Ovolo Canberra — Hotel in District of Canberra Central

Ugh where do I start… I can’t explain how disappointing my experience here was. I don’t think I’ve had such a poor hotel experience in my life.

I’ll start off with the few pro’s: clean room, nice bathroom, beautiful interior design throughout the hotel and the breakfast was okay

Now the rest… I booked my room on July 11 and I didn’t look much into this hotel at all, I had googled hotels in Canberra and thought this hotel looks very interesting and cool. I proceeded with my booking and when finalising the payment, the website said my booking included a complimentary mini-bar (among other things). I even messaged my partner at the time of booking to let him know that I’d be getting the mini-bar complimentary. When I arrived, the check in process was slow and the desk was kind of in an awkward spot to begin with. I got to my room which was unfortunately only on the 2nd floor and had a very boring view of the road below and some bushland. I unpacked and went to check out the mini bar, when I noticed that there was a price list on the table. I thought there might have been an error so made a note to call reception. I then noticed there was no bath robe in my room, I thought it may have been forgotten so I attempted to call reception - but the phone was completely broken.

I decided I needed to go speak to the staff directly, when I came down, there were two receptionists at the desk and I told them my concerns. The woman the checked me in was extremely apathetic, and asked if the complimentary mini bar was listed on my booking reservation. I told her that was the thing, I had gone back and checked my email confirmation and there was nothing mentioned there but there definitely had been when I processed the booking on the website. She asked to see the email and then glanced at it for, no exaggeration, maximum 2 seconds, before saying “yeah so it’s not there then,” in a really condescending tone. The man next to her looked up my reservation and said that they no longer do complimentary mini bars, and that I must be confused. How could I be confused? I had no idea this hotel did complimentary mini bars before? I never read the reviews before booking, how would I have just imagined it?

When mentioning my bathrobe, I was told that “this room doesn’t come with robes.” What? What kind of 5 star hotel doesn’t supply bath robes? I had booked the Original Sun room, which was around the mid price range for room options, so it wasn’t like I had “cheaped out” - not that it should matter because again, 5 star hotel.

Despite these things, no apologies or solutions were offered, they just gave me the reception number and sent me on my way. I felt humiliated and like I had made a fool out of myself just based on how rude the staff had spoken to me. I’ve never ever had to ever complain about anything when staying at a hotel, this was the first time and I felt completely shut down.

Across the remainder of the evening, I noticed my room to be really warm, to the point where I was having to strip completely naked. I had turned the aircon down, but it still felt warm. I thought maybe I was feeling sick or flustered, as there was no indication something was wrong. By around midnight, I hadn’t slept at all because of how warm it was. The clock next to my bed said it was 22°, when it was meant to be around 18°. I then checked the aircon control panel and it was flashing a wrench symbol and wouldn’t let me adjust any settings. It was 1AM by this point and I couldn’t see any use in going to the reception to make a complaint because I knew I had to check out in 7 or so hours, it just wasn’t worth the effort. I barely slept.

The super fast wifi was completely unusable. The ceiling lights kept turning on randomly. The blinds were extremely noisy trying to close.

I’ll never stay here again. I’d honestly like a refund....

We have stayed at Ovolo Nishi since it opened in its original incarnation as Hotel Hotel in late 2013. This is at least our 12th visit in 9 years and it is still our favourite place to stay in Canberra. Big call out to Rose and Christie and the rest of the front desk team. They are wonderful and yet again welcomed us and our dog so warmly. So nice to be recognised by Christie and welcomed back. Major pull factor for us is the dog friendly policy, the pooch package is fantastic 💯🐶 Creative Sun Room is our room category of choice, hadn't stayed in #105 before but yet again a lovely spacious room. The king bed is always so comfortable, and the bathroom with the rainforest shower and double sinks is just right. Shout out to Miles and the Monster bar team. Amazing cocktails and fantastic service as always. We were staying for the long weekend for Midnight Oil, and had drinks and cocktails each day. All faultless. Which leads me to the four stars for this review. Over nine years the only thing Monster kitchen can be relied upon to be is consistently inconsistent. It was at its best under the opening chef, Sean McConnell. Open till 1am, it was for a brief four years a true big city late night spot for fine food and cocktails after a show. Contrasted with breakfast service, which was regularly an episode of Fawlty Towers. Although in its heyday the food and service could be spotty, it was overall very good. Sadly this is no longer the case. Returned from Midnight Oil on Saturday night after 10pm and the kitchen was well and truly closed, the bar had just closed and was being washed down. Very disappointing considering New Acton is right next door to Civic, many guests were staying for Midnight Oil, and there is a cinema downstairs with a captive clientele looking for somewhere to go at 10:30pm. Most disappointing of all was the dinner we had with friends and family on Sunday night. This was one of the worst meals I have had anywhere, ever. Full disclosure, I am omnivorous but I do eat vegetarian dishes and know what good vegetarian cooking should be. What we had on Sunday was utter slop and I would not use it as food waste composting for my garden. I will leave a detailed Google review under Monster kitchen, for this review of the hotel these were the lowlights. The Shiitake and sweet soy dumplings was an utterly clueless dish. I like chilli, however there was so much chilli in these that I couldn't taste any other ingredient. I could have been eating marinated cardboard instead of Shiitake and would not have been able to tell. And at $28 for five pieces, an utter rip off. The icing on the cake was that they were cold when served. God knows how long they were sitting on the pass waiting for the rest of the food. The stuffed savoy cabbage was a glutinous mess. Pretty much baby food shaped into a cylinder. The only component with any taste was the apple(?) sauce. No sign of any Comté cheese whatsoever. Also another utter rip off at $28. The edamame hit the table tepid verging on cold, and I had to send them back. A new serve eventually returned which was at least hot, but nothing special. The waitress was very nice and offered us a complimentary cheese board to make up for the fiasco. Note to Ovolo management. I understand the vegetarian initiative and it is commendable. We will continue to stay at Ovolo Nishi, but while Monster continues to serve such atrocious food we will never dine there again. @Chef Matthew Bentley you should be ashamed that your team served such a...

I had issues booking online so called, & had excellent help & ended up booking directly - we stayed in the Meandering Room. She did ask if we drank Sparkling wine, & I advised that we specifically disliked it. She asked what we did like, so I told her either Rose or Chardonnay. I was not sure what to expect, but of course when we checked in & the bottle of Sparkling was sitting in the ice bucket, it was bitter sweet. Reception handled it well, offering us the alternatives.

We enjoyed our room, the free minibar & treats were good value. For various reasons however, neither of us slept well. Strange, because the bed was great, the room was dark, as per the hotel’s signature style & generally things were quiet. My husband found it noisy however, on the 1st night, with the banging of the heavy doors from neighbouring rooms at about 2-3 am. I did not hear them myself. We asked for earplugs the next day - they did the trick. For me, aside from the restless sleep, after a 3 night stay in the trademark dark room, I found I was really needing the freshness of daylight, and for this reason I'm unlikely to rebook here, even though everything else was super positive.

The Palace Electric Cinema is colocated in the same building - a huge bonus - I loved that popcorn & home made choc tops (a whole range of flavours) were only an elevator-trip away, AND I was SUPER impressed that they had my favourite Panettone on offer by the slice - totally blown away by that!

Breakfast was included in the room rate & the offerings were good, though I always had to ask for full fat milk to be topped up. Tea selection in the room would be nice to expand beyond the current 2 options though.

We had a light meal in the hotel restaurant which is plant based - the Bolognese Arancini were slightly spicy & tasted great. The potato chips were perfect.

The public spaces were impressively spacious - it was a popular place for people to meet, & there were a lot of people around, & yet you never felt it was busy, or even too busy. Staff were pretty switched on - mainly young, & perhaps a little green & needing to sharpen up in some cases but nothing to worry about as far as service impact.

We were disappointed to find that our towels, despite hanging them up to be re-used, had been replaced by housekeeping with fresh new ones. We only made it to the 1st happy hour, & were disappointed that it was just a bowl of olives on offer.

Overall a lovely stay - very close to Parliament House, &...