Southern Ocean Motor Inn

The manager/owner here is the most incompetent women I have ever met and ruined our entire trip. We originally booked a Sea View Villa back in September. In January, we received an email saying our booking would be cancelled due to a “double booking” — which raises the question of how this wasn’t identified for four months. Shortly after, we were emailed again to say a cancellation had come up and our booking could be honoured after all. I replied immediately asking to pay in full to secure the reservation, but received no response for days. I followed up again to reconfirm our dates (14/02–15/02) and was eventually told, in writing, that these dates were confirmed. We thought everything would be fine from here, but we couldn’t be more wrong. We travelled several hours with a friend visiting from overseas to check in — only to be told on arrival that we had the wrong date. We were then given vague explanations that the “computer glitched,” deleted our booking, or that someone else had been booked over it. Regardless of the excuse, our reservation clearly had never been properly made or managed. We were told the entire town was fully booked and there was nowhere for us to stay. There was no apology or accountability, despite having email proof that our dates were confirmed. I have never experience incompetence with such a lack of remorse. We had email proof that these dates had been confirmed, but it was still made to feel like it was our fault our booking didn’t exist. Clearly the owner/manager had found someone who offered to pay more, and thus cancelled our booking without telling us. I will be warning friends and family to avoid staying here. Even written confirmation clearly means nothing if management can simply deny your reservation when you turn up.

We needed special consideration re this booking and the owners kindly obliged

It's a motel. A good one, but still a motel, and not so cheap. Reception staff were very good though.