The Olsen

“Location, location, location.”

The hotel and access is great and is overall pleasant in a no-frill environment. Rooms (and bathrooms are a little tired and the bed/mattress unfortunately extremely worn out and soft. Service is prompt, friendly and effective. The hotel could do with a bit of an update but the art, location and ba… more

The hotel and access is great and is overall pleasant in a no-frill environment. Rooms (and bathrooms are a little tired and the bed/mattress unfortunately extremely worn out and soft. Service is prompt, friendly and effective. The hotel could do with a bit of an update but the art, location and balconies in rooms are what you come for. The restaurant's service is great and very cordial.

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“A bit tired”

Staff were very friendly. Good location. Given the price we were surprised at how tired things were. Little broken things and sealant that need redoing, common areas that needed a good scrub. It wasn't terrible but I probably wouldn't stay again.

“A far cry from a five-star experience”

Where to begin! While The Olsen promises a five-star experience, it certainly doesn't deliver one. I checked the car parking instructions on the website before we arrived, which said, "Prior to checking in, guests can enter by taking a ticket and showing this to the Guest Experience Desk when they … more

Where to begin! While The Olsen promises a five-star experience, it certainly doesn't deliver one. I checked the car parking instructions on the website before we arrived, which said, "Prior to checking in, guests can enter by taking a ticket and showing this to the Guest Experience Desk when they check-in." We pulled up at the gate and there was no ticketing machine; simply an intercom that called reception who had to let us in, after checking all the details of our reservation (a frustrating process due to the poor sound from the intercom). Parked, we headed to reception where there was a lengthy wait to check in. We are Accor Plus members, but that didn't make a difference as there were two people on reception - one who wasn't checking anyone in! This was in what I imagine to be peak time, around 3pm. It was very slow. I'm not sure about anyone else, but a 'lolly bar' in reception is not my idea of an exciting or 'premium' guest amenity. Finally, we headed up to our room, passing a tray of used glasses on the floor at the start of the hallway. This same tray was STILL there the next day when we checked out. The room was clean and tidy enough, however the windows were filthy - we could barely see out of them. The view was surrounding buildings and the pool down below. Unluckily for us, the noise from the pool travelled upwards and there doesn't seem to be any great effort put into the window glazing as the noise from both the pool and traffic was extremely loud, through all hours of the night (traffic). The bathroom was very pokey and didn't have a proper sealing door - very uncomfortable given the lack of privacy using the bathroom. The toilet paper was the cheapest Who Gives A Crap rolls - they could at least pay for the premium ones, given it's supposed to be five-star!! While we didn't use the cooking facilities, only one hotplate on the stove was useable as the other one's knob was missing. Positives: the Mexican restaurant (Sam's) down the road from the hotel was the best Mexican I've ever eaten, and we also had an enjoyable breakfast at Two Birds One Stone on Claremont Street. The welcome drink we had in the hotel's restaurant was a good experience, with the chap who served us accommodating and friendly. Despite us discussing the car parking with multiple staff members, there was no car parking on our account on check-out so I rectified that so we could simply leave the car park! We won't be returning to this hotel and do not recommend it to anyone who's looking for a five-star stay. It's 3.5-4 max.

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