The Reef Retreat Palm Cove — Hotel in Palm Cove

Truely the most unprofessional service we have ever received! After checking in I went into the kitchen area to make myself a coffee. I rested my hand on the stove top/bench area only to be severely burnt. The stove top switch was in the off position but it was definitely on as I burnt half of my hand and later noticed that the light switch was on. We called reception and we were told to wait 10 mins to see if the light switch would switch off. Over 20 minutes passed and it was still boiling hot. The lady at reception even came to have a look and admitted its fault as she too could not seem to identify why it was emitting heat while in the off position. We were told we needed to move rooms and my friend asked for a room upgrade because of the inconvenience. We were granted an upgrade and put in two separate suites. We kindly asked the lady if she could bring the food that we had in the fridge up for us as we did not have shopping bags to do so and our rooms were two floors up with no lifts. She brought the food up and I put it all in the fridge and didn’t think to check each and every item. The following night we sat down to enjoy our bottle of wine but it wasn’t there! I was honestly so confused and thought ah maybe the lady didn’t bring everything up from the fridge. It was past 8pm and I called the reception and the manager, Jim answered. I explained the situation to him and he lost it! He kept raising his voice and saying “I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT EVERYTHING WAS BROUGHT UP TO YOU!” He was extremely loud and rude. The next morning we went down to reception to finish the conversation in person. I can honestly say I have never been spoken to so rudely in my entire life. Jim was so rude to my friend and I that I actually ended up in tears. But that did not stop him, he continued to yell, making it clear that we have been difficult guests from the moment we checked in as the burn on my hand was from my own neglect. When we questioned how that could be possible if even his own worker checked the stove herself and admitted the fault, he said that he had an electrician check the stove top and said it’s not at fault. Jim yelled and said that if the switch for the stove top is slightly moved to the left or right it turns on. As I begin to explain that I did not touch the stove switch and that it was already on he began mimicking what we were saying in a child like manner with his hands waving in the air. Yes, this is a full grown man. I tried to let Jim know that the stove in the room is unsafe! And a major hazard. If it isn’t at fault like he claims it to be then the twitch being so sensitive is a major hazard as proven with my hand being burnt! For the rest of our stay Jim was extremely blunt and cold with us despite getting away with stealing our bottle of wine and blaming the fault of his own stove top on my “neglect”. We informed Jim we would be leaving this review while I was in tears and he also threatened to leave a defamatory reply. I have stayed in dorms that offered better customer service than The Reef retreat! We regret our stay here and wish we...

The stay was OK. The room was pleasant, clean (though smelt heavily of bleach) and had a nice little balcony. Good location, being central in Palm Cove and very close to the beach. However, the shower was awful, it had very little water pressure and took 5-10 minutes to heat up. There was also construction going on right outside our room which was pretty annoying, but that's not the hotels fault. The main reason though that I won't be staying again is the lack of professionalism from the staff. We booked directly through the website and received a confirmation email saying one nights deposit was paid of $114 and that the outstanding balance of $228 was due at the hotel. So, naturally this is what I assumed I owed. I was then told by the receptionist, who was quite rude that we hadn't paid anything. After showing her the email she said I needed to go through my bank account to check if the money came out, which was inconvenient as we'd booked over 6 months prior and had also changed banks so we couldn't be sure. They need to update their booking system as it's not just confusing its actually...

we booked this through 7 across, 7 nights 1 bedroom unit. The pictures on the website great, reviews - mostly good - great location - what could go wrong?|Trouble is that the room is not the same as advertised - the "living room" is tiny, dark, cramped, uncomfortable to sit in and totally inapropriate for more than one night. They have nice rooms - just not ours. |We mentioned to the guy at reception that the room was not as advertised he said - yeah, you are a 7 across booking. When we started talking to other resorts about moving they said - we get quite a few people coming in who stayed there and want to move. We shouldnt complain too much from our balcony we have a lovely view of the car park and a lot of dead leaves which is nice. If we wanted to stay in this type of room we could have put a chair in the closet at home. There is no sense of the niceness of the Palm Cove that we love - 5th visit. After 3 nights we have decided that we will move on and forfeit the other 4 - we do not get enough holiday time to spend at a place like this. Will upload a pic for your enjoyment. Oh - and the...