Karana Palms Resort

I'll start by saying the location is fantastic. Barely any traffic until you head across the bridge, right into the middle of Surfers Paradise. It's a 5 minute drive to anywhere you would need or want to go. We arrived around 7pm to find both our rear doors (one opening out from bedroom and one opening out from living room, both leading to a shared outdoor seating area) unlocked and open. Our main room light and fan also didn't work, possibly due to the remote being held together with sticky tape, leading to a very dark space at night. We used our phone torches to see what we were unpacking when we arrived. We then went for a shower, only to find that the most hot water you'll get is around 4 minutes worth. After that, it's cold, no matter the time of day. The next morning, we were getting ready to go out. My girlfriend had been walking to and from the bedroom and bathroom in the nude only moments before we heard our door unlocking and watched a woman enter our apartment. She apologised, said she'd not known anyone was staying in our room, and closed the door behind her. This woman didn't look like a cleaner, and didn't say whether she worked there or not. She just looked like a random civilian with a handbag over her shoulder. This unnerved my girlfriend quite a lot and she felt unsafe staying there without me after this. This actually happened twice, with another complete stranger just letting herself into our apartment while we were lounging on the couch in our underwear 2 days later, only to apologise, say she didn't know anyone was staying in our room, and left. This second woman also did not appear to be a cleaner. I've never stayed anywhere that expected me to clean the room/apartment myself after paying to stay there. It's said multiple times in emails, texts, the guidebook in the room etc that they fully expect you to leave the room ready for the next customer. So after reading reviews of people not having their exorbitant $250 cleaning deposits returned to them, we did our best to make sure the room was as clean when we left as it was when we arrived (although what room service and cleaners are for at that point, I do not know). Our dishwasher was stamped with a "does not work" sticker upon our arrival, and there was no plug for the sink, so doing the dishes was a tremendous waste of water. On top of these things, the apartment was clean enough, but very poorly maintained. Mould in drawers, kitchen cabinet doors hanging off, broken furniture, missing/mismatched cups, plates and utensils etc that also had to be cleaned before use, the broken dishwasher, among other things. There are some odd hidden fees that aren't made aware to you until the day of arrival or even upon arrival. Air-conditioner use is an additional fee that you don't know about until arrival, extra charges if you want a blanket for your bed (the bed only has an undersheet and a very thin throw rug, my girlfriend slept in track pants and a jumper every night while we were there and was still cold), if you don't want to use the same towel for a week, it's an extra charge for clean towels. And then there's the ridiculous $250 cleaning fee that doesn't get returned to you if you don't perform the room service yourself before checkout. If you aren't going to be spending much time in your apartment this isn't a bad spot due to the centralised location, but if you're not a tourist and are going to spend a bit of time in your apartment, go somewhere else. Also, if you own a 4wd or SUV, it probably won't fit in the 2.1m Max underground parking, but we didn't have an issue finding parks out on the street.

Location was the best experience about this resort. The room was avg bed was terrible, shower was broken. Did not see anyone in reception at all