Imagine Marco — Hotel in Melbourne

My girlfriend and I had a week-long stay over the New Year period in a One Bedroom Sky Apartment (“City View”) on the ~30th Floor. As I understand that the hotel is relatively new I thought I would take the opportunity to give a comprehensive review so that other guests have a better idea of what to expect when staying at Imagine Marco Southbank.

Pros: Hotel Staff: The staff are all extremely nice, professional and helpful. Style: As would be expected for a new hotel in this price bracket, the hotel is very modern and has a luxurious appearance and feel. View: Without a doubt the most appealing aspect of the hotel is the view of the river and city which guests have from there City View balconies.

Cons: Parking: Something which was not made explicitly clear to me when booking the hotel was the fact that parking was not included with the room. I became aware of this upon check in and that no parking was available following a long drive from Sydney and with no free or unlimited street parking in the vicinity. Parking for the remainder of my stay in the hotel was arranged at $25 per night, and getting in and out of the car park involves calling the reception. Amenities: For a hotel this modern and in this price bracket, the amenities available to guests are comparably low. No restaurant, bar or café within the hotel and the gym and pool are quite limited. Ergonomics: I found the room to be quite poorly ergonomically designed. The couch was small and uncomfortable and The door to the balcony was so stiff that on occasion it was close to impossible to open with my girlfriend having to knock from the outside to get me to assist her to open it when she was outside. I could definitely envision that some guests, especially children or the elderly, would be unable to open these doors. Quality and cleanliness: There were some quality issues with the hotel. The power points were not properly affixed to the walls and were all loose with some basically falling off. Some of the cutlery and plates were dirty, including a large hair stuck to a damp/sticky cutting board which was quite disgusting and the blanket on the bed was also not clean. Traffic noise: Given the hotel is located adjacent to a highway I expected some traffic noise and while with the windows and balcony door shut it is limited, open either of these and it is quite overbearing, event from the higher floors. Elevator wait times: Without a doubt one of the most frustrating aspects of the stay. While I understand that it was a peak holiday season, some of the lift wait times were in excess of 15 minutes and sometimes when waiting for a lift on the parking levels (1-6), the lift would be too full to board (usually with hotel staff carrying trolleys of housekeeping materials). Attempted to walk 30+ levels in the stair well on one occasion only to find the door for our floor was locked, so had to go to a neighbouring floor and wait for a lift anyway. Having two lifts for a 40 level tower is certainly not enough. Location: While the hotel itself is quite nice, it is in an underdeveloped part of the city which seems more like an industrial area than anything else. A lot of the immediate surroundings look like abandoned, graffiti-covered buildings which gives the area an unappealing vibe, especially at night. I saw another review which commented that everything is too far to walk but too close to drive and I would second this, especially in light of the parking and lift wait time debacles noted above. Can find hotels for similar price in CBD with much more appealing surrounds and services such as shops, cafes, restaurants and bars all readily apparent.

Overall, if the key reason for selecting this hotel is for the view (as it was for me), then I would definitely recommend – especially if for whatever reason you wish to be away from the CBD. However there are a variety of pitfalls to be aware of which I have...

The good:

The location : huge Woolworths just across the street. Convenient when you just arrive from a long flight to get all the necessary and food to cook.

there's also an asian grocery shop in the same building. Convenient for foreign tourists from Asia

the hotel is in a one way street. Not much passage. Safe, and lots of space for taxis and uber to stop for pickups.

The hotel's been renovated I guess. The rooms are stylish and furbished with everything modern: smart tvs and wifi. The heating works well too.

the amenities (shampoo and soaps, free tea bags) were of good quality.

The ... Bad

I found the younger staff (often foreigners) very nice and helpful. However the day staff who look like they have more responsibilities seem too preoccupied and in a hurry to hide that it bothers them to help visiting guests with bookings or calling tour desks to check if our booking was confirmed or for any other such little help that people who do not live in Australia and do not own a phone here could need. For a hotel such as this one (grade and price wise), I find that ungenerous to say the least.

The cleaning or maintenance is sloppy: As mentioned in many another comments, there were details that are not acceptable at this grade and price for a room.

Large traces of food that could have been removed if addressed by the cleaning rounds but were left to dry and fossil. I had 2 on the sofas. Yikes.

Some corners of the carpet flooring obviously hadn't been vacuumed in some time. We had a 2 bedrooms flat, and the extra small single room had dirty carpet flooring. I waited in the room the next morning to catch the cleaning staff and make sure I could ask her to vacuum, and boy did it look and feel better after!

There was also a blood stained band-aid left inside the cupboard in the bathroom. Cleaning in between check-outs and check-ins really should be done in the whole of a room.... This is really not acceptable.

Is there no quality control ever ?

Less importantly, some traces of mold on some walls were present as well.

And upon checking in, there were still bread crumbs in the kitchen sink and a few hair as well.

Last, beware if you plan on working remotely during your stay! They advertise WiFi in the whole hotel as well as a dedicated one per room. That wasn't true: only the main hotel one could be used and it wasn't the most stable. I specifically asked the staff at reception how to use the room's wifi since the hotspot was showing up but no password was to be found and they said that only the main building WiFi could be used.

Less importantly but still worth mentioning: It's also indicated that we can join reception through our room's phone but we had none. We had 2 rooms at one point and that was true for both. When I asked the staff about it, one said to look better behind the microwave .. thought that strange but complied and nothing was there. Asked another during the day and she explained that some rooms were still in the middle of getting renovated and didn't have everything they should be having.

We were paying full price for those rooms though, and every time we had a question or a problem with the washing machine, or cleaning not being done, or the wifi, or the lack of some kitchen utensils to cook, we had to go down just to ask a question.

Again, this wouldn't have been important if there hadn't been so much missing to ask for in the first place.

Last but not least: Only 2 elevators per tower, so if you wait until near checkout time to go out, you might wait forever to get in.

Again, if it had been the only negative thing to point out, it'd have been forgettable. However everything put together, it was quite a lot for this...

I stayed at Imagine Marco for three weeks in June whilst I was between rentals and had a very satisfactory stay. I stayed in a few different apartments and my review is based on a combination of their pros and cons.

POSITIVES the value (IF staying during the week NOT on weekends) for the area is second to none and you would be hard pushed to find another hotel/shortstay apartments of the same calibre for the same price in Southbank.

location is great. Right on the cusp of the city, walking distance from Crown Casino and South Melbourne market. Three mini marts and two supermarkets within walking distance.

decor is inoffensive, clean and modern. Lobby has a certain "wow" factor.

TVs in both the bedroom and the living room which is quite rare for such a small apartment.

Free wifi for the entire duration of your stay without the constant log in/log out hassle. Pretty good selection of digital TV channels with smart TV.

if you opt for a sky apartment you have the additional walk in robe which adds a huge amount of space to the relatively small bedroom.

washer/dryers in all apartments with washing powder provided.

super comfy beds and pillows

late checkout for a small extra charge

although we didn't use it the pool is fantastic

small gym on site which was never busy

lollies and chips, drinks in fridge - a nice addition for a short stay apartment

lovely coconut scented toiletries

CONS extremely noisy extractor fan for aircon in the living room. although not much Imagine Marco can do about this as I'm relatively sure it's just the system all the apartments were built with which is a shame.

parking, although a welcome addition, is $25/day which can get rather expensive if you are here for more than a couple of days.

apartments are incredibly dusty and not regularly cleaned if you stay long term. One of our balconies also had vomit down the glass on one side which I thought was a huge oversight on behalf of the cleaners.

not enough plates, cups, cutlery etc. From memory two of each and definitely not enough to ever fill the large dishwasher!

lack of cloths to wipe down surfaces. I found that toiletries were generously supplied but cleaning products were sparse which would be fine if apartments were cleaned on a daily basis but with proper servicing only once a week the lack of cleaning products and equipment wasn't ideal.

key cards wipe if placed close to mobile phones. Can get a little frustrating if you don't realise why this keeps happening and get all the way to your apartment door only to find it won't open.

no coffee table. Sounds like an odd complaint but the flimsy stool/table is so easy to knock over and laptops and/or drinks regularly flew across the apartment. Please change this!!

bedside spot lights are way too bright and if you are travelling as more than one person there is no way one person could read in bed without disturbing the other.

no lamps in living area, so you have the choice of sitting in the dark or with bright lights on overhead.

Overall I was really pleased with my stay and happy with Imagine Marco. The rates on weekends are not proportionate to the weekday rates though and can come as a...