By the Beach at Catho

Our 'On the Beach' apartment was a penthouse on 3rd floor of next door building, named 'Seashells Boutique Apartments', luckily with a small lift. The views from the large balcony are amazing and the apartment itself, the beds, etc is comfortable.But, recalling that this is supposedly a 4 star property and that I am fussy, I was dissapointed:-The aircon was not cooling on arrival having a very hot 29C with all windows open unconfortable sleepless night, but was fixed next day after complaining.-The microwave oven was not working for our entire 6 day stay.-Both bathrooms had mould stains on showers.-The shower shelf in the second bathroom was broken and fell out when in use, and was taken away after complaining.-No facial tissues supplied.-The master bedroom bedside clock radio was malfunctioning with the alarm going off at odd times and had to be switched off.-The 2nd bedroom bedside table lamp was unplugged because one of the large bed backrests covered the wall power point. (Luckily we were able to plug it although with great difficulty).-The apartments are under the flightpath of planes coming to land at Cairns airport, passing over the beach at about 400 or 500m height and sometimes every 15 to 20mins, first one at 5.30am...like the one that just woke me up...3) no shopping nearby. You need to rent a car if coming by plane. Only a small restaurant about 50m away that was closed on Monday and Tuesday when we visited. The closest and expensive convenience shop is about 200m away, as is a pub and some other 3 or 4 restaurants, some closed. There is a larger shopping area at about 1.5km/ half hour walking distance. A bus No 111, goes from Trinity Beach past the shopping every 25 or 30 min. and only accepts cash. This same bus also goes past a larger shopping centre at Smithfield, some 30 min away ($3pp, $1.50 seniors), and to Cairns city ($4.20) passing near the airport, but for some unknown reason hard to comprehend does not go near the terminals...the closest stop is about 3km away from the airport...Having ourselves also rental properties, I understand that it is a difficult time for the industry, but there is no justification for lack maintenance if prestige is a valued commodity, as these days of Internet communication a bad reputation can be achieved in a matter of days...if not hours. And once established (like the proverbial), very difficult to remove...