Jacobs Creek Retreat — Hotel in Barossa Valley District

We booked the Honeymoon suite at Jacobs Creek Retreat for 17 nights with continental breakfast for a total of 10000AUD which is equivalent to approximately £5000. We picked the honeymoon suite as we had recently got married and this was a once in a lifetime trip for us. Jacobs creek retreat looked wonderful in the pictures. My hubby is in a wheelchair and unable to walk at all due to his spine being broken in an accident. We informed Jerry of this when we booked. Jerry replied to us that he had noticed the wheelchair and would ‘make a car parking space very close to The Orchard Suite which we had booked. We had to pay the 10000 AUD up front which we did promptly, so everything looked good. We arrived with a sheepish looking Jerry to inform us that he thought the honeymoon suite may not be suitable for wheelchair users but he had another room which was level access. We tried the Orchard suite first as that was what we had booked, only to find a huge step up to the location then another huge step up to suite itself. The steps were too large to ‘wheel’ up so he had to transfer onto the floor to get to the first level then again to get into the building. The floor incidentally was crawling with ants. We finally got into the suite to find the bed is also up a step so he couldn’t get into that either. This resulted in having to stay in the level access one which was not as nice as the honeymoon suite. It was dark and dingy, had ants in the kitchen, ants outside which made it impossible to sit out, ants in the bedroom and earwigs, cracks in the walls, extension leads on the floor exposed. The grounds looks beautiful and has a pool, so at least we could spend time around the pool, unfortunately this was also a problem as it had steps everywhere, I could walk to the pool but there were too many steps for David to navigate so pool and gardens were not possible either. So left with sat in a bedroom and dark and dingy ‘living room’ which reminded us of grandmas sitting room, old fashioned and dark. The next surprise was the bathroom, yes again looks lovely on the face of it until you look closely, but the main issue was David in his wheelchair couldn’t access the toilet without me lifting him on it , which he was not pleased about and also once on the toilet there was not enough room for him to move, he tried to get off on his own and fell on the floor and caused a cut on his leg which if not treated properly could turn to a pressure sore, which most people won’t be aware of but is extremely dangerous for a paraplegic. We were both extremely distraught on what was supposed to be our wonderful honeymoon in Australia and it was turning out to be a nightmare. We explained to Jerry that we couldn’t stay due to the vast number of steps and also hubby couldn’t use the toilet. Jerry was very understanding and we explained we would spend the day trying to find suitable accommodation. We stayed 2nights but said we would pay for the 3 nights and also the breakfast for 3 days (as was provided for 3days). Jerry explained he would contact his insurance and also in the mean time would try to let the suite out and if he rented it out would give us the money straight away. Despite emailing weekly then monthly we are still awaiting our payment, we received in March 5282 AUD having to chase frequently and promised the rest once the insurance came through. We are now in September and having chased and chased have still not received our money which quite frankly is a disgrace. We didn’t expect the full refund as we spent 2 nights there despite the distress this has caused and wasting our holiday trying to find accommodation. So 4718 AUD roughly £2359 is not what I would call value for money at what was supposedly luxury accommodation, its is quite appalling. All this distress for us and Jerry could have been prevented if Jerry had emailed back saying this property and any part of it is not suitable for wheelchair users. The day we had to look for accommodation we visited Novotel resort at Barossa and I actually cried with relief, the staff there were fantastic as were the rest of the people we met in Australia. They let us see the room first even though they had a ‘disabled room’ they wanted to make sure everything was alright, completely opposite experience to what we received at Jacobs creek retreat. The staff at Novotel resort Barossa made the stay special and so much so we have booked to go back there next year after falling in love with Australia. So 1 star for Jacobs creek retreat...

This was a hard rating to make. On one hand, the venue itself was exceptional - the grounds are beautiful, and most of the rooms are wonderful (don't get the Cedar room - it's cramped and awful).We hired the entire venue for a the Bridal party of a wedding. The biggest issue was communication. The person you speak to on the phone (Chris) does not receive emails you send to their email address. Apparently that goes to a different person, who doesn't talk to Chris. For us, that meant when we sent details through via email none of it actually happened. To her credit, Chris worked REALLY hard to make things happen at short notice when she became aware, but given we spent over $10k on our accommodation, it would, have been good to have the venue put some effort in to getting things right.On top of that, we were told there would be an envelope at the front gate for each room with keys and a map - didn't happen (half the people got one).The turn down/room service was also weird - some days our dirty linen/crockery were taken, but we didn't get any replacement items - so we ended up with no towels and no cups.Overall, for a truly premium site in terms of $$, go...

The setting is amazing. Stayed in Nitschke Loft Suite, quaint but unfortunately heating NON OPERATIONAL down stairs and they knew it and did nothing about it......so for $399 per night without heating not very good at all. The fact they knew about the heating not working (investigated and saw it was switched off at the mains and a confiscated remote) very unprofessional. Hence the bathroom was freezing! They could have organised a small portable little blow heater at a cost of $20-$40, but just didn't care! Have emailed twice since our stay without response. Arrival setup, very hit and miss, no reception, just lucky an existing tenant pulled up behind us to enter the code to open the gates, then had to wander around until running into someone who showed us the room (without telling us the heating wasn't working). Attitude is take the money and run! Breakfast held in the Pavilion, was lovely. Would love to stay again in summer as the gardens, pool and setting are beautiful, but unfortunately wouldn't...