If you want to go to a hotel which offers its guests an experience with NO SERVICE QUALITY, in my opinion its the Duxton in Perth.

We were recently there for the first night of our honeymoon and what a mistake. Public relations and positive guest experiences do not appear to be high on their priority list. We were concerned about the place as soon as we walked in as the hotel appeared to be empty.

As I regularly stay in hotels I ask for a room upgrade and very often I am given such as it is good public relations, so I asked for an upgrade but anything and everything was chargeable including parking or any honeymoon welcome token. When I enquired about whether there were River view rooms available I was advised that there were quite a few but the hotel was offering nothing. The reception staff would not give a straight answer to basic questions, and their management would not even show their faces to offer any public relations to us as their guests. In the end we payed extra for a better room or so we thought, but it wasn't. Even though they had vacancies with views on the river side of the hotel they gave us a city view to the building next door.

In my opinion, give it a miss if service is important to you.

We stayed at the Duxton for one night, a Saturday, in November. We, unlike earlier reviewers, were quite happy with our stay. We did not know the hotel was ‘five stars’ so had no preconceived ideas of how it should be. Basically choose it because of its location (we were attending a function on the river that departed from Barrack Street Jetty and the hotel was about two blocks walk away) and the price. The deal we got, direct with the hotel on line, was for ‘Duxton Escape Package’ at AUD249 for deluxe room with buffet breakfast. We thought this was good value for Perth CBD.

We arrived early planning to leave our car and meet our family in Perth for lunch. However, although it was only 1130 hours we were accepted for check in at the Reception with no questions asked. We were impressed with this as it does not often happen that way if you are hours early for check in. There was no door person or immediate sight of valets for parking. The Reception arranged valet parking for us. The lobby was attractive and spacious. Checking in was very quick. We were not offered any assistance with our luggage (did not require any). We had requested a non smoking room facing the river (not expecting a view but hoping to avoid any street noise by being away from the road side of the hotel). Our room was on the 8th floor and did have a good river view. The lifts were always readily available and we never shared a ride.

Our room had an entrance hallway with full length mirror. The carpet was very clean and attractive. There was a king size bed (comfortable), easy chair, desk and chair, heavy round occasional table, good size fridge and a robe (with interior light). We had two windows (do not open) giving us an attractive view of Perth Water (Swan River) with ferries crossing. My main and only complaint (not solvable) is that the windows are narrow and do not allow for an expansive look at the wonderful view. I believe the building was not designed as a hotel rather an office block and was converted to a hotel in the 1990s. Yes the décor is a little bland. The bathroom with shower and bath was well maintained and of a reasonable size. The lighting was good. The shower spray (not adjustable) was a little hard. The room temperature was okay although we would have liked it a little cooler overnight and turned the thermostat down (it was a warm night for November). The thermostat adjustment did not appear to affect the temperature. Like many of the hotels we have stayed in we think the thermostat is a ‘placebo’. We heard no noise at all.

We did not visit the bar or the pool/gym area. The bar, off the lobby, we noticed had an attractive outlook to the front hotel gardens and the Perth concert hall forecourt (next door). It offered exterior veranda seating. The gym/pool on the lower floor below the Lobby could be accessed via the lifts and you would not be required to walk through the edge of the Lobby. As we left and returned from our evening out there was a wedding reception at the rear raised area of the lobby (backs onto ballrooms?). This attractive spectacle proved to be not problem to the people using the Lobby.

We enjoyed the buffet breakfast. This is one of the better buffet breakfasts we have enjoyed in Australia. There was an excellent variety of food, tastefully presented. For example instead of the standard fruits there were fresh tropical fruit on offer and a chef to make an omelette to your requirements. I requested a smoked salmon omelette that was not immediately available but the chef went and obtained some salmon in moments with a smile. Tea or coffee was delivered to your table and at our request Early Grey rather than English Breakfast tea happily provided.

We phoned the concierge to request our car 20 minutes before checking out and it was ready for us. Check out should have been quick but they wished to charge extra for our breakfast having no apparent record of our ‘package’. This was quickly solved by presented them with the hard email copy of our package arrangements. A little disappointing after such a successful stay but easily solved as we had our confirmation details.

We would not hesitate to stay here again (or at very least go there for the buffet breakfast!). Rather sad about the limited view caused by the window configuration as the view, if your room has one, of the Swan River is absolutely fabulous and worth the $ you pay for it.

We have NEVER been moved to write a bad review of a hotel before so this will indicate how poor this Duxton experience was.
My partner and I travel all over the world and this hotel purporting to be a 5 * establishment rates very low down on a scale of all hotels irrespective of the rating. The bar is atrocious with no proper wine list, dreadful music, incompetent and rude staff ( a 5 * bar running out of nuts on a Friday night - no food, no access to room service food, no apologies, and then making the customer feel like they are in the wrong etc. etc.). The food in their Grill restaurant is simply bad. Ordered RARE salmon and it arrived very overcooked. Always queues at the check-in and things have not been arranged properly. No free internet connection. Rooms are drab and dull as mentioned in many other reviews. Rooms are not soundproof - could go on and on but thank God we have to now go and check out of this dreadful hotel.

For a supposedly Five Star hotel -The Duxton or so my husband and friends like to call it the DUNSTAN, was very ordinary and not worth the money we paid. Room was clean but drab and in need of refurbishment, the superior spa bathroom was the best part out of our whole stay. We were very disappointed to come back from a show at 10.30pm and find the restaurant already closed, no wonder my overseas relatives find Perth very boring at nights. Long wait to check out and even longer wait for "valet parking" we waited 45 minutes out front in the heat and then after my husband finally went to find one of the harried looking valet boys, our car was parked at the front of the hotel at the end bay and no one bothered to let us know. Definitely not staying there again and not recommending it to anyone else either.