Shortland Court Motel

Good welcome, then it all went downhill. Very much beer accommodation at champagne prices. No compendium in room to tell you of good restaurants to visit, POI in Thames, no info on Chemists, Doctors, Hospital, Taxi Services or public transport, supermarkets, no info on what to do for new towels etc, no info on laundry facilities, free WIFI, how to order breakfast let alone what you could get for breakfast, no info on contacting office, exactly 50 TV channels, no CNN or regular news channels or Movies from SKY. Only info in the room was emergency exit and assembly point, other than that you were flying blind. The beds were something to be desired, had the roll to the middle or roll off the bed effect and the sheets were very loud. Cooking utensil consisted of an old burnt rubber/plastic egg slice. Very basic accommodation to say the least. On second day emergency housing family came in, we were not informed at any time it was an emergency housing establishment. We felt very uneasy when getting up two mornings in a row to a vehicle parked very very close to our vehicle outside our unit with a homeless person asleep in it, according to proprietors, the occupant was tied up with the emergency housing client and we got the impression it was ok to sleep in the vehicle on the property. Felt very vulnerable and unsafe, were thankful we were finally leaving. The house keeping staff were very cheery around the complex.

I'm sure in the old days the position of this hotel made sense as the traffic would have been much less. My bed was probably about 10 metres from the roadside and it was difficult to sleep as the road is a state hwy and was very busy. Add to that a cat that seemed to think 5am was a great time to sit outside my window and yowl. I didn't get much sleep. The room was OK, a bit aged but clean and tidy.