Peppers Gallery Hotel Canberra

“Still a nice place to stay at.”

I’ve been staying at this property since it was The Diamant many years ago. It has remained very similar in style ever since, and in some ways is showing signs that it’s becoming dated. Being that the property od very likely to be Heritage listed, there’s only so much that can be done and probably … more

I’ve been staying at this property since it was The Diamant many years ago. It has remained very similar in style ever since, and in some ways is showing signs that it’s becoming dated. Being that the property od very likely to be Heritage listed, there’s only so much that can be done and probably needs time to get certain approvals, etc. but I can imagine this hotel being a stand out. In saying that, the staff are friendly, the rooms are clean, and the location is peaceful. There are restaurants close by - currently the on site restaurant is closed for renovations and you are directed to the QT next door - I didn’t actually have a need for it. Canberra centre is within walking distance, although I didn’t realise that there was substantial road closures and much of the centre is being redeveloped for the light rail extension. Even the maps feature on phone couldn’t keep up with where to go. It probably took an extra 400m until I figured out the way and then going back from the city I chose a different route to avoid the works.

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“Tired & shabby - 3 star accommodation”

This is a 1920s heritage listed three storey 85 room hotel, located in Acton, about a 10min walk to the civic precinct (shops/restaurants). It was originally built to accommodate VIP guests arriving to Canberra for the grand opening of the first Parliament house. Be aware it is currently going th… more

This is a 1920s heritage listed three storey 85 room hotel, located in Acton, about a 10min walk to the civic precinct (shops/restaurants). It was originally built to accommodate VIP guests arriving to Canberra for the grand opening of the first Parliament house. Be aware it is currently going through renovations so to get to the reception you’ll need to use the side streets. Also the hotel restaurant is closed, so no meals or room service. As it is a low level historic hotel there are a number of wings with long corridors to navigate - layout can be a bit confusing to navigate. The hotel and the rooms are tired, worn and a bit shabby. The reception staff were helpful, accompanying back to my room when I kept on having problems with the room key not working. The carpets are stained and threadbare in places. I had a classic room with a queen bed, which actually was two singles jammed together (not the most comfortable sleeping arrangement). The bedhead was worn and flaking. The couch was past its use be date, with numerous stains. The LED television was hardly a smart tv - couldn’t even pick up most of the free to air stations, let alone cable or streaming services. At least the wifi worked, so I could watch Foxtel on my phone. The block out curtains worked a treat - couldn’t tell if it was day or night but they were really heavy, dusty and hard to open. Not a big fan of the patterned wall paper on the ceiling. The bathroom felt more modern than the bedroom and whilst I initially had problems with the shower head that did get someone into fix it relatively promptly. The towels were nice and fluffy and the room was serviced daily however they never replaced the used cups & cutlery in the room. I think that the whole hotel is in need of a major refurbishment not just the front reception. As an Accor member I was fairly disappointed with the standard & condition of the rooms - need to lift their game, big time. Would recommend staying at the nearby QT hotel.

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“I should have read the latest reviews before booking!”

Underwhelming at best, definitely not worthy of the Peppers brand. So many peeves, where do I start... The receptionist at the check-in was an arrogant, patronising youngster clearly out of his depth when it comes to customer service. The heating system in the room took hours to start heating a… more

Underwhelming at best, definitely not worthy of the Peppers brand. So many peeves, where do I start... The receptionist at the check-in was an arrogant, patronising youngster clearly out of his depth when it comes to customer service. The heating system in the room took hours to start heating anything - eventually it did, but I had to keep it at 27-28C for several hours before it started producing any results... I even resorted to filling the bathtub with hot water in order to keep the room borderline warm. Window blinds were bizarre - the semi-transparent light blind was permanently fixed at half-height, so you were completely exposed to any pedestrians walking past your window (my room was on the ground floor). The alternative was to draw the blackout blinds, but then you had no daylight in the room at all. The restaurant service was, shall we say, highly variable. The dinner on the first night was fine - nothing to write home about, but perfectly acceptable for a hotel restaurant. However, the breakfast the next morning could make John Cleese want to revive Fawlty Towers. From what I could gather, the breakfast was run by a completely different business, and their previous hospitality experience must have been a suburban Indian corner shop. The Maitre'D (if one could call him that) was a sulking, utterly unfriendly guy who obviously wanted to be somewhere else - e.g. he was chatting on his mobile phone at length while staffing the restaurant reception. The breakfast menu was very basic. The food took ages to arrive despite there being only a couple of other customers when we got there. This was our first and last breakfast at the hotel, for the remainder of the stay we had breakfast elsewhere. It also transpired that the room rate I booked did not include housekeeping. The reception made it look as "caring for the environment" (of course!) I don't remember the room rate being particularly discounted, and looking at the booking, the name of the rate was "STAY LONGER AND SAVE RATE" - nothing about "no housekeeping". The absence of housekeeping certainly wasn't clear at the time of booking. Had I known this, I would not have booked this hotel. The final touch was the morning of the departure. As an Accor Gold member, I was given a late check-out (12 pm - would have preferred slightly later, but this was the best the hotel could do). But obviously no-one told the housekeeping - they knocked on my door at 9:45 am to start getting the room ready for the next guest. I told them I was checking out at 12, but despite this, they barged into my room again at 11:45, just as I was in the toilet. Hardly an acceptable level of service for a brand Accor markets as "Premium" (as per the ALL website).

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