Natalie
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South Island ▷ West Coast ▷ Greymouth ▷
Jacksons Retreat Campervan Holiday Park
0.5/5
We decided to book here for wee family escape for our 5th wedding anniversary.
We made the drive from Christchurch especially just to stay at this camp ground and head back home the next day. I'll start with the positives as there are a few. This camping ground is absolutely gorgeous and well kept. There are amazing tracks leading to gorgeous waterfalls and even an old quartz mine. At night time there are multiple walks to see the glow worms in their natural dells, all of the facilities are immaculate and very modern but sadly that's where the positives end for us.
We booked in off a camping app called Rankers camping after reading the blurb and seeing that it was pet friendly I booked which redirected me to their booking software where it asked all of our details including age of our children etc.. having gone through all that I had no idea how much of an inconvenience we would be to the owner. We walk to the office with our family dog on her lead and ended up being rushed at by the owner who was shocked and angry we had our dog (apparently we are the last straw for dogs being allowed their now 🤷🏼♀️) she stated we needed to have let them know prior that our dog was coming so after apologising profusely for not knowing that (not sure how I was supposed to know) I was handed a peice of paper saying if they found poo after we left that my card would be charged $100! she was very cold even after all of my apologies. It absolutely killed it for us and we literally sat in our tent the rest of the the day/night (which ended up flooded due to a west coast down pour all night long) my husband even picked up dog poo that wasn't from our dog so we wouldn't be charged. This place cost us $72 for a non powered site for a family of two adults and two children and it absolutely would have been worth it had the owner not been so unwelcoming. We left feeling like an inconvenience and in hindsight I wish we had left at the time of meeting her.
Thank you Craig & Natalie for your unfortunate review on both Rankers & Google.
It is a shame we did not meet your expectations due to you not fully understanding our pet policy, Rankers app and our website clearly state that yes we are pet friendly but only by prior arrangement.
When Craig checked in there was still no mention time that you had a family pet/dog with you.
I'm sure as a pet/dog owner you understand that there are very few holiday parks that will now allow dogs (we are hanging in there by the skin of our teeth) and as dog lovers ourselves we try to accommodate and help out responsible pet owners. Our motto is "Never the dog's fault - not fair to blame the dog - it's always the Owner"
The only reason why our policy is in place is that some breeds we will not allow, certain times of the year no pets are allowed and for the comfort of your pet and family we have certain sites that we prefer dogs to be in to ensure privacy and that the dogs do not disturb other guests, we are trying to accommodate all guests.
You were not rushed at and the piece of paper you were handed also lets you know where you can exercise your pet off their lead. All sites where pets have been are checked on departure and yes if you are not responsible we will charge you. Was I angry or again disappointed that irresponsible owners ruin it for others.
If you feel that for these reasons we were unreasonable and our Park deserves a 1 start review, for this we do not apologize.
Maxim Vassiliev