Outback Hotel — Hotel in Yulara

Booked this accommodation for three nights in September 2024 to coincide with some friends driving from Alice Springs to Yulara so we could stay in the same location. A slightly better price through the Qantas accommodation website than direct with the Ayers Rock Resort website. This was booked in advance which didn’t seem to make much difference to the cost – the booking was non-refundable and per night was $500.00 AUD, which equates to a five-star resort anywhere else but this is not five-star. The Yulara airport is basic with only a shop and café available once through security on departure. On arrival, it’s just the baggage claim hall. The advantage with the Ayers Rock Resort set up is that there is free bus transport from the airport to all the accommodation in the resort precinct. On arrival at the Outback Hotel and Lodge, the usual queues to check in. Check in was nothing special, the credit card machine at my check in counter wasn’t working so there was a bit of stuffing around to take the mandatory deposit for incidentals. Room key and map in hand, off to find my room. There’s no transfer to rooms and some rooms are a fair way from Reception. The advantage of a room further away is that there was no noise from the pub-style outdoor restaurant. Nice view out the back of the room to a viewing platform – where sunset views of Uluru and Kata Tjuta could be had. The room was pleasant, motel style, no cooking facilities, like a microwave, just a kettle, tea and instant coffee, none of which I touched. The fridge however was cold enough to freeze a drink and keep bottled water icy cold. Toiletries were the bulk type in pump bottles. There was open hanging space for clothes and a long bench in the open wardrobe for opening suitcases. There was an in room safe in one of the drawers and a flat screen TV with limited channels. Beds were very comfortable and the air conditioning was already on when entering the room. The weather was on the cooler side for central australia and there had been rain so there were a few wildflowers peeking through the red dirt. The options for dinner after a long day travelling were limited. The attached pub-style restaurant was a cook-your-own meat affair with a choice of salads. A row of BBQ hot plates were available to cook fish, chicken or meat – it was a hot and smoky affair – with a tendency to overcook anything to ensure that it was cooked through. Salads were nothing special. The BBQ was expensive for what it was. The campground is located next to the Outback Hotel so there’s an influx of those camping and the seating gets quite busy and the area is noisy. The only other on site option was a burger and pizza takeaway option located in the pub area. I didn’t eat there again. On (night 3) return to my room from the drone show and buffet dinner, there was no hot water in my room – I alerted 24-hour Reception – there was nothing they could do at that time of night and said they’d put it in the handover book. I was checking out the next day to catch my flight home so a bit concerned. No further update on the hot water situation, from the resort, I packed up and took my luggage to my friend’s room as we were driving out to Uluru early – I had a shower in their room – on return I checked out and complained about no hot water and with a flight later that day, had I not had my friend’s room to shower in, I would expect some sort of compensation. They granted a late check out in my room as the hot water had been fixed. Really should have moved me the night before. The Resort has a free hop on hop off shuttle bus that runs a continual loop most of the day and this takes you to the small Town Square where there is an IGA, souvenir shops and a booking office for tours, helicopter flights and rental cars etc. The IGA is well stocked but some items, as expected, were double the price of main city prices. The indigenous training café is an option for coffee (not to Melbourne standard but passable!), snacks and more substantial lunch items. There’s another café in the Town Square that does breakfast/brunch items and lunch. I paid for breakfast at the Outback Hotel and Lodge on one morning, it was around $37.00 AUD for the continental breakfast, which was substantial and excluded any hot items (additional cost) like scrambled eggs, etc. The choice in the continental breakfast had the usual suspects - cereal, there was bircher, assorted toppings, fresh fruit, a cold meat platter with advocado, pastry selection and bread for toasting along with the usual spreads – as well as filter coffee and tea. Barista style coffee was additional cost. We had a hire car so a couple of early starts to see Uluru at sunrise and a self-catered breakfast on those days and did the drone show and the Field of Light on other nights. We booked the Sails on the Desert buffet after the drone show as a treat on our last night together. It was $99.00AUD. At that price, no wonder the restaurant was a bit light on customers! All up, for the cost of accommodation, excluding any tours, air fares or food, I could have flown economy to Dubai and back! …. And ‘they’ wonder why Australians travel overseas and not within Australia – albeit, it’s a place to visit at least once as Uluru and Kata Tjuta are both spectacular...

I stayed at this hotel back in 2018 and RAVED about the value for money and service. My husbands 40th birthday comes along so I booked a trip to Uluru at the same hotel I loved so much. From checking in we have been nothing but disappointment.

PROS *Rooms quite nice and has everything you need. *breakfast had lots of options and breakfast staff where lovely *cleaning staff lovely *Outback bbq was good value and quality *kiosk staff was lovely

NEGATIVES When we checked in the front office manger checked us in. She complained about how long she had been working. She was so miserable and unwelcoming we went to the pool on day one and there was no towels. My partner went to ask and again welcomed with the worst and angriest customer service. He felt guilty for asking for a towel. night 2 our (very expensive) activity got canceled due to weather. This is no one’s fault. I was sure it would be canceled due to the weather but we hadn’t received any communication so we went to reception. The male receptionist said “yea canceled” so rude and no care. I asked about re booking or refunds and he said “I’m just here to check people in this has nothing to do with me you need to go to the information centre. It’s worth noting I paid and booked for EVERYTHING through this hotel. We go to the information centre and told the hotel has to do the refund. She was also incredibly rude. She calls the hotel and I’m told it’s now refunded to my credit card night 3 our other (very expensive) activity gets canceled due to weather. Again no communication until I go to the reception. I get the front desk manager again and she’s somehow even ruder and makes it seem like I’m asking for the world when all I am asking is for the cancellation to be confirmed. I explain I got no comms about the night before being canceled and she hands me a letter (for the tour 24 hours prior) and tells me she can’t do the refund and I explain what I had been through the night before. She then finally looks at my account and tells me last nights refund was done for another room and not us. She advises the refund was processed. I ask for confirmation to be emailed. She rolled her eyes and said she can’t sent emails… let’s see if my nearly $700 refund comes through I have no proof fits been done.

As a whole I’m so disappointed at the level of service and care by the staff I expect the best service from. This was a very important trip for us and something we worked hard to pay for. This service has seriously damped our experience. We felt like an inconvenience and like we where asking for to much. If your front of house staff are so miserable it’s time...

Our experience at the Outback Hotel was terribly disappointing. We arrived at the hotel around 9:30am and checked-in, but the receptionnist told us that the room was not ready yet. There was no rush, we decided to have a look around Ayers Rock Resort and came back to the reception to see if the room was available around noon. We told the receptionist that we needed to get changed because we had activities planned throughout the rest of the day - like a helicopter flight with a pick-up at the hotel at 2pm, and a dinner experience with a pick-up at the hotel at 5pm. The receptionist - whose name is Pia - seemed unqualified for this kind of unexpected issue, she offered to use the communal showers but apart from that, she did not offer anything gesture of goodwill. Then, we came to the reception again after the helicopter flight at 3pm, but once again the room was not ready - even though check-out is at 10am, we could not check-in and people coming from a flight that landed 30 minutes ago were able to get their room. We asked Pia is she could give us an approximated time for when the room would finally be available and she told us it should not be long now; we said if by 5pm it would be ready and she jokingly assured us it would be - we mentioned that we urgently needed to acces a room to freshen up and get ready for the dinner experience by Uluru. Sadly enough, the room was not ready by 5pm and we only received a text telling us the room would be ready after 6pm, when we were already in the desert. We came back at the hotel by 11pm and finally could settle inton our room. The next morning, we had a breakfast experience and after that, we asked the reception to do us a favour and dispose of the bedroom after the check-out time; Pia has once again proved to be inconsiderate, regarding the fact that we had paid to stay in a room for less than 12 hours now. She accepted to leave us the room until 11am, when she knew the bus pick-up for the airport was at 12:25.

However, the room was nice and tidy, it is just a shame we were not allowed to spend more time enjoying the facilities and...