Jesmond Executive Villas

THE WORST EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD. Only gets 1 star because I can’t go any lower. If you value your safety or any kind of accommodations, avoid like the plague. I arrived at 1:25am after an 11-hour drive from Bundaberg (solo female traveller, disabled Navy veteran) to find I had been given TWO different rooms, and couldn’t access either of them. Both codes failed. I called the after-hours numbers multiple times around 2am with no answer.

I was left stranded in the middle of the night with my dogs, forced to walk across the road to the shady McDonald’s just to use the bathroom, asking staff to watch my dogs while I went in. If you’re a woman travelling alone, you’ll understand exactly how unsafe that feels.

On the walk back from McDonald’s, there were people in one of the rooms I had been provided codes for. This is beyond unsafe and a clear failure in the booking systems.

With no help available, I had no choice but to sleep in my car. I had to string up a crate cover I had in the boot, just to have some kind of privacy blocking my windscreen while I slept in this very public and shady carpark.

In the morning, even the housekeeper couldn’t get into the room, confirming it wasn’t user error. Reception staff were dismissive and told me I “should have kept calling.” No empathy, no urgency, no accountability. Tony Hughes could not have cared less about the situation I was put in. I gave him a serve and was told I could have a service credit.

I wasn’t offered a shower, a room, or even basic access to facilities. I had to make a coffee by boiling my own water on the porch of the room I couldn’t access with my portable gas stove just to have some kind of up and go for my long drive home. I then had to go back to McDonald’s to change clothes and wash my face in a public bathroom.

To make matters worse, I’ve since seen multiple reviews describing the exact same issue with after hours check in. This is clearly an ongoing problem.

I paid $186 and after standing my ground was offered a refund instead, however, I only received partial refund of $126.

This isn’t just poor service, it’s a complete failure of duty of care. No one should ever be left in that situation.

Avoid if you value safety, especially if travelling alone. I will be escalating this through further channels as it’s entirely unacceptable.

Awful. Stay away – This place is terrible. Some issues: -charged my card before I even arrived. - got my name wrong and didn't apologise - full of junkies and prostitutes. when people complain, they move they just prostitutes and then put other people into their rooms - constant fights between the junkies, noise disruptions - police there every day - dirty, reception is full of junk making it a hazard - staff are extremely rude and aggressive. A lot of people have tried to get refunds because it is unsafe due to junkies and prostitutes, the manager is abusive

Filth is just the norm – I am contacting you re: our stay at Cardiff. We have stayed several times now, in unit 7, with the first time being an absolute disgrace. Dirty, beer stained carpet, gravel in cupboards, filthy filthy. The appartment was disgusting and we left a long list of issues. We tried again, and it was a little cleaner but the dishwasher fell apart, the washer was full of gunk, and there were cigarette butts and dog crap in the back area.

The handyman had obviously read the note left about the fly screens being in disrepair, so had simply ripped them off, leaving none.

Last week we gave it the "third time's a charm a go"... but were told the day we were to arrive, that the room needed more cleaning, so we had been moved to Charlestown.

Yes, the appartments are newer, but we were in Cardiff because it suited why we were there!

Upon arrival at Charlestown, we found the room had wet towels left on the floor, and the main bed still unmade. Not to mention the choke hazzard cord left attached to the wall although it had been disconnected from the blind!

We made several calls, and eventually a cleaner turned up and dropped off clean towells and sheets for us to fit and replace ourselves, and was told in no uncertain terms that she was NOT doing it because she was late for an appointment.

We eventually had the sheets and towels changed by another cleaner.

Over the past few visits, we have accumulated a whats what of photos of the poor cleaning and the "left behinds" that we have encounted.

Which also makes me question the covid practices being disregarded in a pandamic at all properties overseen by this group.

AND to top it, my very pregnant partner needed to leave earlier then expected on Friday due to the smell of the painting of the driveway into our appartmnent, with no warning, and who was unable to have a shower nor a rest on the beds due to them being unmade, and who is now not wanting to return to newcastle (as we do on a fortnightly basis) because of the filth and inconvenience provided by the management.

I have now read the reviews of these properties, and there are so many complaints that are followed up by management telling people that they will look onto it because it's not the way it usually is. However, the pure number suggests that YES .. that is how it really is!

Even the reception at the Charlestown appartments were mortified but not surprised, because most of the appartments were owned by responsible owners, but several were owned by the Jesmond Executive Villa group, who continually treated guests poorly and left appartments uncleaned!

While social media reviews don't seem to phase them because they simply disregard the problems raised.

Brad