We stayed at this hotel for one night prior to an early morning flight. The location can't be beaten for proximity to the airport. Our room was quite high up and we had panoramic views of the airport and coastal area, which the kids loved.

We booked a Standard Twin room to accommodate 2 adults and 2 children (1 child in the second bed and 1 in a decent quality portacot). The room was enormous for a standard run-of-the-house room, and easily fitted 2 queen beds, 2 chairs and a coffee table. The bathroom was also enormous and had 2 sinks. All furnishings were in perfect condition and nothing looked worn, dirty or tattered (which I hate). The room was also blissfully quiet at night.

Check-in was fast and professional. Room service was also reasonably prompt and the food was good. There is a small shopping mall next door which contains a supermarket, bar, bakery, pharmacy, sushi place, cafes, gym etc. We bought our breakfast supplies there after we checked in as we were leaving very early the next morning.

As far as the location goes, it's all about airport convenience. Driving time to the CBD is about 15-20 minutes, more in peak hours (this will be shorter when a new by-pass is completed nearby). There is a railway station at the nearby international terminal (you would need to take the hotel shuttle to get there), but airport railway tickets come at a premium cost - much more than local train travel. There is most likely also a reasonably priced local bus which services the nearby DFO outlet mall (a few minutes walk from the hotel), but I didn't check on this. A cab fare to the city definitely wouldn't be cheap. The location is, however, excellent if you plan to do day-trips to the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast - the hotel is right near the freeway to both.

I only had a few minor gripes, just little things that niggled more than anything:

1. The shuttle bus to the airport doesn't leave early enough to catch the first flights out in the morning. I assume this is because the shuttle has a fixed start-time all year round, which does not take into account the fact that the airlines schedule earlier flights during daylight savings in the southern states. This was very annoying, and led to us keeping our hire car overnight. It wouldn't take a lot of lateral thinking for the hotel to match their shuttle times to the early flight times during daylight savings.
2. The credit card surcharge. Why do this? It just annoys people. Other hotels manage to absorb it into the room rate.
3. Secure underground parking is about $15 overnight. There is free parking out the front, but we were a bit apprehensive about leaving our hire car there. We ended up chancing it and the car was fine, but it was raining in the morning so we needed to move the car to the drop-off area at the front door in order to load it under shelter. It wouldn't hurt the hotel to offer free parking to paying guests.

An overnight stop at this hotel made for an easy departure the next day - check in was very quick and efficient (this could be a general description of the whole hotel), with plenty of staff on hand.

The room was roomy (strange not to have a phone by the bed - apparently it's more important to have it at the work desk?) and the best part was the QUIET - with the M1 motorway next door and the train service outside the door, not to mention the airport a few hundred yards away, the noise level inside the hotel was zero!

The restaurant, surprisingly, is fairly cafe style, though overpriced. For the money asked, I would have liked a tablecloth and a better selection of wine. It's expensive but what's the alternative?

The Duty Free Outlet shops behind the hotel make for a nice time-filler, and the airport shuttle bus (at $5 per person) is efficient and well run. A good hotel, perfect for an airport stopover or in preparation for an early flight.

A request for extra pillows was met promptly, as was the request for a wakeup call.