Belltower Motor Inn — Hotel in Hume

Bed bugs! Bed bugs! Bed bugs! ...Among other things. Consider the many other reviews of bed bugs at this motel. Seriously, book somewhere else. You'd be better off sleeping in your vehicle.

My boss booked me a room at this place, as I had to stay in Shepparton overnight. The check in was kinda smooth (hence 2 stars for service instead of one - read further). I rang the after hours number to check in, and within half an hour, I received an SMS message with my room number and other info.

I got into my room and got settled. I noticed the lack of decent lighting, and a bit of an odor in the room. There were stains on the carpet, near the door, and the coffee table was broken. The bed was made and rather well presented, though.

I got changed and went out for dinner. When I got back, I got a bit curious to see what others had said about this place, so I checked Google reviews. After the many mentions of bed bugs (and photos of peoples' skin in the aftermath), I decided to strip the bed to see if mine had any. I found a long strand of human hair, likely female. Some of the pillowcases had black marks on them, which only made me want to look further. I found what looked like crumbs between the bedsheets. I found 2 small bed bugs, one medium bed bug (all on the pillows and all alive and moving), and a large dead one on the bedsheet near the bed head. A large (alive) one appeared on a pillow next to the medium sized one as I was on the phone to my boss about the state of the room.

(As for why the service rating is low), I rang the after hours number to ask for a room change. The guy on the other end alleged they were fully booked out for the night, so a change wasn't possible. He offered me a refund for the stay, which I took after talking with my boss (who booked the stay). I went to the reception and the guy initially said they didn't have enough cash for a cash refund, alleging they took the excess cash "somewhere" earlier in the day. He offered to refund me via EFT, despite my card not being used initially for payment. The EFT refund failed - the POS terminal saying something about insufficient funds. The guy asked if I had a specific amount of cash on me, which I did. He offered to give me a larger sum of cash, and I give him the specific amount back, which would result in a (net) full refund of my stay being given to me. I agreed, and ended up getting a full cash refund.

As it was then late at night, almost all the other accommodation sites were closed for the day. The only two that were open and staffed said they were full for the night, so I ended up sleeping somewhat rough in my work vehicle on the side of the road.

Needless to say, I was sure to voice my displeasure to my boss, and told him to never use this motel again.

The fact that bed bugs have been mentioned so many times should be cause for concern. My suggestion - pay a bit extra and stay somewhere else. If everywhere is booked, go to the next town. Don't stay here, at least not until they up their standards A LOT, and they really need to up their standards. The rooms really aren't worth the rate...

I booked 1 night last minute when I was actually in Shepparton because my other accommodation couldn’t accommodate me last minute for an extra day. I eventually booked for the rest of my holiday as the other accommodation was horrendous. The rooms are a little dated but not awful. Door opens right into the bedroom area which is also the lounge area and also where one would eat. Large bed with bedsides and also over the bed lighting as well as multiple room lights. There is enough room to fit a small table for one to dine at rather than dining at the dressing table or on the bench along the wall which I used to store my luggage etc. separate tiled area contains basin as well as fridge and microwave. Separate toilet and shower. Bathroom facilities need a proper deep clean however seemed clean enough. My only issues is that I never once heard a vacuum cleaner on and my pillows smelt like they hadn’t been changed, they smelt like man (not a gross smell or a cologne smell just natural body smell) I luckily had my own pillow which I used. Other than that these rooms are very comfortable and served me well. Some tvs are smart tvs and others are not. I luckily got a smart tv for the majority of the stay however the first night I was not so lucky. The pool looked very clean and well kept my son loves going for a dip as well as playing on the small playground. A bit of road noise can be heard late at night, it seems the main road can be a bit of a drag strip but this noise did not keep me awake. I would definitely book here again. My fridge worked well and there was no gross smells in the room. Towels seemed clean. I was overall happy with the...

I recently had 2 rooms booked for myself and a colleague who unfortunately started feeling unwell progressively throughout the day of our booking and at the end of the day he did a rapid test for COVID 19 and tested positive. I contacted the hotel at around 5pm to explain the situation and the son of the owners said to me he is unsure how that would effect the cancellation policy and would call me back. Without notice my credit card was charged the full amount for both rooms. When I called back I was rudely spoken to and hung up on twice and basically told bad luck. I then received another rude call and told the owners would ring me the next day. This didn’t happen and I spoke to the owners and told to find government assistance. When I couldn’t find that I rang again and basically told they are not willing to do anything and I’m not welcome to stay there again. As a corporate traveller I would have been willing to reuse the booking another time or pay a reasonable admin fee but this business obviously doesn’t look at the bigger picture. Pretty disgusting how I was treated especially when trying to do the right thing. Don’t stay here. They don’t deserve...