Escape To Picton Boutique Hotel

Top floor suite - very special - wonderful bath after doing the Queen charlotte track

Great location and school charm

No fridge available

Our luxury suite in this small boutique hotel was superb, beautifully presented with gorgeous furnishings. Location is very central, yet quiet enough to be peaceful. A complimentary glass of wine on arrival was nice too. Jo deserves a special mention for her outstanding efforts to make our visit as seamless as possible making us feel special, especially considering we are the only guests staying that night. As we understood it, Jo was not a normal member of staff but stepped in due to unfortunate circumstances.

Very little to mention, however the coffee and tea making facilities would’ve been better not tucked away in an awkward corner.

Beautiful lovely extremely clean room. Very cosy. Amazing bathroom with all the necessary toiletries. Great location.

No fridge or minibar Milk was in a bowl of ice though

This small hotel advertises on both the Expedia.com and Booking.com websites (and other associated sites) on the basis you can either pay immediately upon booking OR for an additional amount (about 10%) you can "Pay when you stay". My wife and I are planning a trip to the NZ South Island and, while visiting Picton, this hotel looked a reasonable choice. As our trip was not for another 9 months after the booking date, we elected the "Pay when you stay" option. All went well with the booking UNTIL a day or so later when I noticed that the hotel charged my credit card for the full amount of our reservation. Needless to say, I immediately messaged the hotel asking them to correct this error (I thought) and received a reply that it was in fact no error and that they have decided to charge in full bookings made up to 9 months in advance regardless of the "Pay when you stay" condition of the booking which clearly and specifically states "You will not be charged until your stay". The lady from that hotel stated that "As we are small we had alot of false bookings the last two years and cards not working and clients not turning up". So, they advertise one thing and then do exactly what they want. She suggested we could cancel our reservation (if we didn’t concur with this breach of the advertised offer) and they would “immediately’ refund our reservation payment in full. I cancelled my booking immediately as there was no need for us to put up with this deceptive behaviour. I was then informed that we would receive our refund BUT, because the bank processing times are slow, it would take yet another 5-7 days for us to receive the funds - what total drivel - we are not in the dark ages of bank tellers with rolled-up sleeves and shaded-caps. If they processed the refund immediately upon our cancellation, we would have received our funds in a day or two at a maximum. It was yet another not so transparent ploy to retain our incorrectly acquired funds for as long as possible. Needless to say, they DID NOT refund our credit card within the 5-7 day period and we had to ask Expedia to intervene. Clearly Expedia also had problems with Escape to Picton and, after a few iterations and more days waiting, they finally agreed to refund the booking. However (of course) this was not the end of the problem – Escape to Picton advised it would take yet another 5-7 days to refund our reservation and then further advised (because of bank restrictions!) they could only refund $500 each day hence taking 4 days to process all of the refund. The hotel still offers "Pay when you stay" - this is clearly false advertising. The hotel will probably respond to this review with excuses and blaming everyone but themselves but this review outlines the facts regardless of whatever spin they would like to invent. Be very careful dealing with these people - a bit to tricky for my liking.

Super small great location very mellow place

Nothing particular

Handy location! Easily accessible. Breakfast was great.

Can’t fault it

Lovely bath and bath products provided and great restaurant and wine bar.

It’s an escape within an escape town