Caravella Backpackers — Hotel in Cairns City

My girlfriend and I are backpackers living and travelling in the van across Australia, and booked couple tours in Cairns and decided to book our accommodation. We found Caravella Backpackers very cheap and was a reasonable location, which was 15min walk to the Lagoon.||We booked this place also because the advertised as having free parking, but in front was only 3hr free parking, but there was free parking at the back which wasn't as private or secure at all, just in the middle of a 2 way street.||We got to our check-in 30mins late and realized that the check-in time was earlier, so no one was at the reception. The place seemed dead and no one seemed to work here except one cleaner of Bagus Cafe. She told us that we needed to call the number on the sign for after hours, so we did and no answer. We left a message but never got a reply. We were supposed to get an email for our check-in but never got one and they were supposed to give us a code for the safe box for our key. Luckily another guest helped us out and knew the same code and we got our keys.||Room 69 was the suite we got, and it was at the very back corner of the hostel. As we entered it was fairly clean, had a private bathroom, couch, fridge, kettle, and aircon.||After a night when we took a shower the drain in the bathroom started to overflow, the drainage for the shower and the sink wasn't good, but slowly drained, also the toilet had a little leak as well and wasn't pleasant. We tried to call the reception and after hours phone number, but no one ever answered. We decided to wait the morning to catch them at the reception hours like they posted, but still no one seemed to work here.||At the end of our reservation we had to check out and give in the keys, but yet again no one works here so we had to toss the keys inside the reception, and never to return here again.||The have a trip advisor 4 star 2012 sticker on their window. I think it's time to take that down. New management needs...

Unfortunately we weren't all that happy with our stay. First of all, we only found out after booking that the free airport shuttle doesn't run anymore. Which is fine but this is currently still advertised on booking.com as well as their actual website, so false advertisement! Secondly, even tho I assume towels, pillow cases and sheets were cleaned, both had stains on them which was not very pleasant. Also an old soap was left in the shower. The community kitchen is very poorly stocked, there is no cups, no spoons, no bowls (we had to buy everything at Woolies on day 2 as we had already bought our cereal and coffee, which we couldn't use) Then we were told the reception our are 7am till 3pm which wasn't the case it was literally just not open at all. We left for day tours every morning at 7.15am only to have a voice mail at around 10am to come to reception to pay! In an email they then told us reception hours are 9am-11am, but even on our checkout day at 9:30am NO ONE was at reception for us to check out again. The things we liked were the convenient location, the aircon worked well, good water pressure in shower and...

The Caravella gets 5 stars from us all round, we spent longer here than planned as it was just perfect. Comfy beds, great room types to choose from, we are a family of 3 with a 1 year old and it was great (cot and highchair available) The pool is kept spotless and a nice temperature, the grounds and kitchens maintained well. (The shared kitchens have everything you could need) The best place thing about here was the people. We felt welcomed from the moment we stepped in, Zenon the owner was fantastic, nothing was too much trouble. All of the staff and other guests made us feel at home. You can relax in peace in your room or come and have a chat and socialise in the communal areas! Great Vibes here. Quiet at night too. The Location of the Caravella is spot on, 10 minutes walk to the lagoon and the night market, close to the shopping centre and Marina too, and muddys playground literally out the front door, perfect 👍 10/10 would highly recommend staying here, we didn’t...