Quamby Homestead — Hotel in Barwon South West

Unlike other c1850-1900 Homestead B&B's and many modern B&B's we have stayed in, the c1885 Quamby Homestead house was off limits to the guests (other than the verandah and doorbell), used by the family only. Apparently the previous B&B cook's kitchen had been turned into a bedroom for one of their children. We were relegated to one of the five Mews rooms at the back of the house, set low behind a row of agapanthas with a window view of only the flowers and brick wall surrounding the garden bed. We could see none of the much talked about gardens. The room was no more than a modern motel room with no hint of the homestead history, not even a picture on the wall from the past. The bed was new but rickety and too big for the room, stubbing our toes 4 times trying to get to the bathroom. We could unfortunately clearly hear the guests in the adjoining rooms on both sides. Our breakfast was not to be a cooked meal served up at the house in the dining room, but bottled juice, a yoghurt tub, boxed cereal, UHT milk and bread to toast. There was a microwave, what for we don't know. The table and chairs were outside. It certainly wasn't what we expected having stayed at a number of B&B's where we have always had a cooked breakfast served within a dining room, not a cold one prepared by ourselves that we could have had at home. We stayed two nights and the servicing of the room between was incomplete for the second day. The food supply, including a small bottle of bubbly, was not fully replenished (as it would have been if we were new guests paying exactly the same). We had to go to the main house and ask for them, including coffee and milk !! We shouldn't have had to do this. We were extremely disappointed. This just wasn't the place advertised. When we got home, we realised my husband had left his electric toothbrush in the shower. We still have not had a call to ask if we would like it posted back or just pleasantly received it in the post. Suffice to say we didn't even want to contact them following our stay ourselves to have it returned as we felt we would rather forget the stay. It was our 18th...

We looked forward to our stay here, the website sold it to us, free wifi, guest lounge etc, etc. We arrived on a particular hot day (mid 30's) and rang the doorbell for the area labeled reception. The owner appeared after a few minutes with portable eftpos machine in hand and said to my wife and I, that my credit card wouldn't work. Now I had booked to pay on arrival, I found it odd that she had tried to access my funds early. I explained that my bank had put a hold on that particular card due to some suspected fraudulent payments that seemed odd. I wonder if this was one of them. We paid her on the verandah, at no time were we invited inside to escape the heat. We drove down to the room we had booked, first impressions were not good as the area outside of the rooms were covered in bird droppings, the door of the room next to ours was splattered with them. Our continental breakfast for the next morning was already waiting for us, a banana, orange and apple, along with half a loaf of bread sat upon the shelf under the tv. We read the hotels guidebook to find that the guest room in the house was no longer available nor was the free wifi. The shower floor was dusty and covered in dead insects, turning on the light above the bed only highlighted all the dead insects in the light shade. The room was dusty, but the worst thing of all was our breakfast cereal and milk for it as well as the coffee was out of date, some by 6 months. We left at first light the next day....

We looked forward to our stay here, the website sold it to us, free wifi, guest lounge etc, etc. We arrived on a particular hot day (mid 30's) and rang the doorbell for the area label reception. The owner appeared after a few minutes with portable eftpos machine in hand and said to my wife and I, that my credit card wouldn't work. Now I had booked to pay on arrival, I found it odd that she had tried to access my funds early. I explained that my bank had put a hold on that particular card due to some suspecked fraudulent activities. We paid her on the verandah, at no time were we invited inside to escape the heat. We drove down to the room we had booked, first impressions were not good as the area outside of the rooms were covered in bird droppings, the door of the room next to ours was splattered with them. Our continental breakfast for the next morning was already waiting for us, a banana, orange and apple, along with half a loaf of bread sat upon the shelf under the tv. We read the hotels guidebook to find that the guest room in the house was no longer available nor was the free wifi. The shower floor was dusty and covered in dead insects, turning on the light above the bed only highlighted all the dead insects in the light shade. The room was dusty, but the worst thing of all was our breakfast cereal and milk for it as well as the coffee was out of date, some by 6 months. We left at first light the next day....