Brisbane Manor Hotel

Even by Australian standards, this has got to be a strange hotel. In an urban area, it has a huge wooden deck out front that looks like something you’d see at a nice beach place. The building itself is tolerable for a low rate hotel; in most cases there are tiny rooms with a refrigerator, a (weak, but good enough) AC unit, and a sometimes a little porch that extends into a covered area on the side of the building. Some rooms have bathrooms, others share communal ones. There is a (paid) laundry, and more importantly a full and reasonably well-​equipped kitchen. There is wi-​fi, but it barely works (hence no Unilocal reviews from me for a while).
It could be a decent hotel, but in practice, it seems a borderline halfway house. The clientele include some backpackers, some elderly folks who may not know better or don’t care, and I wasn’t the only international student staying here while I looked for a place to live. There were even some families. However, there was also a lot of talk of domestic abuse, people asking for money, others who genuinely didn’t know where they were. I’m no expert in what the options are in Australia, but by and large it seemed like there were a lot of people there that needed professional help rather than a hotel. The front desk also sells drinks and seemed to serve as a de facto convenience store for the professionals of the local red light district. And, as befits a cheap motel, they were nice and helpful but also rather laissez-​faire.
Given the thinness of the walls, you’ll likely find out more than you want to here.
So what to make of all this? I would warn enterprising travelers that while it might seem like a steal for a nice hotel, it isn’t. If you don’t want to pay for a nice place, you might try AirB&B or something along those lines. You could do worse, but you could also do much better.

I made many trips to Brisbane before moving here. Some business and some personal, but I nearly always stayed at Brisbane Manor.
It’s a hotel, but technically you could call it a hostel as well. There are private rooms with your own bathroom, private rooms with shared bathrooms, and shared dorms.
So — don’t expect TOO much from this place. It’s a bit funny. I found its quirks endearing and hold those memories fond, but there are a few things you should know!
It’s an old place. It’s all wooden, the floor creaks and the walls are decorated with such framed gems as a painting of dogs smoking cigars and ballroom dancing. Old newspaper and magazine covers from the 50’s. Black and white photo’s of Brisbane and Sydney. That kind of stuff. It’s good, just don’t expect your typical hotel.
There are shared kitchens. A lot of backpackers and travellers like to make their meals in there and eat it in the communal space. Which is awesome, except twice while I have been staying there the fire alarm went off early in the morning due to kitchen smoke, and we all got evacuated. The alarm calls the fire services immediately so you have to wait a while for the all-​clear. If you were like me, you were still in your pink boxers.
The no-​smoke-​of-​any-​kind policy is cleary sign posted in every room. Also sign posted is a wifi username and password free of charge!
I swear the walls in this place are paper thin. I don’t get up early or get to sleep particular well at night, so every noise wakes me. Whether it’s the guy arguing with his girlfriend on the phone in the hallway, or whoever is snoring in the middle of night for hours.
There is a popular balcony area at the front of the hotel, surrounded with palm trees where you can kick back with beers, eat your food from the kitchen or chat to some travellers.
The hotel is located opposite/​just down the road from the RNA showgrounds. This proved extremely handy when friends and I saw Blink 182 there, and had a short walk back to our rooms while taxi’s struggled (and ultimately gave up) to serve the hundreds of people spilled onto Gregory Terrace.
It is SO cheap to stay at Brisbane Manor. Depending what kind of room you get and whether you have your own bathroom will determine the price. But if you only had $ 50 you could stay here, and it would do okay.