Review: Anchor on Little Collins - Southern

My parents, my daughter and I went to Melbourne recently, the women went for the tennis and Dad for art. We chose an apartment through Qantas, close to where my cousin and his partner were staying. The tennis and hanging with family was fabulous. The apartment was not.

It claimed to be three bedroom. It was two bedroom and an alcove containing a bed. Thank goodness it also had sofa beds because the bed in the alcove squeaked at a high pitched, excruciating level every time the occupant moved. Some of the pillows were hard and lumpy too. The sofa beds were quite limp and lame as sofas, sinking uncomfortably down from excessive use. When we went to fold them out to be beds we discovered cushions stuffed under the proper cushion seats. One of the beds refused to fold out but the other managed to do its job. It had an awfully thin mattress though.

The lounge room had large windows framing a pleasant city view. They opened but couldn’t be tolerated in that state for long due to the street noise and lack of screens. There were no other windows in the place. This heat in the lounge room was saved by an air-conditioner but he cool air didn’t reach the bedrooms. Instead, pedestal fans were provided to make up for the central air-conditioning vents being totally ineffective. Despite the fans, the bedrooms remained hot and stuffy. 

It took a few attempts before arriving to arrange a car space at $120 for the three nights. The apartment was in a residential block so I was met by a roaming concierge I had to meet at a time agreed in advance. He was unaware I had booked a car space but once he checked I was telling the truth, he walked me two and a half blocks to the garage we were allocated, hardly convenient for moving our luggage in.

It was a clean apartment but without care. For example, a motley collection of coat-hangers were strewn over the floor in the wardrobe and stacks of little shampoo and bath gel bottles were left in the bathrooms, because they couldn’t be bothered leaving a mere adequate amount of them? 

To be kind, the apartment was in a convenient location with a lovely little coffee shop below, the TV was large enough for tired old eyes to see a tennis ball well and the kitchen had adequate facilities for cooking. 

We had a lovely time in Melbourne but unfortunately this apartment took the edge of how special it could have been.