The Grove Distillery — Local services in Wilyabrup

I booked 2 nights holiday accommodation with The Grove Distillary using booking.com website for myself and 2 friends.||The website allows you to book 3 rooms for 3 adults which is what we did and the price was $568. This is the price we paid in full. ||I received two email confirmations confirming full payment for a 3 bedroom chalet.||When we checked in we only had 2 rooms unlocked. We rang the owners wife and she said we had paid for a 3 bedroom chalet, but only for 3 sleeping (one queen bed and one single bed), when I told her that we had booked and paid for a 3 bedroom chalet as we are 3 women, she got very rude. She said booking.com doesnt explain this and so they (the Grove) send a confirmatory email after booking to explain this, but she admitted she hadnt sent us this email. She refused to give us the extra room saying it was booking.com's error. She offered to give us the extra single bed but said if we wanted the extra bedroom we would have to pay the extra $90 a night.. I was so upset and distraught as this wasnt what we had booked and paid for and she was so rude to me. My 2 friends went down to the main cafe/bar and the husband was pleasant and gave my friends a complementary bottle of wine and gave them the master keys so they could open the third bedroom.||The next day we saw the owner and he was completely different. He was mean and rude and accused me of not being able to afford the extra room. I kept trying to show him the email confirmation where it clearly states that we had booked a 3 bedroom chalet, but he wouldnt listen. I had to ask him to please stop talking to me so horribly and be respectful. I felt so defensive and hurt and fearful. He said he was going to march up there and lock the third bedroom if we didnt pay.||We agreed we would pay the extra $180 so we could have the room because we didnt have any choice.||Due to some card issues, the wife drove up and barged past me into the cabin telling me it was her property and demanding my friends PIN. What if we'd been naked?||She had no right to do that. We ended up paying the extra money because what else could we do? We paid for a 3 bedroom chalet initially but we got bullied into paying more money to allow us to keep using the...

I booked 2 nights holiday accommodation with The Grove Distillary using booking.com website for myself and 2 friends.||The website allows you to book 3 rooms for 3 adults which is what we did and the price was $568. This is the price we paid in full. ||I received two email confirmations confirming full payment for a 3 bedroom chalet.||When we checked in we only had 2 rooms unlocked. We rang the owners wife and she said we had paid for a 3 bedroom chalet, but only for 3 sleeping (one queen bed and one single bed), when I told her that we had booked and paid for a 3 bedroom chalet as we are 3 women, she got very rude. She said booking.com doesnt explain this and so they (the Grove) send a confirmatory email after booking to explain this, but she admitted she hadnt sent us this email. She refused to give us the extra room saying it was booking.com's error. She offered to give us the extra single bed but said if we wanted the extra bedroom we would have to pay the extra $90 a night.. I was so upset and distraught as this wasnt what we had booked and paid for and she was so rude to me. My 2 friends went down to the main cafe/bar and the husband was pleasant and gave my friends a complementary bottle of wine and gave them the master keys so they could open the third bedroom.||The next day we saw the owner and he was completely different. He was mean and rude and accused me of not being able to afford the extra room. I kept trying to show him the email confirmation where it clearly states that we had booked a 3 bedroom chalet, but he wouldnt listen. I had to ask him to please stop talking to me so horribly and be respectful. I felt so defensive and hurt and fearful. He said he was going to march up there and lock the third bedroom if we didnt pay.||We agreed we would pay the extra $180 so we could have the room because we didnt have any choice.||Due to some card issues, the wife drove up and barged past me into the cabin telling me it was her property and demanding my friends PIN. What if we'd been naked?||She had no right to do that. We ended up paying the extra money because what else could we do? We paid for a 3 bedroom chalet initially but we got bullied into paying more money to allow us to keep using the...

What a distasteful and appalling experience, especially with us being a mix of Irish 1st time visitors to Perth and relatives of Asian descent who have been living in Perth for 20 years. The owner / manager was clearly upset with us being only 10 mins late (we were on a wine tour and this was one of the last stops). He became even more hostile when we didn’t fancy the sweet aperitifs he had to offer. He refused to let us taste other drinks and wanted us to leave.

I don’t mind poor service but Steve crossed the line when he displayed his true obnoxious, ignorant and arrogant self when he made some really outlandish racial remarks.

Behaviours like Steve’s are clearly not to be tolerated especially in today’s modern society and I would like to think that the good people of Perth are generally not like that.

The reason for putting this review is we would not like anyone else to go through this very horrible experience.

The rich ambience of this distillery is clearly tarnished by Steve’s small-minded, chauvinistic and bigoted behaviour.

In the spirit of professionalism, and to be fair to patrons / visitors to the distillery, it would be only right to get a reasonable response to how the establishment intends to address this.

Thanks

Update 23 Dec 2022 : I have now received a phone call from Rebecca (Steve’s daughter) who runs the business. Understandably, it must have been very hard for her to deal with this matter but she was very humble, apologetic and professional in addressing the issue with me as well as providing me assurance on a way forward. Rebecca certainly came across as being one with good principles and values which with i align. I would like to wish Rebecca and the team at Grove Distillery all the best and I’m now happy to put this unpleasant...