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- Jun 20, 2002
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Background
We needed a weekend away recently (nights of 5 & 6 November) and after a successful trip last year to the Gold Coast with my wife's niece (now aged 11), we invited her along again. Everybody wins - she is worshipped by my daughter (aged 3) and they play well together. She gets a "holiday" away with us, all expenses paid and we get help with looking after our 2 kids. Our son (aged 1) had now taken a fancy toher as well, so this is looking great for the future.
We had seen this resort last year and from the street, the kids loved the look of the "pirate ship" in the pool area (and we had liked the idea of the internal "beach" setting rather than the usual pool setting). We also needed an apartment, given the bedding requirements (3 beds, including 2 single beds) and still room for a cot. This ruled out a lot of the normal places I would (prefer) to stay (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Conrad) and price was also very relevant.
Below was actually the review that I was trying to submit today (in response to an email request from truereviews); but due to their poor communication skills, I have been unable to submit. To quote my (hopeful) reply:
Your review page won’t submit (it states “error on page”) and there is no other way of contacting you (as your reply email address will go nowhere and your Terms & Conditions link goes nowhere – well, a 404 error) and you have no presence on the web other than a front page (after Googling you)…I am still willing to find a way to get this review to you. Alternatively, I’ll just post it on the web, because somebody will benefit from the review:
Review For: Crown Towers Resort
Room Type: 2 Bedroom Apartment
Date of Stay: 05 Nov 2010
Review Title: (e.g. Wonderful Hotel, Excellent Service)*
Great family orientated resort
Please describe what you liked most about your stay
Being greeted at the property by a Gold Coast Tourism Board representative (after alerting them to our impending arrival as request 15 minutes prior), who took me up to the room to arrange check-in, fully explaining conditions and the apartment features.
Having a two bedroom apartment not a hotel room - space for both parents and our 3 kids (separate bathrooms), as well as the ability to self cater for meals. A pity we didn't have the time to eat at the Indian restaurant downstairs, as the pricing appears reasonable (would have been hard to take our 1 and 3 year olds there). [We ate at the Holiday Inn, using my Priority Privilege card - buffet meal for 2 adults and 3 kids was $52 as kids under 4 eat free - great kids menu]
The pool area with both indoor and outdoor pool areas and the kids play area (pirate ship) - having a "beach" (rather than a pool) was one of our reasons for staying here given the better safety aspect and the gated entrance.
Please describe how your stay could have been improved (don't forget to provide as much constructive information as you can!)
The channel changer for TV would not work without a lot of effort - like hotel rooms, they should be changed more frequently to ensure optimum working conditions.
Only having 1 childrens' channel on Foxtel was a bit of a surprise.
Not being told that we needed one of the room keys (with disc) to exit the car park at the end of our stay - instead we were told to leave both keys in the apartment and lock door behind us. My wife needed to go up in the lift to reception and ask for a spare key. They told us the procedure should have been that we exited car park with both keys, then parked car and walked back upstairs with both keys and locked inside apartment - highly inappropriate and inconvenient. Perhaps a review is warranted.
[Cheekily, I should add here - a working email address and content rich web site might be nice
]
Please rate your overall stay (1 being terrible, 10 being great)
Pricing 1 - 10: 8
Rooms 1 - 10: 8
Things to do 1 - 10: 7
Service 1 - 10: 8
Location 1 - 10: 8
Very handy for walking to central Surfers (Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise is 1 block) or to the beach.
Hope this may help somebody looking for Christmas accomodation on the Gold Coast. The block across from the entrance to the resort (Palm Avenue) is used for a fun park until 10pm (slingshot ride, another ride and dodgem cars) and also houses an Avis Rental site. Our apartment (603) was on that corner overlooking Palm Avenue, but with the doors closed, very little noise heard.
We needed a weekend away recently (nights of 5 & 6 November) and after a successful trip last year to the Gold Coast with my wife's niece (now aged 11), we invited her along again. Everybody wins - she is worshipped by my daughter (aged 3) and they play well together. She gets a "holiday" away with us, all expenses paid and we get help with looking after our 2 kids. Our son (aged 1) had now taken a fancy toher as well, so this is looking great for the future.
We had seen this resort last year and from the street, the kids loved the look of the "pirate ship" in the pool area (and we had liked the idea of the internal "beach" setting rather than the usual pool setting). We also needed an apartment, given the bedding requirements (3 beds, including 2 single beds) and still room for a cot. This ruled out a lot of the normal places I would (prefer) to stay (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Conrad) and price was also very relevant.
Below was actually the review that I was trying to submit today (in response to an email request from truereviews); but due to their poor communication skills, I have been unable to submit. To quote my (hopeful) reply:
Your review page won’t submit (it states “error on page”) and there is no other way of contacting you (as your reply email address will go nowhere and your Terms & Conditions link goes nowhere – well, a 404 error) and you have no presence on the web other than a front page (after Googling you)…I am still willing to find a way to get this review to you. Alternatively, I’ll just post it on the web, because somebody will benefit from the review:
Review For: Crown Towers Resort
Room Type: 2 Bedroom Apartment
Date of Stay: 05 Nov 2010
Review Title: (e.g. Wonderful Hotel, Excellent Service)*
Great family orientated resort
Please describe what you liked most about your stay
Being greeted at the property by a Gold Coast Tourism Board representative (after alerting them to our impending arrival as request 15 minutes prior), who took me up to the room to arrange check-in, fully explaining conditions and the apartment features.
Having a two bedroom apartment not a hotel room - space for both parents and our 3 kids (separate bathrooms), as well as the ability to self cater for meals. A pity we didn't have the time to eat at the Indian restaurant downstairs, as the pricing appears reasonable (would have been hard to take our 1 and 3 year olds there). [We ate at the Holiday Inn, using my Priority Privilege card - buffet meal for 2 adults and 3 kids was $52 as kids under 4 eat free - great kids menu]
The pool area with both indoor and outdoor pool areas and the kids play area (pirate ship) - having a "beach" (rather than a pool) was one of our reasons for staying here given the better safety aspect and the gated entrance.
Please describe how your stay could have been improved (don't forget to provide as much constructive information as you can!)
The channel changer for TV would not work without a lot of effort - like hotel rooms, they should be changed more frequently to ensure optimum working conditions.
Only having 1 childrens' channel on Foxtel was a bit of a surprise.
Not being told that we needed one of the room keys (with disc) to exit the car park at the end of our stay - instead we were told to leave both keys in the apartment and lock door behind us. My wife needed to go up in the lift to reception and ask for a spare key. They told us the procedure should have been that we exited car park with both keys, then parked car and walked back upstairs with both keys and locked inside apartment - highly inappropriate and inconvenient. Perhaps a review is warranted.
[Cheekily, I should add here - a working email address and content rich web site might be nice
]Please rate your overall stay (1 being terrible, 10 being great)
Pricing 1 - 10: 8
Rooms 1 - 10: 8
Things to do 1 - 10: 7
Service 1 - 10: 8
Location 1 - 10: 8
Very handy for walking to central Surfers (Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise is 1 block) or to the beach.
Hope this may help somebody looking for Christmas accomodation on the Gold Coast. The block across from the entrance to the resort (Palm Avenue) is used for a fun park until 10pm (slingshot ride, another ride and dodgem cars) and also houses an Avis Rental site. Our apartment (603) was on that corner overlooking Palm Avenue, but with the doors closed, very little noise heard.
