Berkeley Lodge Motor Inn Mitchell

First, the positives. When I booked by phone Lorraine was very helpful and outlined details of the restaurant hours and provision of breakfast. The room was comfortable, the plumbing worked, wi-fi was fine and the air-conditioning coped with the near-zero overnight temperature. The lighting could be better to allow corporate travellers to do work at the table. The restaurant service and meals were excellent and it was good to see backpackers filling vacancies that are diffficult to fill in some regional centres and providing a good service. I ordered a continental breakfast tray to the room the night before and it had a very generous serving of cereal and a huge bowl of fruit. The large number of solar panels on the roof was good to see. Now the negatives. The web site advertises the rooms as 4 stars. They are comfortable, adequate and not overpriced but not four stars, more like 3.5. The web site could highlight the restaurant better, mention the days/hours it is open and perhaps display the menu. There is no mention of breakfast availability on the web site. Some motels do not provide breakfasts so it is a positive selling point for a motel to state that it can provide breakfast, even if it just a continental one. It would be good to mention that a contintal tray breakfast is available to the room the night before. A big plus for early starters such as myself. Now we come to the big problem with this property. It is just not in the 21st century in the area of bookings and payment, in other words its IT system - or lack thereof. This may not be an issue with some customers but it will be for many corporate customers, tech-savvy travellers and especially younger people. The web site provides a phone number for bookings (fine, especially as many people want to find out some details about rooms, prices, meals etc) but the alternative is email through a "Booking Enquiry Form". This might be fine for some people but most people these days expect to be able to book online if they don't need any additional information regarding the property. They want instant information on room availability andprices and want to able to book speedily without waiting for an email response. If this motel had many competitors it would lose business.Online bookings would also reduce the number of phone calls to the busy Lorraine. There are plenty of motel booking programs available and a motel of this size and star rating should have one. The other problem is payments. There was no facility to accept credit card payments at the motel reception area. Instead I was put on the phone to Lorraine's daughter (!) who toook my credit card details to facilitate payment. I was naturally uncomfortable with this rather unconventional way of making a motel payment (especially giving my credit card details to an unknown party) so I asked for a recepit to my phone. To the daughter's credit that arrived almost immediately and allayed my fears about fraud. However, this method

Fantastic motel with extremely clean rooms and comfortable beds. Would highly recommend staying there and it's around the corner from the Artesian spa. The rooms are also extremely quiet and roomy. Loved it

Fantastic motel..very clean.walking distance to the artesian baths ,pub and mitchell bakery..would highly recommend the Cambridge to anyone passing through mitchell just book early as it's very popular...also try the pies and laminations at the bakery

Clean and comfortable, lovely overnight stay after a very long drive. Friendly welcome and great recommendations for food. Easy walk to the cafe and pub. Room rate very reasonable given the amenities and cleanliness. Deep local knowledge and cheerful banter