The Beachcomber Hotel & Resort, An Ascend Collection Hotel — Hotel in Toukley

I had a weekend away at Toukley with a group of friends to celebrate a milestone birthday. I had a king room with a lovely view of the lake. The balcony was a generous size where you could relax and watch the bird life, or people by the pool. I loved the decor of the whole place, a relaxing Hampton feel. Unfortunately whilst the place looked beautiful there were a number of issued that took away from an enjoyable weekend. The room was hot and stuffy as the air-conditioning in all the rooms has an issue and will not work on cool. I heard this has been an issue for some time.Thankfully I had a balcony but I had to sleep with the door open which is no ideal. The fridge in the room, didn't cool drinks at all. There is no full length mirror in the room. There is only a vanity mirror in the bathroom and it fogs up, so you need to wait until your in the lift to see if your dressed right. The bedside lights and entry lights flicker in the room continuously and is very annoying. If you have mobility issues I would not recommend this hotel. There is no dedicated mobility parking for accommodation guests. The walk to the parking area is not flat and the distance is a struggle. There is three parking spots near the entrance that could easily change into 2 mobility spots, but don't count on using these as they are always full. Many guests even had to park across the road. The pool and spa also have large deep steps and no rail, so don't count on using these unless your fit. I had the buffet breakfast in pelicans restaurant, once again beautiful decor and relaxing views. Great coffee and fruit salad. I was disappointed they can not cook a soft and  runny poach eggs after 3 attempts. So I gave up. This was very frustrating as I wasn't interested in any of the other hot food. On my second day, I didnt even request a poach egg and just had fruit salad and yoghurt as it yummy. Dinner in the Bistro the food is very average. You  get buzzed to collect your food, even if your in a party group. I had a chicken parmigiana, the chicken was dry. My hubby had fish, it was mostly batter very little fish. I was in a group that had been booked for a long time. Our table was on the verandah with a nice view however my end of the table had no heater near by working. The table was near a tree with a hole  cut in the roof  for it and I had bird poop in my hair, on my jacket, and on the table where my food is. I was stunned that they would put a dinning able in that area as the ground was covered in bird poop and it was obviously an issue. I was not happy. I went back to my room to clean myself up and advised reception of the problem. On returning down stairs I was declined entry via the hotel guest entrance back into the entertainment area. I was advised as it is after 9pm I must go outside and enter from the other entrance and get registered in. On doing this we were all just waved in. Just another little by annoying thing. If you want anywhere quiet to sit and chat after dinner, this is not the place, it is aimed at the young with loud music. The music continued to be heard in my room, with the door closed after 12pm. At 4.45 everyone awoken the the fire alarm going off and requesting all guest evacuate now. No staff checked that guested had all evacuated or if help was needed. Some guest were even using the lifts, no staff stopped this. There was a guest in a wheelchair and a number with obvious ailments. It was a false alarm, supposedly triggered by a kitchen dishwasher...but who really knows. There was no apology on check out for this incident and inconvenience. Thank goodness it wasn't a real fire as they need to improve there procedures. This place seems to have electrical issues.

I could continue, but I think you the idea.

This is a beautiful hotel, but it has a number of issues that need to...

I used this venue as an overnight stay when landing at Sydney Airport but didn't use any of the facilities (i.e. the pool) so can't comment on that but, spoiler alert, I had a fabulous experience and was blown away by the kindness and courtesy extended to me and my wife.||Coming from the UK, we had travelled about 28 hours all in all, so we landed and got our hire car and I had planned to leave Sydney immediately as we were heading up to Brisbane so wanted to get out of the city before the morning rush hour, so had booked this venue as it was only an hour away from the Airport.||By the time we arrived, my wife and I were extremely tired (as you can imagine) and having eaten Airplane and Lounge food (no offence the any airlines and lounges!), we were ready for a hot shower, freshen up and a decent meal.||Whilst checking in with Sarah, around 8.15pm, I mentioned our plan to freshen up and asked her for local restaurant recommendations when she dropped the bombshell that, in Australia (especially the smaller towns) venues tend to close around 8 or 9pm and there's no 24 hours supermarkets or fast food outlets in the town.||In fact, the venue's kitchen would be closing at 8.30pm, although the bar would be open for a little while longer after that, but not late.||Sarah could see this was not the start we had hoped for, for our holiday and she spoke to the kitchen to ask them not to close until we had come down and ordered some food and even updated the bar staff that we would be coming down, as well, whilst the wife and I dropped off our luggage in our room and had a very quick freshen up.||We got to the bar and ordered our food and drink from the great bar staff - they were really chatty and never rushed us and left us alone to eat, when the food was ready, whilst they began to clean and clear up.||Coming from a city where I can have fast food and shop (food and other things) 24 hours a day, I didn't appreciate it's a different lifestyle down in Australia and it could have been a disastrous start but was saved so, with as much praise as I can emphasise on paper - THANK YOU, SARAH (and the bar and kitchen staff, of course)!||After eating, and thanking the staff again, we went to our room and it was spacious and clean. We particularly liked the shower but, admittedly, I'm being biased as it was my first proper wash since leaving the house!||The venue was quiet and the bed was large and very comfortable but, to be honest, I don't recall much and was soon fast asleep until our alarm woke us up for breakfast.||We had a table overlooking the beautiful water and it was lovely, watching the soft breeze sway the trees with the only noise coming from some of the other guests in the breakfast hall.||The usual hot breakfast items were on the hot plate and a server brought us our tea and a flat white which was from the machine and a decent brew (some other venues, I later found, produced some awful tasting coffee from their machines!).||I really liked the beef sausages produced (unsure if it was locally sourced) and I ordered fried eggs and my wife had some poached eggs, with our breakfast (I think they had scrambled eggs on the hot plate). Aside from the hot plate, there's a cold buffet (Continental Breakfast with hams and salmon) and the salmon was fresh and very tasty.||It was, really, just an overnight stay with breakfast but this first night in this venue, set us up for the day ahead and put us on a good footing for the remainder of our holiday so I would recommend trying...

Get go I had issues . Arrived on time before 2pm check in and my room was not ready. No phone call or text informing me. I was told to wait an hour and will receive a text once it was ready . No care in the world from staff. I had to go get a drink and wait and spend my money waiting. (Since it was hotels fault no complimentary drink) Got to my room. Very dirty. Corner chair had stains, wouldn’t sit on it looks horrible. Lights covered in dust and my quilt had a blood stain over it. When asked to get it changed- staff cleaner said they might not have another one spare. Then they didn’t top up the milk or toilet paper. Cleaner walks in and we are in the room? So we left . Then the rubbish bag from the bin was left on the basin (maybe she forgot) but my toothbrush and essentials were underneath. If that wasn’t enough- our aircon was making sounds loud enough that we had to complain we could not sleep. Asked politely and at 9pm reception came to see what issues we had. A repair man came next day and tried to fix it although it got worse. We already had 1 horrible night sleep. Then reception said that it was fixed - I directly told her it wasn’t. Please speak to your manager. Then was told that they can only down grade our room or basically put up with it and the reason being they are booked out. So I’m paying for a relaxing getaway after my heart operation and need the room to be cool at night as it is summer? And no fly screens on door or security as people can jump your balcony at anytime it’s a car park view. Reception refused to get the manager and dealt with us very poorly and I had no choice but to have no sleep - make the most of it $2300 for 4 nights discussing sleep. Then was asked how my stay was sarcastically and I told her terrible reception yelled at me I can give you 10% off your first night. Then yells we had 5 people go into your room (without) my knowledge and the aircon are the same across the hotel. I have photos and videos of the loud sounds that get higher and higher. Very unprofessional behaviour from staff. Lack of respect and empathy. I felt like they brushed it off. Maybe that’s how this hotel operates. It’s not about the money it’s about comfort and cleanliness. The pool is lovely- just very busy on peak season, nowhere to sit that full. And drinks/cocktails from bar take very long and half full for the price you pay. Parking is not allocated for your room, public can park and if you move your car good luck finding a spot. We got blocked in and found it difficult to get our car out with someone illegally parked in front of all our cars. Overall disappointing I didn’t want to review but as soon as I got home I sent an email and photos and footage of the rattling aircon to beachcomber management and have heard...