Hunter Valley Resort + Farm — Hotel in Pokolbin

We stayed at this resort from 17/12 - 20/12.  It was our 15th anniversary. Night1:  I have mentioned in my booking for a King Bedroom and that we have dust and insect allergy and if the room can be sprayed before our arrival. We reached around 6:00pm and met Stacy at the reception.  She provided us with the key for the room 222.  When I walked into 222, I found the room had two single beds (not cool to sleep in two beds on our anniversary) and I walked back in and mentioned that to Stacy. She then provided me with room 228 which wasn't made for us with spray. At night we found 2 cockroaches and a few other tiny bugs which irritated my wife in the middle of the night with allergic hives. I had a sleepless night with a long 10 hours drive. Night2:  I went in the reception in the morning and had a chat with Mikhaela and explained what has happened.  She apologised and went in to speak to Di (Mikhaela said, Di was the manager) and came back with an approval to upgrade me to a Spa room with King Bed config and stated that she would see if someone can help us move. She mentioned that she would call me as soon as the room is ready.  At around 1pm'ish, I got a call from Stacy stating that my room is ready, and key can be collected from the reception.  When I walked in at around 4pm... Stacy provided me the key for room 222.  I was surprised and told her that this is not what Di and Mikhaela spoken to me about and if she could call Di to reconfirm. Stacy said, she doesn't have authority to call Di and that she was the acting manager. I have mentioned to Stacy, if this is about to make two singles to a king... rather than make us to move from 228 to 222, it would have been easier to spray 228 and vacuum rather than having us to move 3/4 doors. Stacy also said there is no one available to assist with the moving. With a hot exhausting day out, we had to move all our belongings from 228 to 222... what an anniversary gift (??)  The most disappointing and anger part is... after our move in 222 we found a dead cockroach and a moth right over the mirror... I have taken few pictures and showed to the receptionist. Night 3:  We didn't even bother to talk to the reception about the room... we were so upset and didn't have energy to move for the last day even we were being offered a better room.  Disappointment continues when we went to the restaurant, and I found bacon in my vegetarian meal. I was feeling vomiting... but I am not going to brag about it as Kelly has been outstanding assisting me. Checkout:  Disappointment never ends as we had put-away most of our bags in the car before we went to the restaurant as it was raining.  We left few items in the room for the last to carry as we were planning to use the restroom prior our drive. We went for breakfast in the morning and there was a full house, and our meal was coming late.  I called the reception and spoken to Fiona and explained we will be late checking-out as our food were being held up.  She said, no problem at all.  Post our meal at around 10:10am, we went back to the room and found that all our leftover belongings were thrown away and the room was serviced. I had spoken to the housekeeper (forgot her name) and she said it was the gentlemen who cleaned the room, and she had no idea.

Overall... it's a horrible experience. The funniest ending is, when I sent an email to the owner of the resort, he replied with some assistance to be made and STOPPED complete correspondence. Such a disgusting business protocol to follow. Never...

Steer clear of this "resort" and groupon deals. We were given a Christmas present of one night in a "hunter" room groupon deal at this glorified motel. Our young son had paid $149 for the gift. As there were few dates on their groupon availability to choose from in the hunter room,, my husband contacted them for an "upgrade" to a "vineyard room" with a train package, and added on an extra night, which meant the train ride and transfer from central to singleton was included. A few days before our stay we noticed that the receipt was for one person for one night, so I contacted the resort and the girl on the phone said that a mistake was made and added 2 people, but took pains to make sure I knew that the complimentary breakfast was not included with the groupon deal.

On arrival it looked a lot like a typical Aussie motel from the 70's with a not especially good veneer added. The "vineyard" room (?Room 216) looked out on a dirt road...no vineyards in sight. We found another guests old nightrobe hanging up in the bathroom, which we had removed by the staff. There was also a bull-ant on my pillow, which I squished with a tissue. We went out to the accompanying brewhouse/wine counter which was actually pretty good (?maybe this accounts for the good reviews here), and when we returned to our room, there were 2 more bull-ants on my pillow. Contacting the desk, I was told that they would be down soon to strip the bed and "spray" it. I asked for a new room as where there is one (or in this case a few) bull-ants there are usually more, and I didn't want to wake to a painful bite overnight. The staff member complained that the resort was fully booked, so I told her she would need to work something out. I was told to give her a few minutes and she would try to sort something. We were moved to Rm 228, which was another "vineyard" room looking out on some mostly dead vines. The next morning we went to the on site restaurant for an expensive egg and bacon roll ($15), but considering it was the only food around and we were stuck without a car, then this would need to do. We went on a wine tour during the day, then returned to the resort, to the same restaurant for dinner. There had been a storm and their menu was halved as they said they had had a flood in the kitchen. On our last morning, we went to check out and were greeted (I would say quite smugly) by the reception staff woman who said " Aaah, I needed to talk to you". She then told us that we owed them another $330. The price on their website had the vineyard room package from $464/2 nights, but we owed a total of $610. We tried to show her their prices for the same room deal from their "book now" button on their website, and she argued that this was through a hotel room reseller site called "booking button". We tried to show her this was their website, but she didn't want to believe it, then said crankily "that is a $350 a night room!" to which all I could say was "that room???". She finally conceded it was their own website but then argued that there were upgrades based on the groupon deal, to which I asked if we had bought it on their website it would have been $464 with breakfast included, but because we had to use a gift groupon deal then it has cost us $610. She just stuck with her upgrades argument. We begrudgingly paid the money...she was contrite enough to not charge the extra 1.5% mastercard surcharge she had warned every other person who was checking out about. Fawlty towers without the...

We received a voucher for a three night staycation. We turned up in poor weather which got progressively worse with rain and high winds. We were expecting a flashy resort so we were unprepared for what we arrived at. However, have you heard the phrase don't judge a book by its cover?|We were welcomed at the front deskby a very pleasant lady who gave us our key and directed us to our motel style room - great, no stairs just a simple path to negotiate and car parking out front.|The room was double the size of a normal motelroom and had comfortable armchairs at one end of the room and a comfortable bed at the other. Views over the mountains in the distance and a grass lawn in front of it accessed by glass doors and another set of seats and tables. It was unfortunate that the weather was so inclement or we would have sat and watched the sun setting |while having a drink.|Everything opened and shut, there was a good hot water system and eachroom is air conditioned - very good on a cold winters night.|The restaurant did not fail for the two nights and two breakfast we enjoyed during the stay.|We didn't partake of any of the various pastimes that were available: segways, electric bikes, a pool, a farm and several others because to be frank, we are a little bit old.|We were presented a voucher for a wine tasting and a tour of a wine museum when we picked up our keys but having worked in the wine idustray for several decades it was like taking coals to Newcastle so we didn't bother but I would think that a couple going there for a quiet weekend away would find them very useful.|The staff were all lovely, especially in the restaurant, nothing was a problem. The bar, which is 4 Pines orientated, was also something we didn't use but there were plenty of people there.|When we finally fell into bed each night we slept soundly because the beds are so comfortable, fortunately we had until 10.00am to depart because on the last day we slept in until 7.40 - this from two people who at home are regularly out of bed by 6.30am.|It is a long way out on Hermitage Road so be prepared for a drive, it is not in the middle of all the wineries but there are several close by.|We will be going back and staying again in another two or three months because we had a lovely restful time but if you have children I imagine spring/ summer would be the perfect time, all the attractions of the resort will be available for the kids and you won't have to...