The Gables B&B

Close to the ferry terminals.

Hesitated to write this review as I read an article about the owners lashing out to people who had badly reviewed their B&B but I still wanted to share our experience. Highly impersonal. We were “welcomed” by a kitchen staff member of the owners’ restaurant who ran us through the premises before disappearing without saying goodbye. The pillows were extremely hard (and I like a firm pillow), there no tea/coffee facilities in the room (a first for us in NZ) and the private bathroom was not en-suite (for that I should’ve looked closer to the details but it is the first time we’ve experienced a private bathroom which is actually the other side of the common hall). Also, maybe other guests were not informed it was private because when we arrived the shower had been used and in the morning I had the bad experience to sit on the toilet which had obviously been used by some male guest not kind enough to lift the seat before relieving himself overnight... Finally, not the fault of the owner but there was a mix up since my confirmation had a full English breakfast included but it turned out that they didn’t serve any cooked breakfasts and that the confirmation on their side had no breakfast. Also worth taking into account: breakfast is served from 8.30am only which strange for a place people very likely use primarily before taking the ferry to the North island and ferries depart from 8am onwards... it was ok as they had put 2 fruit salads in the fridge for us and we could make tea before leaving at 6.45am to get on the first ferry but you need to organise this with the staff. Overall I think the owners are quite busy with the restaurant and hotel and are just keeping the B&B on the side but it really doesn’t feel like one - more like one of those pod hotels you’d check into with your credit card.