Empire Apartment Hotel — Hotel in Rockhampton City

My daughter and I stayed at the Empire in Rockhampton as it was in walking distance from the studio where my daughter was attending a Singing Teachers conference. Handy if you wanted to attend a show at the Pilbeam Theatre and didnt live in town. There is a 24 reception service that we found very helpful as we drove to Rockhampton from Mackay that afternoon due to work commitments and arrived around 8pm. Check in was done quickly and efficiently and we found a park in the undercover car park which was great as the parking is limited. Our apartment was very clean and well set out apart from the bathroom that was very small in comparison to the other rooms. Unfortunately the twin beds we had requested when booking had not been adhered to and we had to share a king size bed that night although the lady on reception said she would come up and change them if we wished but we decided to go with the flow as it was late and the situation was remedied in the morning by the cheerful housekeeping staff. We had a small balcony that looked over to the river and this was a pleasant place to sit and watch the passing pedestrian traffic making use of the river walkway. No crocodiles were spotted although we were told they could well have been there in the water. I made use of the laundry facilities provided in the apartment and was happy to find they were relatively easy to work out. An air clothes dryer was also provided for those items that couldn’t be put in the electric dryer and with Rockhampton’s climate our clothes dried very quickly on the balcony. We found two restaurants under the Empire, one being Coffee Club which was open for breakfast and lunch and Ribs and Rumps that opened at night time and provided tasty reasonable priced food. There were also another couple of eating places along the esplanade but no other coffee shops in the immediate area. There is a small shopping centre a short walk from the apartment that has Coles and Target and a few specialty stores that are well worth a look. The town centre is also within walking distance but most of the other food outlets are a short drive away so a car is a must if you are staying for a few days and don’t wish to do your own cooking. There was also a very inviting decent size pool on site but we didn’t get a chance to try it out. We had an enjoyable stay and would recommend this apartment for a short stay in...

This was a disappointing experience, I arrived in the city in late 2020 after hours of train travel, never visiting the town before and was thankful that I could get accommodation after hours.

The staff member I met just past midnight was great and accommodated me despite the unorthodox time I checked in.

The room was luxurious and I appreciated the assortment of biscuits with the tea and coffee, unfortunately the stay was unexpectedly interrupted the next morning as a cleaner came into my room while I was listening to headphones, which prompted me to walk over to the door and direct the cleaner out, to say I was shocked would be an understatement.

The worst was yet to come when the manager at the time called my room and tried to play inquisitor and lecture me on my "aggression," to put the do not disturb on the door and other unsolicited advice and condescending, disrespectful tonality to the cleaner's unexpected (and to me) unannounced entry into my room and threatened to call the police on me when I refused to bend the knee to him and his little man complex.

There was no compassion or apologies for the unexpected disturbance to my stay, no emotional intelligence displayed for what my position was, or how I was made to feel about that unexpected intrusion, only a cowardly, overbearing, constitutional moral inferior, a little man, trying to project a facade of dominance, to hide a lack of genuine humanity.

Those who lack empowered communication and personal empowerment rely on manipulation, coercion, threats and attempted intimidation aren't worthy of respect or cooperation, prompting me to leave immediately.

This is a lesson to any traveller, don't tolerate being treated with contempt or blame shifting, infantile "power games"/behaviours.

Vote with your dollars and only stay where you will be treated with respect, tact, dignity and human decency.

A lack of these traits is unacceptable in hospitality, accommodation providers like all social structures and services must be held to account and the highest quality and standards or be abandoned, ruined and bankrupt.

As a quality control officer, risk assesor, caretaker and corruption watchdog, I recommend that if your planning on visiting Rockhampton visit Quest, Mercure or the Coffee House apartments there are no neglectful, petty tyrants lurking there, that I know of.

Self care first...

My husband and myself stayed at the Empire Hotel for three nights in January! We discovered a leak in the bathroom sink, which had soaked all our items on the shelf below! On discovering this leak, which was about 8pm, my husband immediately reported it to reception! Reception said it was too late to call maintenance, but assured him that maintenance would attend to the problem first thing in the morning! That night we had to use the kitchen and laundry areas to wash our hands, clean our teeth etc! The next morning we rose early expecting maintenance to arrive! No one turned up so my husband went down to reception to find out why maintenance hadn't arrived! Reception informed him that housekeeping staff would access the situation and would call maintenance if they thought it necessary! We left the room for our planned daily activities thinking the leaking sink would be fixed! When we returned latter in the day the sink was still leaking, which meant our bathroom facilities could not be used for another night! On discovering this, I went down to reception, and reported that the bathroom sink was still leaking!The two receptionist assured me that maintenance didn't work on the weekend (I am wondering why the receptionist on the Friday thought someone would be there first thing on Saturday morning) Consequently we were moved to another room, which was inconvenient, as we had unpacked our belongings the previous day (but at least we had bathroom facilities)! We left our room the next day (expecting our room to be serviced)! When we returned the room had not been serviced at all! We had thrown our towels on the shower floor to be replaced! We had to wash and dry them before use, and the bed was not made! All this made our stay at your hotel quite unpleasant! We have stayed at your hotel before and every thing has been fine, but this last experience has made me think we should...