Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge

Great location, which is why it costs a lot. Positive things: The pond/lake - super exciting to see platypus and have the wombats come down to feed. Lots of wildlife just running over the place. We were lucky to have a lake view Some nice extras in the room, such as little shortbreads and some wine, plus water every day (the tap water is foul) Handy for the shuttle and a lot of great walks short and long straight from the hotel Negative things: The cabins are old, tired, uninsulated with big gaps under the doors and single glazing (it gets very cold, even in January). I thought they were marketed as ‘eco-cabins’. The tiled bathroom floors are freezing and the water pressure is weak. No heated towel rail Staffing. If you’re going to employ gapyear backpackers for a season, then give them a bit of training. None of the staff really gave a damn about anything. A lot of shoulder shrugging, ignoring requests, lack of engagement zero apologies for anything that went wrong. Breakfast is chaos - a lot of staff, with a poor barista manically trying to do all the orders, while the rest of the staff swanning around ignoring or forgetting requests. The layout is arcane and the bread is disgusting. The very expensive restaurant is an absolute rip-off. One of the worst meals we have had on our trip and the most expensive. How can you make such tasteless prawn cocktail. The salmon was over cooked and totally lacking in flavour, cos lettuce dripping in poor quality oil. Clearly the fish/seafood had spent a long time out of the water. The tavern is much better value, but a lot of fried stuff and little imagination, also pricey, as were the drinks We realise that this is a remote area, maybe there is limited bandwidth, but just having wifi in the lobby was poor, especially as the phone signal came and went with the wind. The owners really need to invest a bit in the property, especially the cabins, and the management need to understand that they are working in a service industry

You can’t beat the location of this hotel and you are paying for that. The accomodation standard varies - we have stayed a few times and some rooms are updated and nicer than others. The rooms are clean and well appointed, though some rooms are a bit dated and worn out. But we love the walks that start right at your door and the wombats, pademelons, wallabies, echidnas etc that roam around the property. The tavern offers good food but don’t arrive after 6.30 as it gets very busy!

The hotel is badly managed. It is severely understaffed. Every meal is a 30 to 40 minute wait (for a lunch where the Tavern was not crowded at all it was a 50-minute wait) and it was just a huge waste of everyone’s time. It appears they hire a lot of temp staff from other countries (maybe in Australia on a working holiday visa?) and they try to be helpful but are not experienced. If you take into account the price of this hotel, which is higher than many of its competitors in the region, this level of service is really unacceptable.

If you have read any of the previous reviews, this one will be no different - and yet the management of the hotel continue to make excuses instead of taking any real action! Granted, we stayed at perhaps the busiest time of the year, meaning we paid over $900 per night - however what we received in terms of delivery from this ‘motel’ was worth less than $200. They have no right to charge this amount of money, no matter the time of the year. The ONLY good thing about this ‘motel’ is the location - it is incredibly convenient for getting to the start of the walking trails. From there, everything is appalling. The welcome at the front desk was icy! I think she felt she was doing us a favor by checking us in. Then you get to the room - if the complete lack of investment in maintenance of the property was not completely evident from the main building (timbers rotting, bird droppings everywhere, furniture scratched and falling apart etc.), it sure is from the exterior of the cabins. Then inside we found no WiFi, no air-conditioning and no TV. The excuse for this from management is that they are offering an outback retreat, but I’m sorry, for $900 a night, I want the option of having a cool bedroom to sleep in and some entertainment when it is raining outside and I can’t leave my room!! And then, because we are in the middle of nowhere and there aren’t any other options, we eat at the Tavern - the icy lady at reception told us that they were quiet and there would be no issue getting a table. We arrived at 6.30pm and got the last table - from there it was mayhem with dozens of guests aimlessly wandering around looking for somewhere, anywhere, to sit and eat before the kitchen closed at 8pm. All of this was happening while my husband was standing in the queue to order drinks and food for almost 20 minutes. And I use the word food lightly - they deep fried almost everything! My strong advice to everyone is DON’T STAY HERE - find anywhere else!! Management need to bring some love and care back to this property before it is even worth $300/ night - it is decades away from being worth the $900 we paid!

We were very happy with our stay at Cradle Mountain Lodge and stayed in a spa cabin. The cabin was spacious, comfortable and well equipped, with a wood-burning stove, a jacuzzi bath and everything we needed for a relaxing stay. The service throughout was very good – staff were friendly and welcoming, and the food was excellent. The surroundings are truly exceptional, and the lodge is perfectly located for walking and exploring the Cradle Mountain area. I was quite surprised by some of the negative reviews on TripAdvisor. This really is a place to switch off and enjoy nature – if your idea of a holiday is sitting on your phone or watching TV, this may not be for you. If you do want screen time, it’s worth downloading films before you arrive and embracing the remote setting. When we weren’t walking the many well maintained footpaths we enjoyed watching the wildlife on site, the many Pademelons, Echidnas, Wombats and Platypuses. The only downside for us was that the tavern was extremely busy on our second evening. It appears to be very popular with people not staying at the lodge as well, and we couldn’t get a table there. However, we went to the main restaurant without a booking and were pleasantly surprised to be accommodated despite it being busy. The food was delicious and the staff were very helpful. A final bonus was the availability of laundry rooms on site, which was incredibly useful after nearly three weeks of travelling and gave us the chance to catch up on washing. Overall, a fantastic stay in a beautiful location, and we would recommend.