Oaks Casino Towers

I'm now on my fourth stay here, all of 3-5 weeks, and much prefer the open balconies to the closed in hotel rooms at the Hilton and Marriott. The quality of the facilities is not as nice as the Marriott, and the service is almost non-existent compared to standard hotels, but each unit is a one or two bedroom apartment with kitchen and balcony.

If you need a staff to take care of you, the people here are nice enough, but this is not the place for you. You'll be taking your own bags to your room, and the maid service is spotty (pretty much depends which person is servicing your room). Since I hate ordering room service anyway, and don't need turndown service, this place is great. I especially like being able to get up, make a cup of coffee, and walk out on the balcony to enjoy the sunrise.

Unique Quality: The pool is on the 7th floor and there is a great view from the deck there. It is a two lane wide lap pool, so it's not a large pool, but part of the side of the pool is glass, so you can see into the pool from the street (I have not yet tried looking down on the street from underwater in the pool).

They are working to get all rooms converted so that there is Foxtel in all rooms, but as of now, about half have it. Simply means yo9u have more TV choices than at many of the other local hotels.

Rates go down as your nights go up. So the longer you stay, the better your rates.

Given the way they do room turnovers, check-in really isn't until the time they say... early check-in is hard to get.

Directions: One block off of Queen Street Mall, across the street from the casino. Between Charlotte and Elizabeth streets