I booked the 3 Bedroom Harbour View Suite (sleeps 6 guests) ($1952 for 1 night) in hopes to treat myself and my closest companions to a little bit of luxury for my 21st birthday celebration. Now I will preface, this was by NO means a party as I was and am fully aware of the no party policy. This was simply a small tame gathering with no more than 15 people in the 110m2 (one of the main reasons I splurged for the big spacious option) space. Perfectly compliant with social distancing regulations and the verbal confirmation of the receptionist who said "As long as there's no more than 20 people that is okay" when I asked BEFORE inviting people around.
At 8pm I received a visit from security who claimed there was a noise complaint and asked how many people I had inside to which I truthfully and happily answered 10 and he immediately snapped at me and said the limit was 4 to which I pointed out the room capacity was 6 so that couldn't be the case and I had a few people visiting that weren't staying the night but wouldn't be too late to which he apologised for and then just asked we quieten down. Despite me personally thinking we were reasonable with the volume of just conversation and a small portable speaker with music on low (especially so early on a Saturday night), I did not want any trouble and did exactly that.
As I was leaving the room I encountered a few of our neighbours and politely asked if they were comfortable with the current noise levels and was met with responses of not even noticing any commotion, which I too, could not detect from outside the room.
Around midnight I got another knock on the door and I opened it to the Duty Manager and another security staff member. She announced to the entire room that after 11pm it is a rule that only the 6 people sleeping could stay and everybody else was to leave and had 5 minutes to do so before they would return and conduct a head count. This was an incredibly uncomfortable situation for me as I had to give rushed goodbyes to dear friends of mine, many of which did not have any notice to organise safe methods of transport home within that time frame. The two ladies opened the door and continued to stand in the doorway and watch me as I awkwardly escorted people out one by one. They ordered us to sit down and then proceeded to walk through our entire suite and count people and at this point in time (as aforementioned, only 5 minutes had passed and people were calling taxis/checking public transport times etc.) counted 8. The duty manager then stated 8 people was okay. Not only did this conjure the thought that such rule evidently wasn't one to begin with (and since searching through the website information I have yet to encounter such rule in writing) but insinuated that she was doing ME - the GUEST - a FAVOR after absolutely humiliating me and treating my friends and I like children on a school camp for a reason that I still have absolutely no idea what for. I was left embarrassed, disgusted and my entire evening had been spoiled.
The family (with a baby) staying in the neighbouring room and several security staff on shift throughout the night patrolling the levels had all communicated to me upon me asking that not once had they considered myself and my guests as a disturbance to the venue. So I wonder who really had a problem with us?
Might I add, in passing through the hotel I saw numerous large groups of rowdy adults all with large quantities of alcohol screaming in the hallways. There were most definitely legitimate parties that were going on at the same time and did not face any consequences seemingly. Were we targeted simply for being younger?
The inconsistency of what was and wasn't supposedly allowed by all staff members made me question the professionalism of the establishment. Had I known of any of these rules I would not have decided to stay here.
Thank you for the worst birthday imaginable. I love to reflect on my 21st as the night I spent over $2000 only to be treated like scum.