Change Overnight — Hotel in Launceston

Change Overnight, Launceston. Right, so, this place is... quirky. Eclectic, they call it. I call it "a fever dream designed by a committee of interior design students." Self-check-in? Fine, if you like talking to a screen. But the rooms! Massive. Like, "you could play badminton in here" massive. I ended up with a two-bedroom palace because apparently, they were all booked out, and I'm guessing most of the groups were travelling with their entire extended families.

Now, the background noise. Oh, the background noise. I spent a good hour convinced someone was watching TV at an ungodly volume. Turns out, it's the hotel's "theme." Apparently, ambient noise is their thing. It's like they're trying to recreate the experience of living next to a busy airport, but indoors.

Checking in was a kerfuffle, thanks to some travel aggregator shenanigans. Apparently, my booking was playing a game of "now you see it, now you don't." But hey, eventually, I got a key (or a code, whatever).

The washer in the room? Utterly useless. It's like it's designed to gently caress your dirty clothes rather than actually clean them.

Overall, a decent experience, if you can tolerate the noise, the questionable washer, and the "eclectic" decor. And if you're travelling in a group, those giant rooms...

What I like

1. The hotel is located in city centre and within walking distance to eating places and groceries.
2. We stayed in a 2-bedroom apartment which was quite spacious. However, the bedrooms were located upstairs and it wasn’t easy to carry the luggages up, so we basically had to leave them in the living room and walk up and down to take our stuff.

What I didn’t like

1. the dark interior makes it rather creepy
2. the access code worked the first round but malfunctioned on the 2nd time we tried to enter the main door. Had it not being for another family who could enter via the car park access, we would have been stranded out in the cold evening.
3. there are coffee capsules and tea bags provided but no mugs to use for hot drinks
4. there is a washing machine but no washing powder
5. there is a dishwasher but no dishwashing powder
6. the kitchen is not well equipped enough - there should at least be basic cooking essentials, eg cooking oil, salt and pepper. We had to buy a bottle of cooking oil and leave it behind.
7. the rooms do not have air conditioning. Rather the aircon is located outside the common corridor and we had to leave our doors open when we sleep.
8. the hot water disappeared halfway...

Great hotel! We booked the 2 bedroom apartment and I loved the convenience of having 2 bathrooms for privacy.

The room is very well maintained and is fully featured including a washer dryer combo. I also appreciate that the bathrooms were stocked with great quality shower gel and shampoos. These are pump bottles, which is convenient and does away with unnecessary waste.

If you are a member of Anytime Fitness you will appreciate it located right next door and the city centre is easy walking distance including supermarkets, cafes and restaurants.

I liked that entry was all via key code, which i prefer to worrying about keys and key cards. Tip: the keypads can be a bit sensitive so be careful not to key the wrong code. You'll get the hang of it.

Parking was easy, and whilst it doesn't have a keypad for entry, you'll need to let yourself in the main door and press a button in the garage to open the door. It's not a big deal, but some people may find this a point to nitpick. Which you shouldn't, because that's just silly!

This was my first trip to Tasmania and I'm glad we stayed here, I'd definitely be keen to base myself from Change Overnight when I'm back to explore more of this beautiful part...