Guest User
March 1, 2024
I normally wouldn't publicly rant about a venue like this, but after contacting the property about not having hot water in our room and getting a sorry hope to see you again reply and then following it up with an e-mail similar to this review and get no reply from them, I'm sharing my experience in the hopes that I can save others from wasting their money. We we’re really looking forward to a beautiful afternoon and stay at Marnong as a last stop before we headed home to Margaret River and to say we were disappointed is an understatement. We booked the winter stay and dine package which was $500 for a night and included a $150 food voucher, room and a bottle of wine (if you work out the pricing of everything, it's basically a free bottle of wine). We were flying in from Brisbane at 2pm and had an early flight home the next morning, so thought the winter package on offer was a great way to make the most of our time at the venue. We originally booked an evening meal at La Vetta and hoped to spend our afternoon indulging in a wine tasting and exploring the grounds before enjoying a relaxing dinner. That plan was upended when we received a call a few days prior to our booking telling us that the restaurant was closing early due to lack of bookings / change of operating hours and the latest we could book in for was 4pm. At this time, similar to when we made the booking (months in advance) we were reminded of the dress code and children policy. We complied with the request. We made our way as quickly as possible from the airport, trying to make the most of our afternoon and were greeted by friendly staff at reception and guided to our room. We opened our bottle of wine that was included in our package, to enjoy while we quickly changed for dinner to find it was an incredibly sweet sparkling that for us, was undrinkable – perhaps they should specify the inclusions with the package as that style of wine is not particularly popular or enjoyed by most wine drinkers – or at least offer a choice seeing as the RRP is the same price as the Brut and other still wines available at the cellar door. We were able to fit in a wine tasting with at the cellar door with a young lady who was lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed her company. She did a great job, but there was a lack of industry experience for someone running a busy cellar door. We only know this as we work in the wine industry and hope that she gets the training she is keen to do. We then purchased a bottle of pinot to enjoy later as our complimentary wine was going down the drain and hurried to the restaurant to make our 4pm booking. What was interesting is that two tables sat down at least 30 minutes after us, so I guess the 4pm last booking was made up? I’m not sure. We had a lovely seat at the window in La Vetta, but unfortunately our view of the Macedon Ranges, animals and sunset was obscured by dirty hand prints and smudges all over the glass, the window was filthy! This was again something I fo