Kendenup Lodge And Cottages

Maybe it was once a great place, the location would be. But there is a sign on the street saying it's for sale. And that's exactly how it felt. When we arrived, a group of people were already waiting. Everything was locked. But they told us that someone would be coming soon to check us in. The lady was also pretty unmotivated and assigned us all a room. The cabin we had booked was already occupied. The kitchen could be used for breakfast. The room with three beds was completely full and the common room was just a jumble of furniture. The water pipes gurgle all night. The rooms are also very soundproof, so you can hear everything the neighbors are doing.

The room was fine, but we asked for a quite one away from the entrance, stairs etc. We were put in the room beside the kitchen & could hear every noise through the wall, the hot water system banged every time the tap was used, draws, doors, fridge door & talking till midnight. We looked for accommodation in the area and as far away as Albany the next day with no luck. The next night we asked if they could be careful not to make noise after 9, but of course no luck. The rest of the rooms were booked out by a group, so no chance of changing rooms and Chalets were booked as well. After 3 weeks in the south west we found the accommodation to be tired & dirty with noisy, paper thin walls. In general management seemed to be disinterested & put out, in a Basil Faulty type way if we made a request. We wrote a negative review about the property on Booking.com with whom we made all our bookings via on the trip & it was changed to “the highlight of our trip in the south west” by the there review algorithm “I guess”.

We arrived at Kendenup after a long journey from Margaret River. Warmly welcomed by the owner Rhonda Williams, happy lady and very helpful. She showed us to our room, the sitting area, kitchen area and where we could find all the equipment available for cooking own meals. The first evening we had a meal in the on site restaurant. It was freshly cooked and served as soon as it was cooked. Beer and wine was perfectly cold too. The grounds are quite large and we were able to explore and see the cottages that are also available to rent when they are available. The bedroom had a fridge, kettle, cups, glasses tea and coffee plus milk. It was spotless and loved the swans on the end of the bed which were the towels. This reminded me of the time we stayed at Raffles Hotel and the towels were also in the shape of swans. Rhonda, you should be really proud of this place and the team of people who work for you. Will we be back? Answer is yes and maybe a cottage next time if possible. Mount Barker is a big town with a supermarket but best of all one of the most famous bakeries. Give this a go as well.