Views - location has fantastic for views of North Bruny island; and the North West Bay.
Rental car (listed under ‘Show more’) - Very bad.
A few weeks before our holiday, Steve specifically wrote offering to rent us his 2010 KIA Sportage SL station wagon for our entire holiday. The fee was roughly 25% less than the 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander we had booked from a hire company, (the latter includes guaranteed rescue and replacement if the car breaks down).
Even though a 2010 KIA Sportage can be bought for not much more than we paid Steve for 2 weeks rent, and it is a bit smaller, only front wheel drive and much older than the Outlander, following our principle of supporting small local businesses over large major corporates, and happy to save a bit on cost, we hired the host's car…. Big mistake.
On the morning of 22 April, just under one week into our 2 week holiday and “hire”, the vehicle would not start, and the consequent mucking around wasted that whole day of our holiday, and forced us to change all our plans for the whole remaining week omitting almost all we wanted to do. Because the replacement vehicle Steve gave us, a 2009 small BMW wagon which blew smoke from the exhaust - was not up to what we had planned to do; being far too low to the ground, making noises which made us wary of going into the wilderness where phone coverage is limited, and it was uncomfortably cramped for the 2 bigger people with us, which we had expressed as a concern about the KIA even before we hired it!
Turned out, according to the RACT (an agency that provides roadside assistance to vehicles in Tasmania), and which we had to use our membership to access, there was a problem with the vehicle immobiliser, but the host kept insisting it was the battery in the remote.
It was clear from Steve’s communication that he knew there was a problem, because he acknowledged such when we rang him the morning the vehicle could not start.
When the car broke down, Steve did not provide support or offer solutions beyond ‘keep trying the engine and see if the car can start – the remote battery needs changing’, then “are you members of the RACT or affiliate – call them”.
RACT attended, said the problem was the immobiliser, and it would need a tow.
Steve asked if we had premium membership and could we request it be towed beyond the “standard” membership allowance.
At this point we were still trying to help solve the problem, so we agreed.
The RACT fellow suggested we give it one more try. Miraculously, the engine started, so we were able to drive to the accommodation planned for that evening which happened to be ‘Snug Views’, via a battery shop to check Steve’s assertion that this was the issue (it wasn’t). We weren’t game to turn the motor off and do the things we had planned for that day for fear of being stuck in the wilderness. When we got to Snug views, we tried starting the KIA with the new battery 6 more times, but it would not.
Luckily we didn’t go to the Hartz mountains with poor phone coverage, as was our original plan!
Steve at no point offered any ‘compensation’ for our mucked-up holiday, beyond eventually giving us the cramped, smoke-blowing, whining-noise old BMW, and when we expressed concern about how we were to fit all our luggage and ourselves in for our transport to the airport, he suggested it was an “upgrade” and insinuated that we should be grateful.
We suggest the test of a good host is not when everything by chance goes well, but when things go wrong – especially when those things are the fault of the host by offering faulty equipment at nearly “top-end” rates.
If you want a stress-free and enjoyable holiday, we recommend you do NOT rent the host’s car. We learned from this experience, and suggest others do too.
General Review -
1)	The whole house is very spacious and attractive. Good lounging area for watching television, although sofas are not at all comfortable, in our opinion.
2)	Lighting throughout the house is just adequate, but several light bulbs were missing, particularly in the kitchen; no direct lighting available over the dining area, and there is nowhere with adequate light for reading except outside when the sun is up.
3)	We live with wood-heating at home and are well-familiar with how to operate. We finished up having the air-conditioner going for heating, as the indoor fireplace was difficult to keep going. We suspect this was because the wood was not dry enough.
4)	Kitchen has lots of equipment; the knives, pans and crockery are very good. The oven and stove while old all work well. (The rangehood light doesn’t though). There is no spatula, but that’s a small detail. Bench space is limited, so keep that in mind if you’re an enthusiastic cook wanting to experience all Tassie’s fabulous produce in your own cooking.
5)	Sleeping arrangement adequate for 7 adults. The master bedroom is generous size attractive space with lovely views. 3 of us are well over 60 though, and we did find all the beds not very comfortable, not helped by the synthetic fabrics. Most other BnB’s of similar price we’ve stayed in have very comfortable beds with “natural” fabrics, making for better sleep. The ‘1 sofa bed’ listed in ‘Bedroom 1’ may be suitable for a child, but certainly not for an adult.
6) Thai meal (listed under 'Show more') - very good and highly commendable
Chris & Steve
South Australia