Jasmine Court Motel Picton — Attraction in South Island

TLDR: Noisy, uncomfortable, rude staff, great tub.

I did not have a great experience here. We arrived 11:30 pm, coming in in the ferry. There was a note on the main office door with my name and a room number. Odd, but ok. I hadn't received any communication from the management about where the key might be, but we properly guessed it would be under the doormat after a few minutes of guessing.

I had a very long day, we are doing a road trip from Auckland to Queensland, with some very rigorous hikes along the way. I was dismayed to find the bed was sagging in the middle and had lost most of its cushion. It was quite uncomfortable. I was also kept up most the night by a very loud truck that kept starting and stopping just outside my window. Not sure if it was just one or several, but there's a lot of truck noise near this motel.

It was very nice to have a large and spacious living area and bathroom, with a superb soaking tub.

In the morning, we had a woken rather late because of the poor quality sleep. I was under the impression that it was an 11:00 check out, as is this is the customary time in almost every one of the 100+ of hotels that I have stayed in. We received a knock on the door from housekeeping a little after 10:00 a.m. informing us that we were supposed to check out. We apologized and had our things ready to go in 5 minutes.

As we were leaving, a rather rude gentleman pushed open the door, without knocking, as my son was trying to open, causing an awkward scene. He chastised us for overstaying our welcome, and informed me that I was making myself "rather unpopular". Which was one of the strangest insults I've ever received from a business owner. It's my understanding that businesses try to make themselves popular with customers, not the other way around.

I apologized and let him know that as there was no one there to check me in, there was no signage in the room, and I received no email from management prior to my stay, I really had no way to know what time checkout was...and that it was unusually early. He grumbled something about being clearly stated on their website, which I never visited because I booked through Expedia. I suppose it was in the fine print there, but if you're going to make such a big deal about it, you should be very clear with guests up front and put a sign on the door like most places do.

If you want a good night sleep and friendly service, I would suggest looking for...

Picton is a small but busy town with more than it’s fair share of Motels and places to stay the night. It’s proximity to the Ferry terminal means that many guests are for 1 night only.||||The Jasmine Court Motel is well located, within a quiet peaceful area of the town, directly across the road from a good Supermarket and within minutes of a variety of restaurants and bars.||||Whilst relatively modest accommodation it was clean and comfortable. Downsides in our room being the shower being directly over a large Jacuzzi bath, anyone with mobility issues would struggle to get in and out. Also the lack of A/C could be a problem in warmer months.||||The main drawback with the Motel is the male owner who it would appear has attended the Basil Fawlty school of Hotel Management. His attitude suggests that guests are an intrusion into his efficient running of his Motel.||||We had an issue with our room which was remedied fairly promptly, but his attitude, arrogance and down right ignorance were shocking and most unwelcoming.||||From reading other negative reviews which reference his behaviour it is obvious the man suffers from a serious case of inferiority complex and his long winded and meticulous replies to other negative reviews, detailing why he is always in the right, suggest an exaggerated sense of importance beyond his station in life.||||We had the pleasure of staying for 3 nights and the fact that he walked straight past me on the morning of departure without a word sums up his attitude to paying guests.||||I have advised the large travel agent who made our booking of the owners attitude and they are reviewing the accommodation that they use in Picton for future bookings.||||The lady owner was much more pleasant and friendly.||||As mentioned at the beginning of the review there are many places to stay in Picton and we would certainly choose somewhere else if we ever visit again.||||My TripAdvisor is written under a nom de plume so will not match the name under which...

I booked three rooms for my wife and I and two other couples riding the Queen Charlotte track. The rooms were fine and well appointed although probably a bit overpriced.|I was aware that the motel online form stipulated a 48 hour cancelation period.|Unfortunately one of our party had an accident and was airlifted to hospital about 26 hours prior to our indicated arrival time.|I called to cancel one room abut was told we would still have to pay unless the room could be sold to later guests. I thought that this was pretty hard nosed given the circumstances but accepted it was within the terms of the agreement.|During the evening we noticed that the "no vacancy" sign was illuminated. I spoke to the manager and mentioned that this must be a mistake as he had undertaken to try and sell the room which would be difficult if people driving by thought there was no vacancy. He said it wasn't a mistake and was irrelevant as he hardly ever got spur of the moment guests. We later discovered that the motel had several vacant rooms but in the morning we had to pay for the cancelled room despite the no vacancy sign having been on all night. Given that the property didn't actually turn any guests away because of our booking and had the "no vacancy" sign on I think this is a questionable business practice to say the least. I will not use this property in the future, I prefer to support those whose tourism business practices align...