2 | Background 2.6 Facility Information Both the Brisbane APOD and Melbourne APOD are commercial hotels in central locations in Brisbane and Melbourne respectively. The Brisbane APOD consists of sole occupancy floors within the hotel, with six levels of the hotel being used as the detention facility. The remainder of the facility continued to be used as a hotel, and there was no reason to believe that any guests were aware that the hotel was also being used as an APOD. There was a separate entrance/exit provided through the basement so that the front lobby of the hotel did not need to be used either by staff, or when transporting detainees off-site. A person entering the hotel through the front lobby would be unaware that parts of the hotel were being used as a place of detention. 14 As noted above, the Melbourne APOD was being used exclusively as a quarantine facility at the time of the Commission’s planned inspection visit. As a result, the Commission was unable to attend the facility in person and conducted interviews instead, with staff at the nearby Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA), in an effort to obtain accurate information about the conditions. Interviews were also conducted at an external location with a number of people who had previously been detained at the Melbourne APOD, and with a range of community service providers who have worked directly with individuals who were detained at the Melbourne APOD.