I was at Mandurah with my wife and small child 2 weeks ago. By the time we reached there from Perth, it was already close to 5pm. Anxious that accomodation will be scarce by then, I approched the information centre for advise who in turn recommended me several up market hotels above $160 per day. With no budget for the latter, I turned to a tourist brochure which incidentally carried an advertisement on Mandurah Caravan and tourist Park. I called and immediately was given a positive response of a cabin consisting of 2 rooms. The price was also at an acceptable level of $125 per night. At first, I was still hesitant in lodging into a Caravan park as I had previous bad experiences with such parks regarding hygiene and cleaniness. But as the clock tickles, I decided to give this park a try.

With no high expectation of the place, I drove to the Caravan park, which was actually only about 7 km away from the town centre. The entrance into the cabin thereafter and the subsequent 'discovery' of the facilities has till now left an indelible mark in my memory.

The Cabin that I stayed was very new (perhaps 3 months old at most), equipped with full kitchen facilities, a plasma TV and DVD player in Hall as well as another set in the Master Bedroom. The Sofa was the modern fabric type and the bed comfortable and bouncy. Everything inside were basically NEW!

When I went to the reception to get more information of the Caravan Park, what I get was genuine help from the staff there. As I have a small child of about 2 years with me, I asked for some children DVDs from the reception and was offered a number of good titles. Indeed, flipping through the catalogue, I realised that they have more than 100 titles with them.

Having to log in into internet daily to check work reports, I also asked for PC usage from the reception. Rather than getting me to buy some prepaid internet card like what I always experienced from other motels or hotels, the owner actually offered some half used cards which I can still use, without charge!

Again, when I met the owner later in the evening before going into sleep, I was actually offered an extension of stay till 12pm the following day without any extra charge. The rationaIe was that I checked in late and thus would be tired and as such they would not want me to feel pressured into waking up early the next day just to check out! I was shocked. In my visit to Australia, such thing has never happened. One would instead get reprimanded or even "fined" for checking out late.

I would like to share the above experiences with everyone. Having stayed in numerous accomodations in Australia, I concluded that a high priced hotel or accomodation does not necessarily translate into good accomdation standards. Rather, discovery of high accomodation standards while paying a reasonable or lower than market price makes a trip even more meaningful and exciting.

Keep up the good work, Mandurah Caravan and Tourist Park!