Pullman Port Douglas Sea Temple Resort & Spa

Stayed in 2 bed penthouse. Lovely experience. Rooftop bbq and spa. Apartment had full kitchen. Garage parking. Pool is magnificent. Restaurant is ok,better options in town. Regular shuttle bus to/from town, runs till late. Apartment comfortable, A/C throughout and ceiling fans. Lift to help taking luggage to 1st floor apartments. Quiet, clean and relaxing.

Contrary to prior practice this year we decided to book a "5 star" resort some distance from the town of Port Douglas. In my humble view, Sea Temple Resort is a classic example of a venue that is not quite a resort, not quite a hotel and not quite villa accommodation. It is a mixture of all 3 and this has resulted in a few "pros" and quite a few "cons". This will be a long review, so apologies in advance, but need to comprehensive for the benefit of fellow travellers. Please note that we were placed in Unit/Villa 154 - I suspect that not all Sea Temple 2 bedroom villas with a private plunge pool will be identical (as these are clearly individually owned and not all owned by the Resort) so some of the comments may be specific to that room: PROS - nice size villa - the photos on the website are accurate. Spacious rooms; - good size TV in living room with a smaller one in main bedroom; - reasonably good sound proofing when doors are shut (kids in the pool next door made a bit of noise) however, scraping of chairs and footsteps from the above unit were quite annoying; - a great resort pool - good for kiddies, but beware if you get a unit near the kids end of the pool - quite noisy; - easy access to 4 mile beach. CONS - Parking - we were told that there was no allocated parking. Being 6 kilometres from the town of Port Douglas many guests had cars. It is a free for all when getting a car park. In some cases, you might end up parking 150 metres from your room. Even more galling is that we discovered one of the garages was in fact allocated to rooms 153/154 (even though this was not mentioned when we checked in) - all this did was result in a game of cat and mouse with the car from room 153!; - Outdoor area lacks maintenance - pool tiles need a good clean. Covered in a film of grime. Also, found what appeared to be an insect nest on one of the chairs (see photo); - This apartment is not appropriate for someone with mobility issues- the shower is in the bath, which means having to step in and over the bathtub edge - might be tricky for older people; - no fan in the bathroom - even if we opened the windows and left the bathroom door open, it would steam up like a turkish sauna and cover everything in the bathroom with a film of moisture (including the towels); - A lack of any instructions - there is an "Accor" channel on the TV but it was not operational (see photo). There are no instructions provided on using any appliances of note; - for a fully contained unit, the lack of utensils, plates and bowls was an issue - there is the bare minimum; - only one toilet - not a major con, but it is in the bathroom - if you are sharing this villa with another couple, might need a roster to be put in place; - only very limited extras - for example, no salt or pepper, limited coffee pods, limited dishwashing powder - we were staying for two weeks; - A disconnected smart TV - whilst the resort provides wi-fi (which is of average strength) there is no internet. A 5 sta

A copy of the letter we sent upon returning home - do not book - learn from our mistake. "Dear hotel management at the Pullman Sea Temple Resort Port Douglas, appropriate Accor Group representatives, and to whom it may concern at LuxuryEscapes.com. My name is ____ ____, a Pullman Sea Temple Resort guest (room 144) from December 27th through January 2nd, and I am writing to you today to detail the deplorable service my partner and I experienced on your premises this holiday season. This correspondence is my potentially fruitless bid to open a dialogue that both ensures that no other couples are subjected to such treatment on their once-a-year retreat, while also reaching a suitable resolution. We are deeply offended by our time in your care and cannot for the life of us understand how it is that you are not horribly ashamed. There is not one ounce of aggression or intent to provoke contained in these words, but rather an overwhelming sense of having been taken for a ride by your businesses. This trip was to be a graduation gift for my partner concluding his studies for the year and a couple’s retreat from the stressful life of young parenting; it was anything but that, and to employ the word “luxury” anywhere in your messaging is entirely incorrect and deliberately misleading. We are not wealthy people, and to spend as much as we did on this trip just to be treated like livestock has me reeling. Now, back at home, I feel as if I have let my partner down and wasted our first holiday in three years. I have attempted several different ways of encapsulating the dozens of shortfalls endured during our stay – paragraphs, day-to-day events, diary etc. Sadly, by the time we closed the car door on our hire vehicle and left, there were so many grievances that you have relegated yourself to the following: an itemised list of some of the most basic tasks required of a five-star hotel I have ever encountered in my life. • No early check-in (despite pre-arrangement via email). • Bags not held on arrival (despite other’s bags being held behind glass doors). • No valet parking - which would be fine if there were dedicated parking spaces for each room, which there are not, so every day was a scramble to find somewhere, resulting in countless laps of the ring route in the blistering heat. • The room was unclean on arrival, most notably a large hairball in the shower. • No drinking water in the room, unacceptable for anywhere five-star hotel, much less a tropical location with temperatures above 30 degrees. • No hand soap, toilet paper or tissues in-room. Forced to take one bottle of body wash back and forth from the shower multiple times a day. • In-room phone non-functional, a dead line. Instead using our mobiles to call the front desk to ask for the towels, housekeeping neglected to leave for us. • $22 watery cocktails in plastic schooner glasses from a keg, no fruit or salt. • Refused a bottle of champagne from the pool bar, citing the unwillingnes

All perfectly fine but nothing exceptional.. good service at breakfast and also at dinner in fact the meal we had was very good and a lovely big pool, the rooms are not especially exciting. Could do with an airer to try and fry swimming things as nowhere to put them

Beautiful gardens and pool, our room was nice but cleaning during our five night stay was non-existent. The towels were changed and the bed was pulled up and tucked back in and that was it. There was no replenishment of coffee, tea, etc but it was provided if you asked for it. The wi fi in our room did not work at all and we were subsequently provided with a dongle which worked well. Gina at the front desk was fantastic and very helpful. Our package included breakfast which was nice but not anything special. We didn’t eat an evening meal in the restaurant as it seemed quite expensive and the menu was very limited. We did however attend a wedding while we were there and the wedding food was excellent. It was always a long wait to get served at the pool bar as there was only ever one person on duty who also had to make cocktails. Two people are definitely required. Our room had a small outdoor area. When we arrived there was quite a bit of leaf litter laying around and it wasn't cleaned while we were there. 5 star? Only just I think.

We couldnt get in here with our accor membership as they were booked out but had breakfast here on our trip to Port Douglas. The breakfast was a lovely location. Cass the server was very friendly, helpful and a pleasure. The omlette was great and the choice and set out was better than most other Pullman buffett breakfasts. Only downfall is the bacon. I think it is air fried and goes hard very quickly. Other than that everything was lovely.