A Married at First Sight bride’s 30th birthday trip almost ended in disaster over the weekend when she arrived at Sheraton Grand Mirage on the Gold Coast only to discover the ‘awful’ state of the luxury hotel room she booked for the celebrations.
Samantha Moitzi, who was paired with MAFS groom Al Perkins in season nine of the reality show, reserved a $600-a-night lagoon suite with a close friend.
While idyllic photography on the hotel’s website advertises a tidy Queen room with a private balcony deck that overlooks a serene man-made lagoon, Samantha took to TikTok on Wednesday to share the less than enticing reality.
Her video footage showed a murky, emptied out lagoon area full of mud and garden debris.
The lagoon deck furniture was also covered in dirt and ants and appeared not to have been cleaned.
‘We decided to a staycation and pick a nice hotel for me and one of my close friend’s 30th birthdays,’ she explained over a green-screen for the Sheraton’s online booking system.
‘The Sheraton on the Gold Coast is meant to be really nice. So I said let’s book the Tranquil Lagoon Room (at $600 per night), it looks really good. But this is what we got…’
‘So tranquil. Super tranquil,’ the birthday girl said as she panned her camera across the disappointing scene.
Trying to find humour in the situation, Samantha noted the hotel sign accompanying her room that instructs guests not to swim in the outdoor water feature.
‘Important to note: The lagoon is a decorative feature and not for swimming. That checks out,’ she read.
‘This place needs serious love or a lower price tag lol,’ she captioned her video as it was uploaded on Wednesday afternoon.
The short clip quickly amassed millions of views and 1.1million likes on TikTok, as well as hundreds of comments.
‘Omggggg that’s awful! Highly recommend the Langham Gold Coast. Their pool is epic… unfortunately it rained almost all our trip,’ one user wrote.
‘JW Marriott is the only luxury hotel in the Gold Coast that’d I’d ever go to,’ added another.
‘Even that is quite outdated,’ a third person replied as Samantha’s video kicked off a public forum about the ‘sad state’ of the Gold Coast’s holiday resorts compared to their glory days.
‘That’s just the Gold Coast in general! As an event manager I toured a lot of properties in March this year and [they added five shocked emojis].’
‘I said in a previous comment I used to come to all these places as an 11-year-old to visit my grandparents and the rooms in majority of places haven’t changed and I’m 32,’ the first commenter replied.
‘Did you get a REFUND?!!’ Omg,’ was one of the top comments on the video, with hundreds of others asking variations of the same question.
Fortunately for Samantha, such is the power of TikTok virality, within a few hours ‘Dan the Manager’ had seen her video and upgraded her to a suite.
‘So Dan the manager just called us and he’s given the girls an upgrade,’ Sam beamed in the first of several update videos, shared within an hour of her original post.
‘Welcome to our hose. Very very nice. Yes, that’s the ocean.’
The influencer and her pal skipped merrily around their palatial new room, which appears to be the Presidential Suite, and twirled around the amenities wearing fluffy white bath robes.
‘Yeah the girls! I think this is going to be an alright night. Off to dinner.’
‘After a power outage and a few other things, Dan saw my video and is a legend who has upgraded us to improve our bday stay. Note: all the staff and customer service so far has been amazing,’ she added in the video’s caption.
In a further update, Samantha was gifted a chocolate and cream birthday cake which was delivered to her suite.
The beautiful cake came loaded with whipped cream, fresh fruit, macarons, and a little birthday note.
‘We’ve been sent a birthday cake. Manager Dan is a king!’ Samantha captioned another video.
On Thursday morning, she posted a fourth and final update to let the people invested in her saga know that the hotel had made good on the situation.
‘The best thing they are doing is something about it!’ she wrote, in a lesson for customer service and hospitality managers on the power of a bad review.
‘That was our room,’ she said as she filmed a pool cleaner attending to the murky pond this morning.
‘I’ve never seen a hotel action a complaint so quickly in my life. They are out there doing the most today. Look at this guy!’
‘Incredible. We got a full refund. Thank you TikTok. Peace love and light.’