Coolendel Camp — Hotel in Buangla

I would have loved to have given this place more as it has such potential however there were a few negatives that cannot be forgiven. First though, the positives: Coolendel is a sweeping, gorgeous property with plenty of room. Want to camp near others? Can do! Want to be away from people? Also got you covered. There is no phone reception (yes!) so you're totally off the grid. When they say bring your bike, believe them, you want to bring your bike! There are trails aplenty and I spent a lot of time giggling along with others watching the kids fly down the hill past our camp. It looked exhilarating and like so much fun! The wildlife is another plus. We saw wallabies, wombats, possums, bilbies, and even had a very large goanna walk through our camp. Pure magic! The river was gentle and we all spent time swimming and floating down river. I can't speak for the rapids but from all accounts, also a lot of fun.

For the negatives: the amenities were shockingly bad. In our area there were 2 toilets and 2 showers and 1250 people booked in which meant we were constantly lined up to use them and they were not cleaned. Our 2nd night there I had to request they clean the toilets as there was no toilet paper, hand soap and quite frankly, I've used construction port-a-loos that were cleaner. Next was the road in. Now, I've been off roading the past 20 years and love a good track but this is meant to be a 2wd road. Please, be careful driving along here. Pot holes galore and not the safest of roads. Lastly, and quite unfortunately is the owners themselves. I was told by their staff that they've just recently purchased the property and their inexperience showed. They were completely overwhelmed, snappy and rude. On our 2nd night one of our party had been told his brother was in hospital dying after having lost his other brother 18 months ago and were trying to lighten their load but having some drinks and laughs. During our Sorry Business the owner came down and immediately threatened to throw us off the property if we didn't quieten down. There was no "could you please keep the noise down" or polite request, just an immediate "we're going to call the police and throw you off the property". Now, we had been drinking yes, but were not belligerent or rude and I have NEVER been spoken to like that in my entire life! I have been camping for over 30 years, a lot of it on paid camps and have never been treated with such disrespect. A lot of other campers had similar complaints of the owners, with comments about snipping and rudeness. Now, in his defence, the next night when he came past to ask us to stop howling (full moon and we were within curfew), he did ask us politely and even gave us a howl however the damage was done. I truly hope the owners can adjust to their new business because they have something truly spectacular with so much potential. I'd love to see this...

I stayed over the Easter long weekend and read the reviews beforehand so was a bit apprehensive before arriving. When I arrived I was greeted with a friendly smile, there were several people hanging out near the front desk having a chat and waiting for the phone because there is no reception. At that moment, I felt a sense that I was very far away from the daily grind of the big city and felt an immediate sense of relief. Driving in I see lots of happy kids riding their bikes around and people reconnecting with others, a real sense of community which the city life has left behind. I located my friends and set up camp next to them, they were sharing their fire pit with the neighbours who didn't have one. The area was well kept and the camp kitchen was clean and tidy. We then walked down to the river at sunset and the view was amazing, the water was fresh but not cold, we stayed there until the sun went down, amazing. Then spent the night next to the fire chatting with friends. We did this everyday when we were there, swimming during the day and the fire pit at night. Most people were behaved but for those that weren't the owners went around to have a chat with them. Most people turned down the music by 10pm and kept the noise down. Yes the toilets were blocked in the morning but they organised for a pump truck and plumbers to come and fix it. There was another toilet that people could use in case of emergency but the line up was rather long so some of us just waited. They organised an Easter egg hunt for all the kids with thousands of eggs. For those people that complain you need to understand that running a campground is difficult and there is a balance between making money and keeping it affordable. No one will run a place of this size if there is no profit. I think they did everything we could have expected them to do over the long weekend and I appreciate them opening this amazing place to the public. I will...

Been here a few times, and this is overdue. So Coolendel is great, however last year in October we over booked as some of us, a group of 14 at the time, had health emergencies so they could not come. We asked if we could amend the booking and have those refunded and they agreed but they did not honor the refund. We were NOT cancelling, only amending our booking.

The lesson is to under-book and amend then, as they will not honor their word for a refund on a partial booking. It was a genuine shame as I offered to take wood and ice in lieu of a refund and they refused, knowing we'd be out in a few days, they took advantage of us, told us what we wanted to hear.

Other than that, this place is good. But I wouldn't return, because we don't want to risk losing money if someone has to pull out. We were honest, and made the error of judgement that they would be honest back, unfortunately this is not the case, and they lied about honoring a refund for the part of us that could not attend due to unforeseen circumstances. The thing that gets me, is that we knew about 1 week ahead and emailed them about it, we never received a reply, so they knew in advance that we had to amend our booking, and still refused to honor their word.

Editing in response to the reply. We made genuine efforts to reach you and we were ghosted and ignored. There's no reason to believe you would honor your word, you have both our contact details and our email including the time frame on our booking and yet still have not made any genuine or honest attempt to show integrity and professionalism. Again, we did reach out. It's not about the money, it's about being honest, doing the right thing and just being a good business. But only if you are interested, which you are not. I bet my life if we emailed to increase our booking you'd waste no time sending us a bill. Not...