Chasely Apartment Hotel
Chasely Apartment Hotel offers something that very few other accommodation houses offer. A personalised greeter, who will take guests to their room and even go for a walk with them and keep them company, if they’re feeling a bit lonely.
Even bearing the hotel’s namesake, he’s Chasely, the 15-month old moodle who has become an intrinsic part of the hotel atmosphere.
Hotel Managers, Maria De Luca and Gary Wyeth say that their beautiful pup is not the only thing special about the Chasely Apartments.
“We are a bit unique here,” Maria said.
“We don’t do holidays, we mostly get patients and their families. It’s so handy to the Wesley hospital,” she said.
The hotel is immediately opposite the Wesley Hospital. The hotel guests tend to be half patients and their families and the other half are corporate clients. While they do get a certain number of overnight stays, they tend to get longer stays – from a couple of weeks to up to three months.
Maria said the numbers of corporate clients has increased dramatically since they developed a new and improved website for the hotel.
“When we created the new website it made a huge difference,” she said.
Now they also offer a small conference room for their corporate visitors that is suitable for up to eight people and converts back to an apartment when needed.
Maria and fiancé Gary, who are just about to get married, took over the management of the Chasely Apartments about 19 months ago and confess they just love it. Maria said that taking on the role at Chasely happened by fluke chance as they had never had a property management position before.
“I was looking for a job for my daughter, she’s a chef.”
They saw the advertisement and decided to take on the opportunity. They have not looked back.
Maria said she had more years in hospitality than she cared to mention and had previously worked at part of the management team of Chefs on the Run before coming to Chasely.
While Gary brings with him years of maintenance experience from nursing homes and other organisations that has proved to be vital skills as they take on major improvements to the hotel.
“We have done a huge amount of changes since we came here,” Maria said. “We’ve been changing all the décor.”
Maria has drawn on her creative side to enhance the look of the apartments, painting artworks for the rooms and foyer and sewing bed runners for all the rooms.
“Everything needed to be updated,” Maria said.
At the end of July they began bathroom renovations throughout the whole hotel to replace the existing facilities. They have given this major project out to contractors, though they try to complete many maintenance projects themselves. They have plans to work with the body corporate to refurbish the foyer as part of their renovations this year once the bathrooms have been completed.
The Chasely currently has 36 apartments in its complex with three permanently occupied, two leased out through a private agent and the remainder available for guests.
They offer one- and two-bedroom apartments at their beautiful location right on the Brisbane River.
The one-bedroom apartments have a queen size bed and pull-out sofa when needed. The two-bedroom apartments include queen bed with en suite and second bathroom. All rooms are complete with full size kitchen, laundry facilities, air conditioning, free Foxtel and free wireless broadband.
Rooms are serviced daily and the rates decrease for the longer the guest stays.
Maria said many guests describe the spacious apartments as their home away from home.
“They have got everything they need here,” she said.
They have built up a real rapport with their guests, especially the Wesley Hospital patients, during their time at Chasely Apartment Hotel.
“The heartfelt thanks we receive is amazing,” Maria said. “We have made so many beautiful friends here.
“Sometimes there are sad endings.”
Gary and Maria put out a regular newsletter for their guests and offer them art classes and the opportunity to take part in organised dinner outings.
“You would not get this atmosphere anywhere else,” Maria said.
Chasely the moodle helps to create that friendly feeling at the hotel and is spoilt by the guests in return, including receiving more Christmas gifts than Maria and Gary.
“We were quite jealous,” Maria joked.
“We’re so central and it’s convenient with public transport right at the door,” Maria said.
Overlooking the Brisbane River, Chasely Apartment Hotel is also close to Suncorp Football Stadium, nearby trendy restaurants on Park Rd and Brisbane CDB and Southbank are only a short bus or ferry ride away.
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