Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort — Hotel in Noosa Heads

This is a true disappointment and I can not believe how this is a five star hotel.

Breakfast The hollandaise on the Benedict comes from a tube(!!!) The waffles have sugar crystals. The menu overall is incredible basic and what you would expect in a average cafe. Smashed avo on toast doesn’t seems 5-star to me.

Lunch We ordered a Caesar and a croque monsieur by to pool. The Caesar was heavily dressed with a thick dressing made with bucket mayonnaise. We ordered it without chicken but got chicken anyway. A disappointment but nothing compared to the croque monsieur. White toast bread with cold unmelted cheese which was not guyere although the menu specified it to be. Soggy chips and dodgy presentation made us wonder if we ordered take-away from McDonald’s or if this really was coming from a 5-star hotel restaurant.

Drinks At this point the expectations are not very high anymore. But still, did they make us surprised. My first coffee which I ordered with oat milk came with full cream, the cocktails by the bar were very average and they even messed up my request of having my gin and tonic with cucumber. Instead I got it with lime. Today’s breakfast we started the morning with two coffees. Although this was the first thing we ordered we had time to order breakfast, breakfast had time to arrive and we had time to finish breakfast before our coffees arrived.

The room Our room is incredible dated and old. If you’d show me a picture of the room I’d believe it was a 2- or a 3-star hotel. The bathtub is stained and gross and the ceiling of the shower is covered in black mould...

Service Keep in mind we are paying $1000 for two nights in a 5-star hotel, with a membership discount. We should be allowed to have some expectations. Both my partner and I work with service so this is important to us. We were greeted by a lovely woman in the reception (which is newly renovated and looks great btw) so we were off to a good start. But that’s about how long the high end feeling lasted. Our room didn’t have two robes nor a hairdryer. We did not get a toothbrush kit and when we called to ask fore these they said they didn’t have any in house and the closest convenience store was closed. I do fully understand that an order doesn’t come in time but as a hotel you got to be covered for this. The restaurant kept us waiting outside with no assurance that they’ve seen us or were going to help us at all three times we visited. At one of the occasion two of the people in front of is left as the staff just walked pass them many times with no contact. They kept asking us if we had tap or sparkling water and who ordered what instead of putting it in the computer system so they didn’t have to ask. Staff was blaming other staff in front of costumers and although there was more staff than tables at breakfast today three people had to stand up and walk to a waitress to ask for something. When we left for breakfast we were expecting the room to be cleaned. When we got back it wasn’t so we went for a shopping trip. When we got back at midday it still wasn’t clean. We find staff very uneducated and currently the only person we think belong to a 5-star hotel is the receptionist we met first.

Atmosphere It’s clear that we are not the only people that are not pleased with the rooms, the service and experience. Which makes the atmosphere around the guests very negative.

Value for money Where do I start? I wish we’d booked a place for half the price where we’d have half as much expectations. I have a feeling that the standard wouldn’t be much lower than this anyway. Do I recommend it? No, your money will be way better spent in any other hotel. Sofitel is one of the more expensive around Noosa and it’s not worth the money for...

Despite the location being 10/10, I would NOT recommend staying at the Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort. It is INSANELY priced for what you receive. I am happy to spend but the rooms were genuinely so incredibly rundown, covered with dust and hair and felt as though it had not been cleaned thoroughly enough. I had to go and buy my own antibacterial wipes in order to re-clean bathroom counter and all other surfaces in the room. I also found multiple long, THICK, black hairs in and around the bathtub, better and hanging off of the towels, stuck to mirror and shower tiles, as well as in the bottom of the bathtub (and stuck in drain). I thought this was perhaps bad luck and only the one room. However i had to change rooms (luckily - or so I thought) as the first room was booked for the second night of my stay. The new room was $769 dollars for the night and was so dusty and I had the same issues with hair in the bathroom!!! I took pictures in the previous room of the hair and had showed both the girls at reception (who to my dismay seemed disturbingly unsurprised & as though this was a regular complaint/occurrence). I then asked to speak with the manager on shift who offered to get the cleaners up. Whilst that is obviously a GIVEN, it felt as though there was a complete lack of care toward the issue and that i had caused an issue or perhaps asking for too much by explaining that this is really not ok. When the cleaner arrived he seemed annoyed and when I showed him the hair and pointed out that it was the very first thing I saw when I arrived and had not moved or touched anything (not to mention that it couldn’t have been my hair because I have blonde hair and this was very obviously BLACK thick strands), he too showed a complete lack of care or concern. I understand it is not always easy when working and trying to maintain multiple rooms and inevitably mistakes are made, but have a little humility and at least try to take a little pride in your work. I wasn’t being a Karen or rude or difficult. I didn’t demand a darn thing! If anything I was probably too nice about it. It is revolting and totally unacceptable to be expected to just deal with pubic hair and hair in general, dust, and sticky counter tops when you are paying nearly $800 per night. I have stayed and shared communal bathrooms in hostels cleaner than these rooms. It is really disappointing and the lack of care or genuine concern and will to try and rectify the negative experience is what is even more concerning. You guys are printing money yet you can’t even offer the customer some kind of small compensation. I am not after freebee’s or handouts but not even a genuine apology. They sent up a male cleaner who was agitated and seemed to think I was being dramatic, and there were still small hairs in the tub! Really poor service and really disgusting. My standards are probably a lot higher than most when it comes to cleanliness but this was truly not ok by any standards. Food was also horrible and so expensive. There are many nicer places to stay in Noosa and on...

Let's start with the positives. The location is fantastic. Right on Hastings Street and easy walking distance to numerous restaurants, cafes, bars, the main beach and the national park. Beautiful pool and facilities. The meals and cocktails I had were delicious. Guest services, cleaning staff and some reception staff were friendly. The bed was very comfortable.||Now, the negatives. ||I feel some of the staff could have been warmer and friendlier, especially on the food and beverage side (at the Beach House). There is one younger blonde woman at the Beach House who is quite rude. Some staff at reception also have an attitude. I like to feel welcome when I stay somewhere. ||There was a problem at check-in. The man who checked me in tried to upsell me to a pool view room. I told him I was happy with what I had booked (the village view with balcony) based on the pics and description at booking.com. He also confirmed it had "a view of the town". But when I entered the room, it became clear there was absolutely no village view - the view was of a wall and some plants. There was no balcony. The pictures of the view on booking.com did not match the reality at all. I went back to reception to discuss this, where the girl behind the desk started arguing with me, telling me I booked through a third party (booking.com) and should have booked direct. Sorry, but the hotel is selling rooms through booking.com. If you do not want to sell rooms through booking.com, then don't. And what did that have to do with the issue anyway? The guy who checked me in then moved me one floor up to a pool view room, so I was happy with that. ||The breakfast items are tasty and plentiful but it takes ages to get a coffee in the morning. It can be hard to find someone to take your coffee order and then, after you order it, it takes a long time to come out. There is rarely somebody to greet you when you enter for breakfast, so you usually have to seat yourself. Which is fine - but then they seem miffed when you seat yourself. If guests are supposed to be seated by a member of staff, then you should greet guests on entry and seat them! ||My room looked lovely but had a musty/mouldy smell when the aircon was on, which wasn't very pleasant. ||Minibar items weren't replaced after I used them. For some reason, they stopped restocking them after the first night. ||Overall, my experience was mixed and not quite what I expect from a hotel at this price point and...