Essendon North Homestays

We stayed here for 3 weeks while building works were being done on our home. We have a 5 year old and 8 year old so stayed in the 3 bedroom apartment on the top floor (1 x King bed, 1 x Queen and 2 x Queen singles). The bedrooms were all refreshingly large, with plenty of wardrobe space in each. There's a small bedside table with drawers in each room too, but no chests of drawers. Plenty of extra blankets and pillows. Assuming most people will be largely living out of a suitcase while staying here, that shouldn't be an issue (ours was an unusually long stay). Although the decor was a bit dated and a little worn here and there, the apartment was clean and the weekly cleaning, very thorough indeed. All basic appliances were provided and worked well. The 42 inch TV was an older one (actually had a set top box for free-to-air TV!), but it worked well and the reception was fine. We brought along our own Chromecast which took care of Netflix etc, so happy days. Wi-Fi was a bit patchy on the third floor where we were (it's shared with the second floor), so we worked around that by plugging in a laptop by Ethernet cable and used the Windows 10 mobile hotspot feature. Sorted. There is a single large reverse cycle air-con heater/cooler in the lounge which easily heated the whole apartment quickly and obviously, only when all room doors were open (presumably that's why the extra blankets are there, for overnight when internal doors are closed). Each room had a pedestal fan too, as we assume the opposite situation in summer. Location is excellent with the 59 tram stop right outside the building (which terminates at the Airport West shopping mall at one end, and goes into the CBD via Essendon and Moonee Ponds), an IGA Supermarket 5 mins' walk away, and a KFC and rare 24 hour McDonalds, across the road. And a very nice, albeit overpriced and overrated Italian resturant 400 Gradi a block over if you want something fancier, and don't feel like getting a tram or Uber to Niddrie village for a much better range of and cheaper dining options. Special mention must be made of Viola, the receptionist/concierge/manager. She was excellent. We found her friendly, helpful and responsive at all times (even after hours), and really made a positive difference to a 3 week stay with two young kids, which could have been a nightmare otherwise.