‘Do not stay here. Ever’: Australia’s worst motel, the Stay Inn, for sale

Visitors described it as a “slum”, finding bullet holes in the glass and having “fled” without staying a night.

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

“The scariest motel experience me and my family have ever had,” another said. “Do not stay here. Ever,” wrote yet another.

The motel’s reputation was so bad it inspired a Vice documentary team to spend four months filming the residents and workers at the motel.

It has now been shuttered, but when it was opened operated as a commercial motel as well as crisis accommodation for homeless people and others in need of accommodation.

Colliers’ Joe Kairouz, who is marketing the property alongside Colliers colleague Ted Dwyer and NSL Property’s Guy Naselli, said the site was “quintessentially Coburg”.

“Coburg has certainly experienced growth and gentrification, it’s known as an old industrial area,” Mr Kairouz said. The nearby Pentridge Prison estate is the most prominent example of regeneration in the area, he said. That infamous prison will be developed into a shopping centre with cafes, a cinema, a hotel and apartments.

Mr Kairouz said he didn’t think the site’s colourful history would worry any buyers, and nearby residents would be happy to see the site transformed.

“You have to look at it as a blank canvas,” he said. “From the viewpoint of the residents, I’m sure they’d love to see a development on the site.”

He said he’d expect the buyer to develop the 2787-square-metre site into apartments or townhouses, with some of the street frontage on Sydney Road to be for commercial use – shops, cafes, and possibly offices. It is zoned for mixed use and for general residential use. The vendors are also currently looking to renew a planning permit to refurbish the motel into a mixed-height building up to four storeys for combined residential and motel use.