Menso at Southbank

Do not stay here. They will charge your bond of $100 and then you will not get it back unless you go there and make them. They try to say that it will be refunded but they say it is the banks issue. When I went there they quickly refunded me. This place should be removed from your site.

Booking for one night stay. Hotel is very well located and close to Southbank. My room was very clean and check in was quick and staff friendly. The hotel is small and there isn’t 24h reception and the restaurant was closed in the time we left the hotel. morning

Spa is good, it’s thoughtful to have a mini tv with spa. However the sink was blocked and the mugs are not very clean. Other than that it’s a overall good stay.

Booked about 6 months in advance for a work trip. Menso called about 1 month out saying that the apartment was no longer available and asked me to cancel the booking! The reason changed over time from the owner wanting to use it for the weekend to there being a plumbing "emergency". They claimed they had no accomodation and would not arrange an alternative. I called my travel agent who were astonished and said they would "sort it out" but they were unable to help and the booking was cancelled by Menso. Turns out there was a big event on that weekend and accommodation prices were now more than double what I originally paid. I had to rebook at a much higher price. Later I found that several of my colleagues booked accommodation at Menso (at the higher price) in the following weeks. I asked Menso for a refund of the extra cost but they refused. Susan Menso (manager/owner?) stated in writing "you are very lucky to get a refund from Menso at Southbank. by the way menso hotel owns no assets and Menso hotel does not own anything so go for your life I will defend myself in court." I was forced to proceed to legal action, but Susan didn't attend and the court ruled in my favour. Menso still refuse to pay and it looks like the next step will be sending the Sheriff to seize property to sell to pay their debt.

We arrived on the Monday and checked in, only to be told there was no gym and parking was an extra $30 a night. We checked in and went to our room, which smelt like rotten eggs, I immediately complained and we were given an “upgrade” to another room. In this room the crockery was mismatched and chipped, the saucepan handle was broken and generally it was dusty, dirty and grubby. The bathroom flooded every time you had a 2minute shower. This is certainly not 4* , it would be lucky to be a 2* in Europe.

I stayed with my family for over a year, very comfortable, the rooftop pool area a great place to relax. The sunsets are divine over a glass of wine. The bar and beer garden good but not alway open. Depends on the occupancy rate of course. Cannot be paying staff to sit around for the odd person. Location fabulous to Southbank, restaurants convention, centre theatres. To the complainers get real it’s not a five star hotel. It’s a good service apartment run during business hours virtually seven days a week. The owner Susan will treat you how you treat her. I retired builder whom built Menso Hotel, that is amazing given she was a woman builder starting back from the Bjelke-Petersen era. Very few if any construction builders back in the day… and probably stands today. Good on Susan. Cheers, PB

We stayed for 6 nights. Our key issue was that the building has several electrical and plumbing issues and is potentially dangerous. Bathroom smelt like sewerage, bathroom flooded whenever shower used. Concerningly, the electrical room on our floor was noticeably flooding when it rained briefly for one day, with a large puddle water leaking through bottom of the door. We notified reception who just said “yeah the owner knows about it, it’s not dangerous, we’ll the puddle” which they didn’t. Electrical faults with elevator. First day we couldn’t access room all day due to elevator not working - apparently caused by electric glitch/interference from intercom at front entrance. Sign placed over intercom saying don’t use or elevator won’t work. We weren’t offered anything to make up for not being able to access room (were told we could sit in the closed bar/lounge, not even offered water or free coffee etc. Car parking was advertised - there is limited parking and if spot available it costs $30 per night extra. Then the boom gate stopped working anyway (more electrical faults). Coffee machine in room was filthy and leaked water everywhere on the bench. We stayed 6 nights and the room was only cleaned/serviced once in that time. Bleach was used to mask scent of sewerage in bathroom so we returned to closed room stinking of bleach. Which soon returned to sewerage smell. We ran out of toilet paper and had to use all towels to mop up leaking bathroom each day. We were promised it would be serviced next day when we had to ask for more towels and it wasn’t. The advertised Bar/Cafe was never open during the 6 days we were there. Bathroom is not private because the door is glass. The staff are pleasant enough but have clearly heard all of these issues before and are nonchalant in response, likely because the owner doesn’t do anything about it and they can’t offer anything to make up for the poor experience.

I booked this hotel without reading reviews and then had a look and was going to cancel but my daughter said to give it a go. I'm so glad I listened to her. The staff are lovely and helpful, room is perfect and nothing at all to complain about. For a 3 star, this hotel is totally fine. We are still currently here and will write more when we check out but wanted to do an early review to show that it's really not bad.