Woodroyd Estate is a unique property that was ideal for our family get-together. The description on AirBnB is very accurate, with the photos accurately representing the character of the property. We needed a six-bedroom house, and while this is actually a four-bedroom house with two separate (attached) bedrooms, it was fine for our adult children (this would not be suitable for younger children). The special features of the house are too numerous to mention here, but to summarize we were very satisfied with the house, and thought the considerable cost (circa $1000 per night) was reasonable for what we were getting.
Good points:
1. The messaging communications with the listed host (Huong) were excellent, as were a few phone conversations that I had with her partner (Hieu). Hieu was also very helpful and friendly when he dropped off a kettle to replace the faulty one at the property.
2. The property would be excellent for a large gathering, and the house itself is actually reasonably safe for very young children (e.g. the grand staircase has safe balustrades and thick, soft carpet).
3. The location is wonderful, being isolated from Hutt Valley and yet only 10-15 minutes from all the conveniences you could need.
Neutral points:
1. The driveway leading to the house is very pretty and gives a great feeling of isolation. However, for about 500 metres it is impossible for vehicles to pass each other, so it is imperative that you obey the traffic lights at the top and bottom.
2. The beds and the supplied linen, bedding and towels were good, but if you typically use two pillows in bed you will find that the number and type of pillows supplied are inadequate (most beds only had one very thin pillow per person).
Bad points:
1. We only received the check-in instructions on the day before we were arriving, which is not usual for AirBnB properties. They were not sent to us before I actually rang Hieu to ask about them, and he told me that this was due to some people in the past arriving before they were supposed to. That is fair enough, but the host should advise guests about this. I had messaged Huong on multiple occasions asking about when we would receive the instructions, and did not receive a reply, which had made me rather concerned about the integrity of our booking.
2. As mentioned on some other guest reviews, the house has some problems with mustiness. The upper two floors are fine, but the bar area on the bottom floor is very dark and has a certain smell about it. The main problem is the two separate bedrooms that are accessed from the courtyard: these smell very musty and I personally would not want to sleep in them for that reason.
3. It was not clear which bins at the roadside we should use for our rubbish and recycling. Only one of the numbers on each of the three bins corresponded to the numbers of the three houses on the estate, and there were no bins for no. 345. Moreover, the check-in instructions mentioned that could use the recycling centre such up the road; however, when we went there there was a sign that the facility had closed 6 months previously, and so I was perplexed about why the check-in instructions still included this information. We ended up taking most of our rubbish and recyling to the council dump in Silverstream, which is only about 10 minutes from the gate and costs $25.
4. There were explicit instructions in the check-in information about keeping noise to an acceptable level and being responsible for any penalties imposed by the council noise control services, including due to there being a “noise-sensitive” neighbour below the lawn area. This was very encouraging for us since one of the main reasons that we had chosen Woodroyd Estate over other options in the Wellington region is that we wanted a peaceful location. However, on the evening that we arrived there was a lot of shouting and loud music from one of the two rental properties on the estate. Moreover, I saw a few people on the main lawn the following morning. When I mentioned this to Hieu the next day, he reassured me that this should not occur and that he would contact them about it. As it happened, the tenants were away for the rest of our stay so the problem did not recur for us.
5. On one occasion we encountered two people when we walked up to the picnic bench that is immediately above the house’s BBQ area. When I asked them where they were from they said that we “just going for a bush walk” and immediately turned around and went away. However, it was very unnerving to encounter strangers so close to the house, and also meant that we were very hesitant about going on any of the bush walks that form part of the property.