Park Hyatt

There is nothing like arriving exhausted at a 5 star hotel after a long drive from Adelaide to Melbourne and to be whisked into your room by competent staff with a minimum of fuss and forms. Unfortunately this was not our experience at the Melbourne Park Hyatt. First impressions count - and certainly the desk clerk did himself no favours in this department. Having booked a special offer through a travel agent we were apparently supposed to have some sort of voucher with us. After much fussing and standing around and my husband getting his laptop out to check the emails received I suggested that we might perhaps be allowed to go to our room and search for this mysterious voucher in more comfortable surroundings.

The clerk let us check in but we didn't exactly feel welcomed and when our travel agent looked into the matter for us (fast and efficiently) no voucher was in fact required. The Park Hyatt needs to spend a little more time training its desk staff and perhaps reminding them that their first priority ought to be welcoming your guests in a friendly and efficient way.

We were mollified somewhat by our sizable room - and even more so by the large spa bath in the bathroom complete with a remote and a television behind a screen for in tub viewing.

However there were also some very strange design flaws in the room. Firstly, due to the outside architecture, we were faced with a large expanse of wall where the view ought to have been in which there was a mirror and a desk. There was a small window in the next panel which showed us the lovely cathedral below our window. You might expect the building design of a hotel to have taken providing a pleasant view into account.

There was also a large flat screen television that was built into a cabinet facing into the middle of the room. As creative as we got with angles and pillows there was no way you could watch tv from the bed (one of our guilty holiday pleasures). We persevered and moved some tub armchairs until they were in front of the tv but watching tv in your room shouldn't require such ingenuity and hard work on the part of the guests!

On our first evening we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant as we were too tired to go out. We were seated at a raised level on the impressive multi-level restaurant. Unfortunately there was a freezing draft of frigid airconditioning coming up from the rooms below. We asked to move and were accommadated in a slightly less arctic part of the restaurant but still felt we should have brought coats to dinner.

Service was friendly but the actual food took a long time coming. We were both offered a free "amassey boush" before the main meal which our waiter explained is something the chef offers as a taster before the entrée. In learning what it was perhaps he might also have managed to learn how to pronounce it. This was the high point of our evening meal as we listened to the waiter proudly explaining the "amassey boush" to other tables and fought back fits of giggles. The amuse bouche was very nice in fact but the rest of the meal lagged behind it. Non-exceptional is the best praise I can give it. Still at least we were fed and managed to get upstairs have a lukewarm spa and then collapse into bed.

On the plus side we ordered a room service breakfast at 5:30am the next morning and this arrived with no problem at all (although my porridge was also lukewarm as no warming covers were put over the hot food - bizarre but true).

We also enjoyed a very good afternoon tea in the foyer on our last day. But bizarrely they wanted to sit us in the entirely empty arctic restaurant when there was quite a lovely area with a view of the garden, comfortable sofas and a pianist playing where other guests were enjoying afternoon tea. We rebelled and insisted on sitting in the lounge and had a lovely afternoon once there.

We also awoke one morning to find that our water supply (which had been lukewarm at best - a bit disappointing when we used the spa bath) had now deteriorated to being stone cold. When we rang the front desk we were informed that this was a hotel wide issue. They apologised profusely and offered to drive us to the other local Hyatt in order to have a shower.

This typified our experience of the Park Hyatt - veering wildly from excellent service and real helpfulness to needless difficulties, complications and basic mistakes such as not serving a room service breakfast warm that were quite unfathomable. Something needs overhauling at this hotel. If they sort it you may still have difficulty admiring the view or watching tv but you might otherwise enjoy a pleasant stay in a great location and quite a swanky building.