I had booked Otway Retreats with two of my siblings and our partners from Melbourne. The Victorian government had announced a lock-down the day before my booking was supposed to start on the same day. My bad ratings are only due to the fact that I was charged a cancellation fee as well as a long-winded and unnecessary argument about the whole thing as the cancellation was out of my control and due to the government's lock-down announcements. I have had other Airbnb bookings during lock-downs being announced and the host has always cancelled immediately and refunded the money fully. It was already a stressful time because of the new announcements being made but the way my booking was handled with Otway Retreats caused even more unnecessary stress. Otway Retreats did not waive their cancellation policy which charges you the first day of accommodation if it is cancelled 5 days before the booking starts (they also claimed that they could not cancel the booking and I had to do it from my end, which I know is a lie because of my previous bookings where the host cancelled it for me when a lock-down was announced by the government). I found this quite harsh as it was illegal for my group and I to go to the booking because of the new lock-down announcements therefore it was not up to us to cancel but instead a government order to not go. Otway Retreats did not budge and then offered for me to change my dates as well as charge a $75 admin fee to change the date. I changed my date and then on top of the $75 admin fee, they tried to charge me more than double of what I had paid for my original booking due to it being during "peak booking times." I declined that offer because I was trying to avoid being charged extra when the entire situation was out of my control. They said they wouldn't charge more if I booked within the month however, this was a trip booked with 5 others and finding a date that worked for everyone was obviously difficult and those dates did not work for us. My group and I were really excited and looking forward
to the stay and honestly wanted to keep the booking if possible to move it to another date but because it was so difficult to organise with Otway Retreats it had the opposite affect and now we would not consider visiting Otway Retreats in the future. Overall, I found that Otway Retreats were trying to blame Airbnb and when I spoke to Airbnb they clearly stated this is between the host and the guest and as mentioned before I have experienced other hosts during lock-downs being announced and in comparison this was the most inconsiderate and money hungry approach.