Wolngarin Holiday Resort Noosa

This review is in relation to a Unit (Unit 25) we stayed in for a week in July 2024. The resort itself is in a great location, next to the river and well connected to everything you need. There's a decent pool and outside kitchen and in fairness to the managers they helped where they could but due to the ownership model there's a problem with this unit and maybe others. When we booked the media used by the resorts shows clean, well equipped and modern looking apartments. The advert at no point mentions standard or budget accommodation and there is no option given to choose or select a different price . We were aware from reading an earlier trip advisor review from 2023 that one unit did have problems - so we rang a head of time to ensure we weren't allocated this unit. This made no difference and so that Unit we were allocated had; - Cocroaches in the kitchen and bathroom. - Extensive Mould in the curtains. - Two rusty outdoor chairs around a rusty table. The manager told us the others were so bad they had to be removed for safety reasons. - One aircon unit to heat and cool that was positioned at the top of the stairs rendering it useless for down stairs. The unit was visibly filthy - blowing out dust and dirt and possibly mould. - No washing machine as listed in the advert - but a clothes dryer in one of the bedrooms - Damaged lights, ironing board, damaged ( bathroom) exhaust fan, damaged curtains, damaged carpets, damaged bedroom and living room tables, damaged walls and damaged settee. - The whole apartment was shabby with marks on walls and a desperate need for a deep clean/repaint. The windows were rusted to the point of being almost impossible to open and closed. When we raised these issues to the manager, their initial response was to suggest we find alternative accommodation. This wasn't practical, not only because there was a low vacancy rate in Noosa that week due to it being the school holidays, but we had ordered a Coles Delivery - ahead of our trip and this had already been delivered. It was clear from speaking to the managers - they were aware of all of the problems / poor standard accommodation, but were powerless to address the issues as the apartments are privately owned and maintenance budgets are negotiated with the management team. They stated they are aware of the issues, have raised them with the owner of unit 25 who has refused to increase the maintenance budget to provide for reasonable maintenance. When we raised that Unit 25 should be removed from availability until it meets the standard of other apartments, this was declined. When we raised the inaccurate advert information and to change the profile to show the difference and prices for 'standard' and 'budget' but this was also declined. If you are booking at the location please ensure that you have it in writing that you will not be in Unit 25 until it is dramatically improved.

Bit disappointed with a few aspects of our stay in a 2 bedroom villa , firstly no air conditioning in the upstairs bedrooms was hard to deal with in such hot weather , the spa was not heated at all , and our kitchen had no frypan only a wok , would probably not choose to stay again .

A negative review so please take a look at my other feedbacks which will hopefully show that in over 200 reviews I’m pretty fair. Having looked at the lovely pictures on this place we booked for 3 nights about 8 months ago with airbnb. We turned up to a very (very) basic apartment, with threadbare carpets, holes in the curtains and an overall appearance of an 80’s timewarp which also looked nothing like the pictures. We complained about this that night and these went unanswered until the next day when we received a reply from the manager Carolyn saying that they would move us. She sent her husband Mark to speak with us who said that he couldn’t understand why Carolyn had put us in this apartment as it was ‘budget’ accommodation and that airbnb guests are accomodated in far more superior units. He took us to another unit which was way better which we readily accepted and was in fact the one that predominantly features in the publicity photos on the site. He said that sometimes if people book at the last minute on airbnb they might be put in the budget flats but we’d booked this months before so really there was no excuse, in fact we felt that there was a deliberate attempt on Carolyns part to palm us off with inferior accomodation in order to keep the better stuff for others. The site was a third full at best so there was no excuse for giving us this remarkably poor standard of accommodation. Mark was to his credit apologetic and we suggested a way to remedy this was for us not to be charged for the first night which he accepted. I sent a message to Carolyn saying that Mark had agreed to refunding us for the previous night, I received nothing back for 4 hours so escalated matters to making a claim via airbnb, this was again ignored by Carolyn and now airbnb are dealing with the matter. I really can’t believe that Carolyn would behave in this way by firstly putting us in budget accomodation and then ignoring what was in our view a perfectly reasonable compromise. Mistakes can happen but it was Carolyn’s ignoring of our messages and then airbnb’s that was to be frank unforgiveable. The apartment we were then given was fine but beware that if like us you are attracted by the lovely pictures you may still get somewhere far less in quality and a lack of response as we experienced when matters come to a compromise. When we left my wife handed the key to Carolyn and again stated how poor the first apartment was, Carolyn’s rather glib and unhelpful reply was ‘Things happen’ so perhaps that might show how she will react to any fair complaints, even when her partner supports them. This matter has now had to go to mediation with airbnb and we have now received a refund for the night in question. We know that mistakes happen but it was Carolyn’s ignoring of our messages once the question of a refund was raised both with us and airbnb that we found concerning. The apartment we finally had was great but beware if Carolyn decides otherwise!