Hotel Totto Wollongong

“Modest meets Minimalist”

Ideally nestled in the heart of Wollongong City, Hotel Totto is any minimalist’s marvel. The hotel is an amalgamation of simplicity, minimalism, convenience and affordability. Although not lacking issue, it is adequate enough for the more unconcerned of travellers. The rooms are modest; simply ador… more

Ideally nestled in the heart of Wollongong City, Hotel Totto is any minimalist’s marvel. The hotel is an amalgamation of simplicity, minimalism, convenience and affordability. Although not lacking issue, it is adequate enough for the more unconcerned of travellers. The rooms are modest; simply adorned with only few modernesque furnishings. Housing the most obligatory of necessities, the room is perfectly adequate to cater to shorter stays. Added character is found in the unique and artistic inclusion of a large mesh covering on the wall, on which sits a backlit mirror, hairdryer and a pair of garment hangers. Whilst complementing the petite nature of the room, the lack of space can really be felt by omission of amenities one would generally consider imperative in any hotel, such as an iron and even telephone. Despite what few amenities the rooms lack, my stay was relatively comfortable. As is noted by many reviewers before me, the air conditioning unit is extremely noisy. I would either recommend sleeping with earplugs or loud white noise playing on your phone, or simply sleeping without use of the air conditioning. The conundrum is that the air conditioning does drown out the street noise, given the hotel’s proximity to the city centre. Typically, I choose to stay at a competing hotel when I travel to Wollongong. Having had two somewhat unpleasant experiences on my last two stays with that particular hotel, I decided to give Hotel Totto a try, and I am certainly glad I did. For my stay, which happened to be my first at this hotel, I arrived approximately an hour prior to check in. Immediately advised that I had been too early to check in (without even checking my room was ready, mind you), I asked to leave my bag whilst I roamed the shopping centre across the road. Upon my return after check in time, I was allocated my room and checked in - the briefest check in I’ve ever had for a room. Walking into the room, I was met with a ladder and dirty towels in the bathroom - obviously the room hadn’t been blocked off from guests while undergoing repair. With apologies when notifying reception (note with no in-room phones, this meant heading to reception again in-person), I was allocated a new room of same type on level 3. Outside of that, the only minor issues I encountered were the requirement of calling into reception (or calling via personal phone/emailing) for requests (such as extra towel or an ironing board - there is no iron or ironing board in-room), that I had to request a kettle (my room had coffee and tea, but there was no kettle - I think this was just an oversight), no channels on TV besides regular free-to-air and that there was no drawer of any kind in the room, nor an in-room safe. Despite these extremely minor grievances, I managed a comfortable enough stay for five nights. Whilst there is as much going against it as it has in its favour, it does represent great value for the rates on offer. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Will I stay again? Absolutely - I will be choosing to stay there when I am in Wollongong this Autumn. The combining of adequate comfort and affordability, in addition to its location being so convenient to the very heart of Wollongong, will see me return. Perhaps one to avoid if you are a fussy traveller, but definitely one to try if you appreciate good value and unrivalled location in the heart of good shopping, food and walk down the road to the city beach.

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