When one travels to Daylesford and Hepburn Springs you’d expect to have a calm, refined and memorable occasion. Unfortunately for my wife and I, our accommodation was memorable in the wrong way. We visited Hepburn Spa Retreat to celebrate our wedding anniversary at the rate of $300 per night, expectations were high.

Upon entering the check-in we were greeted by an employee that appeared distracted and served the spa queries of a ‘local’ who arrived after us. She was flustered and walked away, forgetting we wanted to book a time for the bathhouse. Not the most warming of welcomes.

After unloading the car and settling into the room we attempted to open up the sliding doors to relax on the balcony, prior to going out to a dinner reservation. They were jammed shut. Called reception and was informed someone will visit to inspect. After 15minutes a staff member visited and attempted for some time to fix the door. He managed to eventually open it but wasn’t able to close it. Concerned about security we asked to be moved. Staff member walked back to the Spa reception (which is quite a distance away from accommodation) to see what they could do.

We sat in the room waiting for quite some time for a decision from the staff. Then we saw the same staff member walking from reception up the driveway. We were shown into a different room and moved our luggage once again.

Upon entering we were shown that the balcony door (with some force) opens and closes. Needless to say we decided that we wouldn’t use the balcony. When the staff member left it was clear that there wasn’t care in the preparation of our arrival. To spare the details, I will now briefly list:

- Coaster marks along the surface of the spa
- Silicone inside and around spa was missing/damaged and mouldy
- Interior and exterior windows were dirty
- Pubic hair on the bed sheet
- Main light in the centre of room and bedside was flickering and needed replacement
- When ‘fire’ heater was turned on it emitted an unbearable dusty scent
- A near empty box of tissues
- Bathroom bin foot pedal didn’t work
- Heated towel rack wasn’t functioning
- The shower condensation revealed a large picture of a pig drawn by a previous visitor on the shower screen (which made us feel extremely uncomfortable to know that this wasn’t cleaned- especially in covid times)
- Several blind rods were broken
- The black curtains showed up many white stains on them

Did we feel special during our “retreat”? No. Even without the addition sounds of neighbouring crows, our time in the venue felt very lack lustre. We feel that this venue was unprepared for visitors, preoccupied with marketing and wasn’t focused on giving the best service or experience to customers in a time where you’d expect much more from a place out of lockdown.

Will not return and advise the reader to consider alternate accommodation.