Hotels Near Benlea - Sheep & Cattle Farm Tours & Benlea Cottage in Windwhistle

The restaurant is great The staff is also friendly

Friendly staff and clean place to stay. Lots of parking and very convenient to town centre and other places. Recommend to all people:)

We booked a few months in advance for two nights arriving on a Monday night. A few days before we arrived we sent an email to let them know we would be arriving ln the evening as we were driving to Methven after a day on the ski field. On the Sunday we got stuck in Ohau due to blizzards on the highway and emailed again to say we would be later than we thought on the Monday night. We arrived late in the dark to find, to our disbelief, a sign that said ”closed on Mondays”. No staff anywhere. Lights off. Doors locked. We called the contact number on the website but there was no answer. We checked our phones/ voicemail and email - no word from them at all. Not even a reply to our email when we told them we would be late. They had three opportunities to let us know - once when we booked, once when we emailed them to let them know the time we would be arriving and once when we told them we would be late. Near the ”Closed on Mondays” sign, there was another sign in the window that stated ”for accommodation, go to the Brown Pub” which was the hotel over the road. We went in and asked if they knew where the reception staff were for the blue pub and if they had any numbers of anybody we could contact. They said they didn't know anybody who worked there but we should have received an email with a code to enter the building. Again we checked our email and booking messages but we didn't receive anything at all. No codes anywhere. We went back to the Blue pub as none of the staff at the Brown Pub seemed to be bothered about our situation. We realised there was a light on around the back of the pub above the delivery entrance where all the bins and empty kegs were. After trying to find a way in for another 20 mins or so we found a small sandwich bag pinned to a fence post with our booking name and key in it. No instructions and no info whatsoever. No opening times, no check out times, no contact details, nothing. We found the entrance after trying a couple of doors and when we entered the room we found it was absolutely FREEZING... they could have, at the very least, turned the heating on for us. The only heating was a small oil heater which would have taken hours to heat the room up. Not to worry though - when we found blood all over one of the bed's duvet, sheets and pillow we decided we weren't going to stay. I took some photos of the bed and had a walk around the hotel to see if i could find some staff anywhere... or at least somebody's contact number but there was nothing at all. Who would I contact if there were an emergency or a troublesome guest?? I found a guest in the kitchen who said that the owners of the blue pub also own the brown pub too so I should go to talk to them. We went back again to the Brown pub with pictures of the blood and asked for something to be done. The first thing I asked was if they were the same owners and could they contact them for us? to which the guy replied ”no its different owners”. I then explained that there was

Thank you for a wonderful one night stay. We arrived late at night in the dark & rain & received a very friendly welcome. Upon seeing we had our teenage son with us (whom I had accidently forgotten to include) we were upgraded to a lovely two bedroom unit. Such a lovely gesture! It was warm, cosy & spotlessly clean. We would not stay anywhere else in Ashburton, it was perfect.

Immaculately clean and functional wheelchair accessible unit. Perfectly adequate self catering facilities. A couple of small details as shower seat was requested but only a small plastic stool in the bathroom which was quite unsteady. Arrived after long flight so too tired to follow up then. Lovely receptionist had just forgotten that it was requested as they had one available. Disabled parking spots are really just normal width and not marked accordingly which makes it tricky getting in and out of the car if other cars park close. Good place to stay

We booked via the Porters Pass website, entered visa card details and received a confirmation of the booking via email. It was at their lower rate (and the last day before the ski feild opened). The disadvantage/trade off of this night is that we can only ski one day. The booking system kept dropping some of the people off the group every time I moved to the next window of days to look for availability, once I confirmed and booked I noticed it had dropped half my group off again! I started up a second booking making sure to add the rest of my group on the last window this time to avoid them dropping off. I added my credit card details and confirmed this second booking. I received a confirmation email with the same price as I had booked and that was as I expected it would be from the website booking form. I emailed Porters to let them know I needed to cancel my first booking as it didn't include half my group. A few days later Porters responded to my email about my first booking and referenced my second booking and said that price they had on their website was a mistake and they will charge $150 more (the in season price) when we check out. They didn't really seem interested in issues we have had with the booking system. I guess they know it's got problems? I replied saying I didn't think that was fair we had made a booking via their website and had an email confirmation to say they are now going to charge us more for the same booking? We can't ski on the day we are booked for so the full price seems unfair randomly decide we have to pay post booking. I can't be sure but it seemed to me like the early dump of snow had changed how they saw the days before the feild opened. I have asked the person emailing me to check out the commerce commission for info on fair pricing and advertising, I get the impression from the emails they don't think this is very cool of me. I think many New Zealanders expect when they book accomodation via a NZ website that the company will be aware of their pricing, what they are advertising and make it really clear what people are paying for at the time of booking. It seems like they have not been maintaining their website during winter and I suspect others will be in the same situation as us. I would recommend to others to reach out to Commerce Commission (via the phone number on the website). I would have booked the higher rate to do get a few days on the feild but I'm so peeved at how crappy this whole process is and I can tell they will make our stay miserable. Disappointing but we are spoiled for interesting huts, accomodation and spots in Canterbury and I'm not going to spend anymore time on these guys.

The hotel as a whole is OK, you can burn your own food, walk about 20 minutes from the nearest supermarket!

We have just returned home from a wonderful short break at the Methven Motels and Apartments. Just simply a wonderful place to stay. Our unit was just one room with a king size bed and also a single bed but we still had 2 comfy chairs , a dining table and chairs a kitchen complete with a microwave and gas hobs and everything one needed. It did not feel at all cramped even though we had our little old dog with us with her cage. The unit had wonderful tinted windows that gave us complete privacy. The bath had a shower over it and the bathroom was very spacious. The whole place was clean and comfortable. The owners could not have been more welcoming and helpful. Highly recommend this as a place to stay.