Rydges Esplanade Resort Cairns — Hotel in Cairns North

To say we’re absolutely disappointed with our stay, would be an understatement…. It started with early check in.. we selected online when booking that we would like an early check in. We understand that this isn’t always possible, but thought we’d try anyway. Our eldest son (3yrs) was having surgery at the CPH across the road, and our 12 month old was desperately needing a nap as we had been up since 4:30am… called reception to see if we could have a rough idea of what time our room would be ready. We were told that our room was put as priority for the housekeepers and that we would get a call back to confirm a time. This was at 10am. By 11:30am we still hadn’t heard back, so called reception to check in again. I was then told the exact same thing, but by a different receptionist this time.. this was a bit frustrating, but we understand that it may have just been a misunderstanding and hoped to hear back soon. By 1pm we had still not heard back. We were quite frustrated by this stage, and called again. this time we spoke to the first lady again, and were so desperate to get into our room that we offered to pay extra just to get in, even though 3 hrs ago we were told that our room was put as priority….. twice!!! We were then told “as long as you’re happy with paying extra, we can bring the cleaning of your room forward and have something available asap”. Frustrated, but relieved to have something available, we agreed, excited to finally get some rest after our sad, full on day… We never got a call back! No update about this “early” promised check in, nothing! At 2:45pm, I called again, this time I just was so upset, and I requested to talk to the manager or whoever was in charge that day. The lady was so rude, but did transfer me to the manager. I addressed my concerns to the manager, who took no accountability and just simply said “well we are very busy today, oh but your room is available now”. No care, nothing! If anyone has the contact number for HR, i’d appreciate it, because I will be giving higher management a phone call, because that simply isn’t acceptable. I appreciate that they were busy, but atleast tell me that in the first place, and not keep promising rooms available asap, and then not have our room ready until close to 3pm!!! Now, let’s talk about the state of the accommodation… how disappointing to check in. We walked in and were immediately disgusted. You would think with how long it took, that the cleaning would atleast be done thoroughly. We had an interconnecting room. The floors in both rooms, were covered in crumbs, hair and what I think was dirt. Our 1 year old thankfully had socks on, but they quickly became covered in the mess that was on the carpet! How disappointing to not be able to walk into your room and feel relaxed and clean! The baths were full of hair, the toilets had stains from the previous guests. The vents in the bathroom in front of the shower were covered in the thickest layer of dust and fluff, and the grout in the baths were so mouldy! It was quite concerning. When we pulled our bed sheets down, the was hair through the beds. This place had a serious hair and dirt issue… not sure what’s going on with the cleaning, but it was really disappointing. We paid $490 for an interconnecting room for 1 night. No kitchen, just a small kitchenette, which for the price is a bit disappointing. 1 room had 1 queen bed and the 2nd room had 2 queen beds. Overall, the only good thing about this place was its convenience of short distance to the Cairns Private Hospital to be with our son. Super disappointed with the lack of care from management and also the disgusting state...

okay I am going to be honest and give a fair review. what started off as a terrible experience ended up being one of the best - We checked in on 24/07 - we came from Melbourne, we for $300 a night we expected quite a high level of quality (it is what you get in the city in Melbourne, and across Vic for that price, so we expected that too) - we didn't receive that. So, yes the truth is that the Hotel IS run down, and needs a few investors to pump a good $8M into refreshing it, but it is always bustling, and always buzzing, so I guess not everyone has the same expectations perhaps?

So, me being me, I contacted the General Manager, now, I am going to name drop, because he LISTENED. You see the first night we were there my mum tripped over her suitcase and broke her finger on the side of the bed, so the 4 days we had in Cairns, we spent the first 1/2 in Cairns Emergency. But it wasn't just that, it was the receptionist who ignored us on check in, the initial customer service was super disappointing for Rydges -

I was lucky enough to have someone who paid attention when i wasn't happy - his name was Ali, I believe he is the Manager there and WOW was he good! He greeted us in person when we returned from Emergency, he sat down and listened to us. To our concerns. Essentially I didn't want to just complain, I wanted to ensure that OTHERS were going to get the 4 star value the Hotel boasts about.

So what happened? Ali moved us to a different room (one higher up, so I am assuming the higher levels have better quality rooms?) so that my 66 year old mum didn't have to get into a bath to have a shower, so that we got a microwave, and things we expected at that price - he was also kind enough to give us a food/drink credit. Could he have done more? Perhaps - there is always wiggle room, but the fact we were listened to mattered more.

We ended up having a wonderful time! A HUGE shout out to Ben at the bar too, he makes an exceptional cocktail (or 2 or 5), the girls in the restaurant are wonderful, and helpful.

All in all, I think there are some aspects that the Hotel could work on the ensure the Ridges name / reputation is the same across all Hotels/locations. But I can honestly say that what started off as a crappy stay, ended up being wonderful.

Thank you Ali and the team at...

A great location, only a 10 or so minute walk from the centre of town and great size pool but that’s it! Had issues galore with the room. Where to start? Drain issues in bathroom. Bubbles coming up through drain plus puddles of water and this was having the shower curtain across to stop any water getting out. Had to speak to the reception desk twice before the maintenance man came to try to fix the issue. Unfortunately it still continued with drainage issue. Also had to ask for extra towels as I had to use the towels to dry the wet floor. Came back to my room the next day after an outing and house keeping hadn’t come. It was after 5pm, called reception as still had wet towels sitting there from day before and was told house keeping come daily… obviously they forgot my room or couldn’t be bothered. Next day housekeeping came after 5:30pm! Was not happy as I expected to come back to a room that had been cleaned also the fact I had unpacked my bags assuming housekeeping wasn’t coming again! Then to come back from the pool and find they came was ridiculous! Luckily none of my stuff was taken. Booked a 2 bed standard room. I knew I wouldn’t be high up but was not expecting to be put on level 2 which is the bottom level for rooms as level 1 is tennis courts, another pool and conference room. Issue was bottom floor for rooms and my room was the closest to the driveway. So anytime during the day or middle of the night as people were coming and going to the hotel I would be disturbed by their conversations. This wasn’t great especially in the middle of the night trying to sleep, also early in the morning tour buses come into the driveway to pick up people and 7am or even before 7am woken up by the sounds of buses.

My suggestion if you stay here DON’T book a standard room as you’ll be put on a lower level closer to noise. Staff also on checking out need some training in customer service. No staff on reception asked when I checkout asks how was the stay? The staff just took the room card when I checked out end of story! No thanks for staying, no how was your time here, no safe travels!

Overall disappointing as I thought a Rydges might be better than a lot of other hotels but I guess I was wrong. Worth paying more money for a...