My husband and I stayed here for one night as part of a trip to Akaroa to celebrate his birthday. Our cottage (bush view) was clean and comfortable but did not live up to the photos on the website.
Given that it was called a 'bush view' cottage, I was expecting romantic seclusion. In reality, the cottage was only about 10 or so metres from the gravel road that guests use to get round the property, and when we sat outside, we could clearly hear the conversation of the guests in the cottage next to ours and behind some trees. In addition, there was no outdoor furniture (unlike what is shown on the website) so we had to drag the indoor seats outside to sit on the deck. None of this was a big deal but it just wasn't what I was expecting/hoping for, especially after having viewed the website. In terms of the overall location, the property is very handy to Akaroa but it's nice to be just out of town.
When you pay $180 a night, you expect to get something special. Our cottage had some very nice touches, like the curtains, the log burner, and the flowers in the vase on the table. But the kitchen unit was somewhat tatty and had chips in the paint and woodwork, the tiles around the bath/shower had a grubby black edge where they met the bathtub and were peeling in places, and the toilet roll holder in the loo had obviously come off or been taken off the wall at some point, and the resulting hole had merely been filled with putty and not even painted over. Same with a spot on the bathroom wall where something had obviously been removed or perhaps the wall had been damaged - just putty and no paint job.
All little things, but they gave the cottage a scruffy edge and it didn't make for the luxurious feel shown in the Akaroa Cottages (selective) website photos.
A key reason we booked the cottage was for the spa bath. We had a lovely spa bath about 2/3 full around 4:30pm before getting ready to go out for dinner and planned to have another on our return approx. 4 hours later at 8:30pm. However, there was no hot water - not a drop. We were very disappointed and my husband mentioned it to the somewhat cool receptionist when we checked out. The response was simply "Oh, your cottage is the only one that doesn't have gas", and then a blank stare. No apology. We wondered why it hadn't occurred to them to tell us when we checked in that we'd only get one spa and then the hot water would be gone. Lucky we shared the spa we did have.
We left feeling like we had been given the scruffiest/worst cottage of the lot, and although our stay was comfortable enough, we really did not feel that we got value for the money we paid.