On a recent trip through the cool southern states I stayed at the Presidential Hotel and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of accommodation and service. On arrival I was given attention that you would expect from a more expensive hotel and the executive king suite I stayed in was very spacious, well appointed and warm.

As a regular traveller I often find it difficult getting a decent meal but after my first night eating at the inhouse restaurant I knew I would be back again the next night.

I have just returned from a business trip to Mt Gambier staying at the Presidential. I have stayed there probably for around 20 weeks over the past 5 years, and this time was definately my last.

There are good rooms towards the front of the complex and there are bad rooms at the rear of the complex. Normally I am given a good room, but this time I was staying around the back ... big mistake.

The hotel rooms are very dated, and although the staff are very friendly, the decor in the rooms, paper thin walls and the poor television reception made for a bad stay. The shower stream is also very poor and you have to constantly move around under the varied stream to keep yourself warm.

This time I also had about 1,000 ant visitors in my Bathroom and Cupboard! When I mentioned this to reception, they merely gave me a can of fly spray for the night and sent me on my way - certainly not the way to treat someone who has spent around $10k at the hotel in stays over 5 years!

The ant incident brought back memories of the time my electric blanket starting evicting a stream of smoke one evening such that my room stunk of burnt plastic for the whole night - at least I was given a replacement one for the following night.

Be aware of the Breakfast delivery slots in the rooms which open up and the breakfast arrives, with a smiling face saying Good Morning which is OK if you are dressed, but I have had my moments where I have been caught starkas!

Anyway, yes I've had quite a good few stays at the hotel but this last trip has completely put me off and I will stay somewhere else next time.

We booked this hotel through the RAA while in Australia. We were specifically looking for one night in a hotel with internet service as we had some business we had to attend to while on the Great Ocean Road segment of our vacation. This was the hotel the RAA found for us. The room was very basic, extremely dated, and not attractive. It reminded me of the low-budget rooms we stayed in on family vacations in the 70s!

The front desk staff were very nice but pretty clueless about the internet service. The hotel had apparently just installed wireless that reached to a few rooms, and some of the staff knew about it and some didn't. However, when we had some trouble connecting initially, the desk clerk went out of her way to find someone who could help and had him ring our room to check on our progress. We did finally make it work, but we had to unplug the AC/heater unit in order to have a plug that would allow us to sit by the front door because that was the only spot in the room with decent reception.

This is one of those unremarkable, low-end hotels that has nothing special to recommend it. The location is not great, the room was large but not terribly comfortable, and the one feature that drew us to the place (internet) was a bit dicey. If I were to stay in Mt Gambier again, I'd look elsewhere.