The Commercial Hotel
Pub rooms with shared bathrooms on Commercial Street West
About this stay
Budget road-trippers and solo drivers breaking the Adelaide to Melbourne leg are the fit here, because the rooms are simple, the bathrooms are shared and the price reflects both. What the Commercial does have is position and a kitchen: it sits 2.3 kilometres from Blue Lake and nine kilometres from Mount Gambier Airport, with the family-friendly restaurant downstairs serving Australian food at lunch and dinner, and live music on the nights it runs. There is a bar with billiards and live sport on the screens, free WiFi throughout, daily housekeeping and free on-site parking. Rooms come with an electric kettle and a television. A golf course sits within three kilometres. Couples have rated the location strongly for two-person trips, which says more about the walk into the town centre than about the fittings.
- On Commercial Street West, Mount Gambier's main street
- Restaurant open for lunch and dinner
- Bar with live music and billiards
- Free on-site parking
- 2.3 km from Blue Lake
- Kettle, TV and free WiFi in rooms
Our take
The Commercial Hotel is a pub on Commercial Street West, Mount Gambier's main street, with simple rooms upstairs that share bathrooms rather than having their own. Downstairs there is a restaurant serving lunch and dinner, a bar with live music and a billiards table, and parking is free. Blue Lake is 2.3 km away. Guests score it 7.7 out of 10 across 83 reviews, lower than the newer motels in town. I would book it as a one-night stop between driving days, not for a family with small children or for anyone who needs silence before ten on a band night.
- ✓Ask for the room furthest from the bar when you book, because live music plays directly below the guest rooms on some nights.
- ✓Pack slip-on shoes and a toiletry bag you can carry, since the bathrooms are shared down the corridor.
- ✓Visit Blue Lake, 2.3 km away, between November and March, when the water turns its vivid turquoise; in winter it is a darker blue.
- ✓If your dates fall on Blue Lake Days in November, book early: the festival marks the colour change and fills the town.
Why we love it
- Central position, 2.3 kilometres from Blue Lake
- Restaurant and bar downstairs with live music
- Free on-site parking in the town centre
- Billiards and live sport on the screens
Why guests love itThe Commercial Hotel is an old-style country pub stay on Mount Gambier's main street. Rooms are basic, with an electric kettle, a television and free WiFi, and the bathrooms are shared. The ground floor carries the life of the place: a restaurant serving Australian dishes at lunch and dinner, a bar with live music and a billiards table. Parking is free, which helps on a Limestone Coast road trip. The 7.7 score from 83 reviews reflects what it is: a central bed with a meal downstairs, not a quiet retreat. Families can eat in the restaurant, but sleeping children above a band and sharing a bathroom down the hall is a poor match. Solo drivers and couples who want a pub dinner without moving the car will get the most out of it.
Guest reviews
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