The next day (Tuesday, 20/05/2025), we left around 9am and didn’t return until after 11:30pm.

Later that night, while I was sitting on the couch eating ice cream and watching a movie, we suddenly heard a knock at the door around 1am. At first it was light, but within seconds it turned into aggressive banging. We jumped up, ran to the bedroom, and called reception for help.

Eventually, the person banging on the door – who turned out to be our downstairs neighbor, went back to his apartment. But then he started flashing a light into our room from his balcony, which was an invasion of privacy. After seeing one of us through the window, he came back and began banging on our door again.

We called reception a second time, and the receptionist came up. While she was polite, she told us that the man had complained we were being too loud and that this was our final warning before we’d be kicked out. We explained that we had just returned, were watching a movie, and hadn’t been making noise. According to the neighbor, he could “hear running,” which may have just been us walking around, we’re overweight and walk with heavy steps, but that’s not a reason to come up and attempt to physically intimidate us.

If this had been raised on our first night, we would’ve gladly made adjustments. But to receive a final warning after one incident, when we weren’t even loud, is outrageous.

The next day, his wife came to our door and said, “That was my husband, lucky you didn’t open the door,” and then warned us, “We don’t want it happening again, OK?” This behavior was threatening and completely inappropriate. At that point, we no longer felt safe and decided to leave and book a room at a different hotel.

To feel unsafe in a hotel is unacceptable. And if someone wants complete quiet, they probably shouldn’t live in a hotel located in a holiday destination city.

Oaks Festival Suites needs to seriously review how they handle guest complaints and prioritize the safety of all guests, not just the ones who shout the loudest. We will not be returning to this particular hotel as both times different apartments have had...

All Oaks are not the same. for the last 10 months I have had impeccable services at Oaks on Charlotte. When they were fully booked and unable to accommodate me, they arranged a room at Festival Towers. Our booking was made over the phone, and I mentioned that I would be paying in cash. My colleague and I turned up to check around 11pm and was told that I could pay in cash for the room, but the $75.00 incidental fee had to be held by card. Common practice is that if the client chooses not to use a card for the incidental, then a cash amount is held in trust. Having been a patron at Oaks on Charlotte where many of the Chinese tourists will pay only in cash, I was well accommodated there using the same practice. They night we tried to check into Oaks Festival, despite many hundreds of dollars in cash, without the card for incidentals we were refused to stay. I offered to pay twice the incidental fee in cash to be held intrust. But this was against company "policy". Company policy does not trump legal tender, and in fact constitute an infringement of consumer rights. Having been told that there would be no hotel in Brisbane that would accept such a transaction, I was dumbfounded. Especially having severed as Managing Director of an Inbound Tour Operator Wholesaler for 15 years.

I am severely mobility disabled and to be turned away after my booking was accepted, and having spent thousands of dollars at their sister hotel on Charlotte, I was nearly in tears. I was relieved that what we had been told by the management of Oaks Festival was grossly inaccurate, and we found Gambaro Hotel more than accommodating to our circumstances. We are cash only businessmen, and they were willing to accept legal tender above some piece of plastic a...

Booked a room from the 27/03- 02/03 as we had family coming from overseas. First room we checked into we discovered the next day under the kitchen sink had a awful smell and then we discovered mould all along the wall behind the couch in the lounge room.We spoke with reception and they advised cleaner would come and clean it , I refused as I have a small child & asked to change and upgrade room which reception agreed too. The second room we were without aircon for 2 days I let reception know and on day 3 they sent the maintenance man to which he discovered there was a issue with the aircon and he fixed the problem.He then also discovered a lot of mould right next to the aircon. I let reception know but they done nothing about the mould. The ensuite shower was leaking so bad I had to put many towels and sheets in front so it didn’t flood the bathroom this also caused a bad damped smell in the bathroom.Reception was again notified but did not do anything about these issues. I asked to speak to management throughout this period of stay but there was always a excuse as to why they couldn’t see me I was then advised on check out to send a email and pictures of proof to management which I did and still have notreceived a response I’ve called them numerous times and there is still excuses to why management will not accept my calls. This had been such a bad and horrible experience for myself and family.We will not be booking here again as we feel we have been ripped off. I have...