royal hotel

This is the old pub on the corner of Sharp & Lambie Sts. We wanted 1 night here at the end of a ski trip and tried to book by phone in advance. No info, advertised phone number not working. The Cooma info centre couldn't even find any info, when we described it they said "oh THAT hotel". That was a red flag. Phoned them, (vague woman answered - we thought she was a barmaid because she didn't know anything, but turned out to be the co-owner) could not give us any prices for a room but recorded our name. Weeks later we called in on the way to the snow to make sure all was ok. Walked in, was directed with a surly grunt by the owner who pointed to his wife to take care of things. She had our name in the book but the wrong date and still no rates. She explained they had no current tenants (management) and no kitchen staff and asked would we be angry if she cancelled us. We said we just needed a clean room, no fuss, didn't mind shared bathroom, but she seemed daunted by the prospect of providing towels and a clean room but offered a room with 4 single beds for $80. We said fine, told them how old our children were (twice). She asked what time we would be arriving (we said about 7pm, after a day's skiing). She didn't want to write down any of this info or our phone no. I suspected she would get it wrong again but I didn't want to insist and embarrass her. Well, when we showed up as planned, we were greeted with "we were expecting you at 4pm" and "are you going skiing this week", er no, as explained already, we had finished skiing! We paid the $80 and she showed us the room and bathroom. It was clean and basic. We went to the car and got the kids and started carrying our bags upstairs. We were stopped by mr grumpy owner who complained that our kids were "young adults" and wanted to charge us more and wrongly accused us of trying to rip him off. He gave us our money back and told us to go pay $200 elsewhere. I said, no wonder you have nobody staying here. In the peak winter season? The place was empty, exept for 1 person in the bar. On a Friday night! This surly Basil Fawlty figure seemed to think it was a given that you can charge the earth but treat your customers like dirt for what was basically backpackers accommodation with shared bathroom and nothing else. The only people who stay there are bikers who come for the beer. Empty in peak winter season. No wonder they can't get tenants, who would want to do business with these people. Run a mile. What a shame, the place has potential. Needs new owners.

Don't bother coming here.We had entered the Royal walls because our car had broken down and we were stranded in Cooma. It was about lunch time and there were 6 people in the pub. I asked to use their bathroom and the ever so friendly owner told me that there were toilets in the nearby shopping centre because her toilets were only for patrons. Well, if she had held her tongue, my boyfriend would have bought a beer!