1770 Sovereign Lodge Resort

I stayed in one of the rooms over the weekend and found about a square metre of black mould growing in a roof corner, as well as mould on two curtains. I have a mild mould allergy, so I messaged the property. Two days later, I still haven’t had a reply.

We booked the penthouse through wotif for our Christmas holiday, but it was an awful start to the trip. The room looked much better in the photos, which seemed edited. On arrival there was no onsite support, and inside it smelled dusty enough to make us feel suffocated. The loft was cramped, had no lights where two people were meant to sleep, and was covered in dust and cobwebs, with dead cockroaches everywhere. The ladder to reach it felt very unsafe. I’m allergic to dust and started having breathing difficulties. The fridge was mouldy and didn’t have basic supplies like milk. My husband called the number in the information several times, but no one answered. Eventually it redirected to a middle agent who didn’t know the property. She tried contacting the first agent and the owners, who were probably overseas, but nobody picked up. She told us to find another hotel and said she’d request a refund. I couldn’t stay there any longer, so we took a few photos and moved to another hotel that luckily had space. We also sent the photos to wotif. Two weeks later, neither wotif nor the middle agent had managed to contact the owners, so there was still no refund. We travel a lot, and this was definitely the worst place we’ve stayed. Do yourself a favour and don’t book it.

The view was amazing and it was close to everything, but I wouldn’t stay here again. We were in the Java suite at Sovereign lodge retreat, and there was no one around to help with any of the problems. The main TV had lines across the screen and didn’t work properly, the Fox remote had no batteries, half the lights were out and the floors were really dirty. The bed was disgusting and needs replacing. We also couldn’t find any green bins for our rubbish. It wasn’t worth it.

Getting the key safe code took until 12.45pm, even though I’d texted at 11.56 and tried calling several times after being told to let them know if it hadn’t arrived by 11.30. I’d emailed two days before to ask about checking in at midday but got no response; when I called the day before, they said midday was fine. The eventual reply said they’d been at lunch and had sent the code. We stayed one night in the Lombok room, and for $300 it was nowhere near as nice as the online photos. The missing blind slat and stained roller blinds, especially beside the main bed, were gross. Tea, coffee and sugar were in dirty-looking old jars instead of single sachets, where anyone could have sneezed or worse. The fridge door, table legs and bathroom bin were rusty. It’s on the ground floor, so don’t expect much of a sea view. You can hear the people upstairs walking around and flushing their toilet, just what you want in a $300 room. We were also told to take out all the rubbish and strip the bed or face a $75 cleaning fee. At that price I shouldn’t have to do part of the cleaner’s job. Between the price, cleanliness, service and checkout demands, we definitely won’t be back.