Nautilos on the Harbour

The 3-BR apartment was booked for 5 nights for a group of five adults who had travelled from around Australia. This accommodation was selected as there are limited central 3-bedroom places available in Newcastle CBD. The Positives: The location is great, walking distance to cafes, coastal walk, eclectic shops, and historic areas. The 3-BR apartment does back onto the tram line, but it wasn’t an issue as the bedrooms have double glazing– the apartment block itself was quiet. There was secure parking available. The apartment was relatively clean and reasonably well stocked with household effects. There are no less than four televisions in the apartment (not that we looked at any of them during our stay.) The Negatives: It appears that Apartment 107 is privately owned and managed for that owner by the Nautilus Apartment Management team. Our impression was that there was a “huge disconnect” between the owner and the management company. Neither seemed to communicate with the other. On check-in day, the first of our group to arrive were unable to access the apartment for 2 hours after the official check-in time, and only then as the cleaner let them in who also had not been able to get in to clean the place. No key fob could be located – eventually, some of our group had to walk to another apartment building about 750 metres away to pick up this single fob to share between five guests. No one offered any apology for this inconvenience. The following day a second fob “mysteriously” appeared in the mailbox. The doorbell to the apartment was not working so unable to “buzz” in anyone from our group – thank goodness for mobile phones! This was reported to the management. There is a small patio off the main lounge, but the door out to it was locked with no key to access this area. The reception staff were informed of this, but it never got fixed during our stay. There was absolutely NIL information in the apartment about either the apartment or the city of Newcastle, eg local attractions, restaurants, etc as one would normally expect to find in a holiday apartment. We had to call reception to find out what was expected regarding rubbish disposal and even then, finding the actual space where the rubbish goes was only possible after finding a random resident in the car park who kindly explained –For the record, it is located outside but accessed via the car park using the elusive fob. More concerning was that we were unable to locate any fire escape plan, fire extinguisher or fire blanket in the apartment. It appeared as if only one of the smoke alarms had a functioning battery. Given that no windows or doors could be opened this could be very dangerous in the event of a fire. Another issue that will need attention is that the main bathroom pools water post showers. Another minor irritation were the high foam pillows. Most of our group put a cushion in a pillowcase as a proxy pillow. The final straw was receiving a phone call after departure enquiring w