ibis Mackay Hotel 4 stars

Great hotel. Menu and quality of food pouches way above its weight. Sofitel standard food and customer service. Special mention to Jackson in F&B who went out of his way to make us feel welcome and valued. He should great future with the Accor chain.

Don’t be fooled by the ibis label! Whilst the room size is true to this brand this hotel punches above its weight in regards to service, facilities and the food is really outstanding. Awesome value for money with car parking included if needed. Jackson is an outstanding Food and Bev star and is obliging and helpful in every way and it is blatantly obvious that the chefs know their way around a kitchen. Menu is very good.

All good, only comment is check in was quite slow guest form to sign and then a Covid dec well which I would say was a bit out of date. The ladies were also having trouble with the printer and computers at the time unfortunately.

Clean and neat room, easy to get to, friendly staff and only 5 minutes drive from the city centre.

The most comfortable beds ever

Nicholas was really friendly and helpful.

I only stay at this hotel becuase it is only one of two Accor hotels in Mackay. The hotel itself is fine but the service is less than average. The staff at this hotel never seem to care too much.

Clean, but small room.

Overnight stay due to early flight to Adelaide, convenient location

Lovely clean room and really comfy bed. We wanted to know the style of pillows so we could get them ourselves

The staff went above and beyond to make our stay memorable. There were flowers put in the room, towels done in the shape of swans on the bed and free drink vouchers. All to make it special for 2 friends that hadn't seen each other in 35 years.

Great location for what we wanted, rooms are comfortable and bed is very comfortable. The bar and restaurant is very convenient. Unfortunately the room service wasn’t a great experience. The meals were cold (not even warm) and took a very,very long time to come.

First the good stuff - thank you to Brittany who was an exceptional member of your team. She handled our checkin and checkout and also assisted us with difficulties that we experienced. She is an asset to your company and quite frankly deserves recognition for her efficiency and most importantly her manner and empathy. Make sure you treat her well because she is the one good thing we had about our stay. Now the bad - firstly who seriously designed the bathrooms so that you can't open the shower door fully because it smacks into the toilet. That needs a rethink. We used the directions on your tv to log into the internet, however it didn't work. We went searching and found the listing for the hotel where you use your room number and name to log in. Thank goodness that worked. So make sure you update the instructions on the tv, or at the very least make sure that the method shown on the tv will work. The biggest disappointment however came with the food service downstairs. When we checked in we went onto the website to look at the menu for the downstairs bistro. There was a great choice of grilled chicken and vegetables for myself. I need to be careful what I eat as an insulin dependent diabetic. So based on what we read we decided to eat in instead of getting in the car and going elsewhere. We get downstairs and the menu that is showing at the bar (where you order your meals) is totally different. No grilled chicken in sight. All the options are inappropriate for someone with diabetes - strong spicy dishes, dishes with fried chips, dishes with crumbed meats etc. We query the different menu and one of the staff members looking at the website informs us that the website hasn't been updated. (Brittany later tells us that the menu on the website is very very old). So I have to try and choose a meal that will impact my health the least. When it comes the crumbed pork is dry, burnt and not nice. But I eat what I can because I need food. Now to breakfast - we had paid in advance for the "All you can eat buffet". We get downstairs for breakfast to find that there is no buffet set up. Okay, we understand Covid affects lots of things and this is one of them. But we had booked only 2 months previously and Covid has been around for nearly 2 years. So, once again the website is not reflecting the current situation. The staff who are on duty (and this is only their first shift, same with the staff the previous night) go asking and tell us we can choose any item on the breakfast menu. So we do this, but again the choices are not very friendly for a diabetic. We choose our meals: I also choose a pineapple juice and my husband a coffee. Now comes the kicker - we are told we need to pay for our drinks. What? Normally in a breakfast buffet there are containers with juice to drink, and also the ability to make your own tea/coffee. So we pay over $11 for a glass of juice and a coffee. So overpriced but what are we to do? We are sitting waiting for our meals and we now see people using a self serve machine which is on a counter in a different area from where we order our breakfast. I go and ask Brittany if she can explain what is going on. She tells me that the machine is for the use of people who have prepaid their breakfast. I tell her that we prepaid, but we weren't informed that we could do our own tea/coffee. I tell her that we are unhappy with what has happened. Why haven't the staff who are working breakfast told us that we could at least use the machine for my husband's coffee instead of charging us a fortune for one that they make. He's not a coffee snob and would have been quite happy to make his own. He doesn't need barista coffee. If the machine is available for those who have prepaid then at the very least put a sign on the bar that if you have prepaid you can use the machine. If you don't want others using it then give a mug/cup to those who have prepaid. Don't have a pile of disposable cups on the machine. Obviously the staff had no idea whatsoever due to lack of training (or they just figured that we were suckers and would pay without question). Thank heavens for Brittany - she is wonderful and arranges a refund of the money we have paid for drinks. We have travelled all over the world and quite often we stay at IHG properties where breakfast is included (or we prepay breakfast so that we don't have hidden costs). Every time there is a "buffet" where the food is set out and you choose for yourself. Always there is cereal, juice, yoghurts, fruit, pastries, bread and toasters, tea/coffee and more often than not even hot items such as bacon, sausages, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms etc. We have never had a problem with food choices that are on offer - there is always something suitable that I can eat, and we have never been told that we need to pay extra because it isn't included. We love the location of the hotel because it is so easy for travel, hire car etc. However, if we return to Mackay we will seriously be rethinking where we stay. We are disappointed at the lack of training for your food and beverage staff, disappointed that your website is so out of date and showing choices that are not available, disappointed in just about everything (except for Brittany). We suggest that you seriously look at the procedures, training, and website at your hotel. If we were asked to recommend your hotel at this point in time I doubt we could give a positive answer.

Easy access to and from the airport and the staff were very friendly. My room was nice and clean and the food was yum.

Very convenient to the airport and southern area of Mackay. Only five minutes to city centre. Rooms have all the mod cons of a hotel room. Just need to supply a variety of pillow types in room. Mine were all very high and uncomfortable.