When I go to Melbourne I usually stay at more boutique hotel style properties like the Lindrum or Pensione because I'm either travelling alone or with just one other person. This time we were a group of 4 people (2 of us a couple) so we needed a 3 bedroom apartment ideally, so I started to look at serviced apartments rather than hotels to save a bit of money. Bad idea, I should have just booked 3 nice hotel rooms next to each other in a nice hotel.

Firstly, only one Mantra in Melbourne has a 3 bedroom apartment, and it's $600-$800 per night. Yeah right. So I decided to book a 2 bedroom and a 1 bedroom apartment. I booked Mantra on Exhibition because it's near most of the things I like to do in Melbourne including the bars and restaurants I like to visit while I'm there.

I tried to book online on Mantra's website (as I always try to book direct with the hotel) but it wouldn't let me book two rooms. So I went to Booking.com and booked it and they probably lost a couple hundred dollars in commission. Make your website as easy to use as travel agent websites, that's hotel marketing 101 isn't it?

When we got to the hotel they only had one room booked for us, so the clerk had to find us a two bedroom then and there, but he was pretty quick and efficient in doing this. The one bedroom was ok, the two bedroom was weird, massive white hallways and walls everywhere, both bedrooms with no window, it felt like an asylum. Everything was clean but it wasn't worth the price we paid as the apartment was pretty bare.

We stayed for 2 nights and each day had to walk past the life size cut-out of Pat Rafter in the lobby each day saying 'What's your Mantra?' in a speech bubble above his head - tragic. My friends paid me out the entire trip because I booked the hotel haha. I learnt my lesson through embarrassment.

If you're a family of two adults and two kids from Noosa and you're going to the big city for the weekend you'll love this place!