The Ark Stanley — Hotel in Tasmania

This is my first review being a frequent traveler for years and it’s not gonna be a positive one.

I was not expecting a contactless check in as it was not communicated in advance. But there was literally nobody onsite when we arrived in a late afternoon. I had to make an overseas call to the number on the door to learn about the check in procedures, which was obviously not friendly to international travellers. The call quality in my room was far from ideal - I had to come down to the front door after going upstairs per advised, so that I could be heard by the owner on the other end.

My room was on the second floor with no elevator. The parking space was also quite limited so parking could be challenging.

Instead of advising the WiFi password directly upon my inquiry, I was told to refer to the handbook on the table. After I found it and connected to the WiFi, there’s still no internet connection. It took some time for the owner to come to the property and reset the router before the internet access became available.

Unlike the other places I stayed for my Australia trip, there was only one drain in shower space and no drain in the outer part of the bathroom. Outside the bathroom there was this carpet that covered the rest of the floor. Everything was pretty much on the same level. So when the only drain didn’t work out as expected, even just for a couple of minutes, the water could easily flood the bathroom and flow out directly onto the carpet.

I was in the middle of a morning shower so didn’t realise the flood until someone in the bedroom found out that the carpet was wet. I stopped the water immediately, cleaned up the clogged drain and absorbed the flooded bathroom floor with the provided bathmat and towels before leaving them in the corner of the shower space. I even opened the window in the bedroom for ventilation so that the carpet could dry up quicker despite it was cold outside.

I had clogged drain before, however this was the first time that I encountered a flooded bathroom this bad and I had done everything I could to mitigate the situation. It was rather inconvenient to my busy morning. But no trip is perfect and I could have let go all of the above if it wasn’t for the reaction of the owner.

Surprisingly, none of my efforts were appreciated by the owner or met her expectations. I was accused of not having the decency to mention the issue when leaving (which I did apologised, was leaving in a hurry and got something else on my mind so forgot to bring it up) and misuse of the bathroom (apparently the bathmat and towels that were used to absorb the water were considered as the cause instead of the malfunction of the drain and the flaw in bathroom design). I spent plenty of time clarifying the situation afterwards during my trip in the mountainous area under instable internet connection, “but to no avail”, just like what the owner commented on my steps taken.

An extra AUD 400 was charged by the owner as compensation.

This is extremely disappointing and I’ll never coming back.

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My husband and I stayed at The Ark for 3 nights. We were allocated the Weatherley room which is separate to the main house. This room was a little compact but sufficient for our needs. It had hanging space for our clothes, a spacious ensuite (with double shower), a private balcony and a covered car port. || A very generous cooked and/or continental breakfast was included in the room rate. Christer and Rhonda took great pride in their home grown and locally sourced produce. This was reflected in their delicious breakfast. We loved the spiced zucchini!||During our tour in North West Tasmania we planned to do an Arthur River cruise on our first day and the Tarkine wilderness drive on the second day. . Staying in this B and B in Stanley for the 3 nights (and commuting for these activities) gave us the flexibility to see the penguins coming ashore in the evenings and do the Nut Circuit walk when weather conditions were favourable.|| We saw lots of penguins on our first evening and did the Nut Circuit walk one morning before breakfast. We earned our bacon and eggs that morning!||Stanley is a very quaint seaside town. We enjoyed many walks around town admiring the beautiful renovated cottages and gardens. All within a easy stroll from The Ark. The Ark is also a very easy walk to the local eateries. We enjoyed a dinner at the Stanley hotel one night (prebooking recommended) and Hursey's seafood the second night. On our third night we got a crayfish takeaway from Hursey's and enjoyed eating this from our deck at The Ark looking out on the magnificent sea views. ||We really enjoyed our 3 night stay at The Ark and would highly recommend to family...

I've been travelling all around Tassie this festive season and wrote positive reviews so far. However, this one is not going to be a +ve one! As we had the most: horrible; racist; bad; ill-mannered; unpleasant; and Unfriendly experience of the decade! Racism at its peak if you are not Caucasian that's both at Breakfast and overall experience. Parking spots were narrow and another guest was not able to bring his car in, as my car was parado so we decided to park at the rear and no one was there to ask. When I went for breakfast as my wife and I had to take turn as we had baby, they showed very bad behaviour on car and asked me to move car first. I moved car by then was 8: 30 and I went and quickly had coffee from breakfast as had to send wife , then at 8: 50 they knocked door and given a plate of breakfast with very angry face. Noted is breakfast time was only from 8 to 9 am and at 8.50 said the kitchen is closed. When asked for a separate quilt or mattress for baby , they said can't help. They were not even looking at us when talking as if we are from different planet. So disappointing behaviour. If you are not white then do not...