Fiori Apartments

Hard to find doesn’t even cover it…
The Apartments are a mix of holiday and residential tenancies. The whole time we were there I didn’t see a sign with the name of the apartment complex, not even in the reception area, and when we got lost and rang the reception desk, trying to give me directions assuming that I knew where I was was not helpful at all «we are across and down from the PCYC» … thats nice, but I have no clue where that is…
To make matters worse, the street had little lighting and construction making this Brisbanite mum feeling unsafe, exposed and extremely stressed out.
After finally managing to figure out where I was and how to get in (thanks Mr Taxi drivers parked across the driveway I needed to get into and not moving until I looked like I was going to ram you), we checked in and went to get settled in.
While various booking sites have Fiori Apartments listed as a 4 star to 4.5 star place i have to disagree, its a 2 ½ maybe 3 star at most.
Whilst the apartment had a kitchenette and laundry facilities, the actual usability was a bit off. We booked for 4 people, 2 adults and 2 teens (yes the booking stated the ages), so why on earth they thought 2 mugs, 3 glasses, 2 bowls, 3 dinner plates and 2 bread and butter plates were going to be enough is beyond me. Lucky we ate out a bit and I dont mind eating cereal out of a mug…
Beds all on wheels, no carpet and the wheels don’t lock. My kids are what i like to call ‘active sleepers’, so their beds did not stay where they were supposed to stay. The «king’ bed was 2 of the above mentioned wheeled, no carpet, no wheel locking single beds pushed together and held together with a sheet, i don’t recommend attempting to get frisky at all on those beds… ever…
You also get one pillow, one light blanket, a bottom and top sheet per person, in winter … oh you also get one towel each and one bathmat, no face washers. For a one night stay this wouldn’t worry me, we were there for a week…
You have to pay for extra towels, blankets and toilet rolls. And wifi… well I would ask your mobile carrier to up your data as their prices are ridiculous, for what we paid I would expect complimentary Wifi and as many extra towels as I wanted.
Flooring is lino that is lifting and peeled in places, the laundry worked, but we had to empty about a years worth of lint out of the dryer before it would work and the mould in the bottom of the laundry didn’t give us much hope for not getting some sort of plague either.
We had a balcony, your all thinking YAY a positive, did I mention the construction site earlier. Well we had a lovely view of it, and got an unwelcome alarm at 7 every morning, trucks and machinery galore. That would have been nice for them to mention on booking. We were on holiday, I wanted to sleep in, that dream was dashed into a thousand pieces.
A stay at the apartments also allows you use of the gym, indoor heated pool, spa and sauna. Let me just say that the use of the word ‘heated’ for the pool should be used lightly, you may like to check if the spa is going to result in grey bubbles full of other peoples dead skin, and the sauna takes 30 mins to warm up and their is nothing provided to make the rocks actually steam unless you cup your hands under the tap that is almost impossible to use.
If you have asthma you may like to avoid the pool areas altogether as the smell of chlorine in a vastly under ventilated area is not going to be your friend. It was also nice to see the garden hose just dumped in the pool to refill it…
The gym is workable, although I couldn’t find the remote for the aircon and it had zero ventilation so I may as well have had my sauna on the treadmill.
Everything is worn, holes in the wall and roof in the pool area, the one bench seat was shabby and didn’t look like it would hold much weight.
Plus side, our parking space was right near the lifts and in a corner with no other cars so unpacking and packing was easy. The Apartments were very close to Parramatta transit station with Trains and buses and near a Westfield shopping center.