DOG FRIENDLY - My partner and I stayed here for a couple of nights with our two dogs. It is hands down the most pet friendly venue I've stayed at! The dogs had a large, beautiful, and clean garden to run around and play in. It is surrounded by fencing although more athletic dogs will be able to jump it. That being said, Jocelyn mentioned she wouldn't mind if we needed to leave the dogs inside while we ran errands in town or visited a national park. The only real requirement was that the dogs stayed off the furniture, which is something we had to enforce in turn because we're super relaxed about that in our own home.
BEAUTIFUL LOCATION - The cottage is located about 25 minutes out of Albany centre, and the drive is very easy and direct. Jocelyn and Tom run an avocado farm, so you're surrounded by paddocks and trees. It's a quiet and peaceful place with the occasional car driving up the long gravel driveway to the farmhouse. The garden is very well looked after, lots of flowering bushes and trees that make it a real smorgasbord of smells for the doggies. Jocelyn intentionally leaves the edges of the garden a little more wild so the dogs can sniff and wonder about there (which they did).
VERY COMFORTABLE- The inside of the cottage is very clean and comfortable. The kitchen is small but will service all your cooking needs. The fridge is of normal size, and I was really pleasantly surprised to find all the kitchen draws stocked with useful things like aluminium foil, glad wrap, scissors, cooking utensils, etc. There are two bedrooms - we only used the master bedroom which has a double bed. We both slept very well - the mattress was good quality as were the sheets! The bathroom is modern and clean, with an excellent working shower that heats up quickly.
GARAGE - I really appreciated having a single car garage that we could keep our car in! It was also the cleanest garage I've ever seen - I didn't see a single spider!
HOSPITALITY - Jocelyn and Tom are very welcoming and friendly. Tom made some excellent local recommendations to us and also provided us with a local map which we found useful. They are both very approachable, and were also very respectful in giving us the space to enjoy our little getaway.
CONS - The only thing that bothered us from time to time was this box thing in the garage that makes occasional clicking/zapping sounds.
Overall, this definitely tops the charts as a favourite airbnb of ours and we look forward to staying there again in the future! Thank you so much for having us, Jocelyn and Tom!