Essence Suites Taringa ★★★★

"I'm giving a huge thumbs down to Trip.com for this booking! This hotel was listed as the top result when I searched for Brisbane, but it was outrageously expensive! Over 3800 RMB for a three-night stay in a twin room without breakfast. I used 60,000 Trip.com points to get a discount of just over 600 RMB, meaning I still paid over 1070 RMB per night on average. Then, on the day of check-in, I found out that booking for the same day only cost over 900 RMB. The value for money is just terrible! Although the room was large, it was empty. No breakfast, no sofa, no coffee table, no luggage rack – my belongings had to be piled on the floor. What I hated most was how far it was from the city center; I had to take a train to the city center for every outing, which wasted a lot of time traveling. Meanwhile, I could have booked a room in the city center for over 900 RMB, including breakfast. I don't know how Trip.com is ripping off Chinese customers. Also, I had selected the 'price drop notification' option when booking, but I didn't get any alert when the price dropped to over 900 RMB. I feel totally scammed! Another major issue: on the first day, the room wasn't cleaned, the trash wasn't emptied, and the bath towels weren't changed. We were shocked! When we got back to the room, it was almost 10 PM and the front desk was deserted. The next day, the front desk explained that rooms are only cleaned for stays longer than a week, otherwise there's a charge. All of this… it was just too frustrating!"