REVIEW: Boulevard North Comes With A Building Site, Which Trip Advisor Failed To Mention

Why is it that the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is allowing online sites such as bookings.com, Trip Advisor and the likes of Wotif and Trivago to get away with what could easily be described as false descriptions of properties that they openly promote in Australia.

The ACCC is quick to jump onto the likes of Telstra and Optus with $10M fines as well the likes of Harvey Norman for so called unfair marketing, but not foreign owned web sites operating in Australia.

Take for example the case of Boulevard North in Broadbeach Surfers Paradise where the bulk of their bookings come from foreign owned online booking sites.

These are the views from an online marketing site for Boulevard North

These are the views from an online marketing site for Boulevard North

A visit to Trip Advisor or Bookings.com paints a glowing picture of Boulevard North apartments, with descriptions claiming that all apartments have “sunny balconies and stunning ocean views”.

This is actually what you get along with workmen on site at 6.30am

What they fail to tell you is that the view on some apartments is interrupted by cranes and scaffolding due to a major new building going up right next to the apartment complex, or that within 18 months this building will block out major views to the beach with over 25 floors of apartments smack facing their views.

The online web sites claim that guests ‘Can laze around the heated outdoor pool or rejuvenate in the spa or sauna at Boulevard North.

You can enjoy a game of tennis or use the BBQ area” they claim.

What they don’t tell you is that the pool is less than 500 centimetres from the building site with a wafer thin fence separating the two, nor do they mention that cranes operate rising over the pool area lifting men in and out of the site.

I booked a so called ‘Supreme Room’ at Boulevard North, Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise only to find that the room was far from “supreme” and that people walking along the main Broadbeach beach walk could openly see into the rooms due to a lack of privacy curtains.

As for privacy, there is none because the owners of the apartment are so tight, they have not invested in mesh curtains that would stop workmen and pedestrians staring into ones apartment.

No naked trips from the bathroom to the bedroom.

Online web sites that often take up to 30% of a booking should be prosecuted for not telling customers that their stay will be impacted by a noisy building site, cranes and noisy pumps metres from their accommodation.

If a retailer operated in the same way and a product was found to be faulty or was not as described on their web site, the ACCC regulates that the retailer has the right to a refund or replacement the goods.

At Boulevard North you are offer a $50 food voucher instead of a discount.

Their claims and room descriptions on the front page of Bookings.com and Trip Advisor are not what we got.

On bookings.com we found buried in a separate section to the main booking page under a tab called ‘The Fine Print” reference to the building site. This disclaimer was not present on other booking sites though it was present on the Boulevard North site.

There was nothing on the main pages of six online sites spruiking Boulevard North.

Nor was there an Asterix on any of the words describing the property that indicated that some ‘Supreme Rooms’ along with the views from several other rooms were impacted by the building site.

A stay at this apartment complex is going to get worse as new floors are built out and the view to the beach is compromised.

6 days of noise 8 hours a day from early morning till 4.30pm is what you will get for at least 18 months and when its finished an over 25 storey

I wonder how many apartments are set to be sold at this complex.