Coburg North Stay Inn motel for sale after Victoria’s worst Tripadvisor rating

A notorious motel said to be the worst in Australia is going up for sale, and from these pictures, the new owner has some work to do.

A Melbourne hotel with the lowest TripAdvisor rating in Victoria is on the market.

The now-closed Stay Inn motel, on Sydney Road in Coburg North, has been described as a “slum”, with bullet holes in the glass and cigarette butts littering the floors.

It is also allegedly riddled with bed bugs, cockroaches and drug dealers.

One visitor claimed the motel was uninhabitable, stating that they left without staying a night.

“We literally fled the premise in fear of our lives before we even stayed a night.”

“The scariest motel experience me and my family have ever had,” another said.

“Do not stay here. Ever.”

The notorious Stay Inn motel in Coburg is for sale.

One wrote on Reddit that the reception door was akin to a jail, and they only lasted 20 minutes, saying: “They have to open the door for you to get to the reception which is again blocked with metal bars like a prison.

“The floor is covered with dust, hair, food, cigarettes and even liquids.

“The beds look dirty and the room like if someone had smoked for years inside.”

The writer said while the motel provided a refund, there was a $5 cancellation fee.

TripAdvisor reviews echoed the sentiment, with Ingrid L posting: “I was so afraid I packed the room furniture against the door.”

The rather enticing swimming pool. Picture: YouTube

“A night in hell I reckon. Zero out of 10. Every aspect of the place is a joke,” another unhappy customer wrote.

In 2017 the Herald Sun revealed that the motel doubled as a halfway house for recently released prisoners and acted as crisis accommodation for homeless people.

“The hotel fails to disclose in its advertising blurb that it doubles as a transitional housing provider for homeless people on the public housing waiting list and recently released prisoners,” stated the article.

The motel’s reputation was so bad it inspired a Vice documentary.

Apparently the images online were not reflective of the actual hotel experience. Picture: TripAdvisor

But some reviewers have congratulated the owner for providing budget accommodation to people in difficult financial or life situations.

Real Estate agency Colliers is now seeking offers for the property via an expressions of interest campaign.

Colliers agent Joe Kairouz said the vendor had price expectations of more than $4.5 million.

NSL Property Group agent Guy Naselli — who is marketing the property alongside Mr Kairouz — said labelling the StayInn as Melbourne’s worst motel was an understatement.

The motel became the subject of a documentary.

But he said prospective buyers had expressed an interest in reopening the motel, with a lot of improvements, or turning it into an aged-care home.

“That would be putting it mildly (to call it the worst),” Mr Naselli said.

“It used to be a good place to get a steak because there used to be a restaurant attached to it.

“But the people that are looking at it now are looking at turning it into something pretty grand.”

-With the Herald Sun

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This article originally appeared on Escape and was reproduced with permission