Pullman Melbourne City Centre — Hotel in Melbourne

Background- we have been Accor members since 2007. The positive- 1. the room was pleasant and large with great views. 2. Hotel location is great. 3. The bed was beautiful and comfortable. 4. Staff on the whole, friendly. The negative - 1. providing of information about the hotel was poor. Example 1 - water policy about automatically providing bottled water. We had to ask for the water bottles which we got after explaining that other Accor hotels usually provided as part of our membership. Later by accident we found card behind a card on mini bar explaining the filtered water on each floor. Had this explicitly explained, we would have understood. Example 2. We didn’t know that the hotel closed the bar on Sundays and Mondays. We were told where to get welcome drink, but when we tried to use our welcome drinks on the Sunday night, we couldn’t get to the floor. On whim, we selected floor 15, the VIP lounge where the staff gave us our welcome drinks. They explained that they were tasked with the welcome drinks function when the main bar was closed. How do we know that? Example 3. Finding the reception was strange affair, as layout is tucked away when you enter from Swanston Street. The entire entrance foyer is unusual and confusing with no signage. Very odd long hallways from both street accesses. Negative 2 - Safety. During our stay, there was a false alarm of fire. We were in our room 1108, when we exited to go out for dinner to be confronted by blocked corridor by a fire door. This was the first indication of a emergency to us, as we did not hear any alarms in our room. After a moment of confusion, we finally heard announcements which was clear but difficult to understand due to accent. We understand that fire doors automatically closing is normal but it was confronting. On reflection, we have no recollection of a stairwell nor recall seeing signs to stairwell. In other hotels as recently as January, we have been aware of stairwells due signs. When exited the building, we saw multiple units of emergency services as well as other guests on the pavement. Clearly there had been an emergency but it was played down by staff. Negative 3 - the little touches that have found in the past in other hotels was missing. Example- this picky, but we are currently gold members but we witnessed none of acknowledgment of that with staff. “Thank you for loyalty is normal”. We did get a bottle of wine ( for birthday celebration) thank you, but we normally get that… Another example- the toilet seat was broken during the stay and seating on toilet looking at full length mirror was confronting with no choice as there was two mirrors. Finally another picky example was no...

Location was really good being central. Room was okay however, shower door didn’t close properly meaning we kept spilling some water out and our bar fridge was leaking water almost every day. I’m not one to usually complain but with the way I was spoken to and treated like I was at fault for a 5 star hotel was quite disappointing.

When we first checked in for our 4 night stay it was confirmed as a 4 night stay and we were asked about room service if it was needed or we could skip it and do the go green program which my partner and I gladly done as we aren’t too fussed about not having our room cleaned. After the first night we happened to have popped back to our room around the time housekeeping came and knocked on our door to do a clean which we thought was a mistake and told them we had done the go green. Again thought it was a mistake didn’t care, second day we were out and came back to a fully cleaned room so the next morning I went to reception and let them know we opted for the go green and really didn’t need our room cleaned that day as we just had the one night left. Upon letting reception know this we were told it wasn’t even added into our booking hence why housekeeping had come to the room.

Later that afternoon again housekeeping came knocking and we were told by housekeeping that we were supposed to be checked out which was not the case as again 4 night stay and it was our last night that evening. 30minutes later we get a call from who I assume was the manager asking us to come down and “prove our reservation was for an additional night”. Once we spoke with the receptionist and showed her our reservation confirmation she called the manager out and he came and spoke to us. My gripe is with the fact that said manager did not take accountability for the mistake that your hotel clearly made and asked us if we had told reception about leaving early due to the cyclone in Brisbane, we are not from Brisbane and had not mentioned anything besides asking for no clean that day. Then instead of apologising again, he doubled down and said that so many people were asking for an early checkout so he wanted to make sure we weren’t one of them.

I work in a 5 star hotel myself, so I know things can get missed and mistakes happen. But for a hotel to not take an ounce of responsibility for the mistake they made and double down on blaming me is disgraceful and im sorry it is not 5 star quality. Up until then we were having a great stay and would have looked past everything but being blamed for something we never done really put a sour taste in our mouths. Will not be recommending this hotel to...

Update: To make the experience worse, i got a credit card charge out of nowhere in my bill from this hotel (no invoice being sent). After i sent emails to complaint directly, they explained the charge is for "Laundry bag".... When we checked in, there is no laundry bag in the room at all and yet after checked out, they sneakily added in $20 laundry bag charge without any invoice/ evidence. For all travelers plan to stay in this hotel, please check and beware of your credit card bill after checked out.

Staying for 3 nights and their "services" practically ruined the vacation mode during our last nights. Housekeeping is horrible, room not cleaned properly (i drank a cup of nespresso in the room during the first day and until I checked out, the housekeeping staff never bothered to clean it out....) And to make the experience even worse, i purposely informed the reception (different person each day) in the afternoon twice (during my first day and second day) to clean my room and specifically asked for linen/ bedsheet change due to I found some dirt marks, yet it was not done. On the last night, finally the reception just sent 1 guy (after i called multiple times to asl them to change my bedsheet and initially she mentioned no 24 hr housekeeping and no one available) to provide clean towels and changed the linen, while me and my family just stood there watching him changed the linen near 10-11pm. She (reception) did try to send 1 bottle of sparkling wine for the inconvenience which i rejected (travelling with 1 young toddler and i dont see any meaning for this) and the night duty manager came at night to apologize and offered free breakfast which again i rejected since we did not plan to eat at hotel anyway. And the way he tried to defend his reception staff by keep saying he does not know who on standby on the afternoon due to managing 2 hotels (Pullman and Mercure on the same building) and i cannot give him the name of the guy i talked to for the past 2 days, I just really disappointed.... do i need to get all the staff's name if i requested something? And i did not request anything special, just asking them to ensure my room is cleaned daily since i have toddler travelling with me and asked them to change the linen. In the end, no action was taken, and we just checked out the next day.

Based on this, i really would not recommend this Pullman hotel to any traveller with family (especially with young kids) due to the cleanliness and the horrible housekeeping + unreliable receptions/ services when being asked + very poor management. Just horrible experience. Will never return...