Smokebush Cottage with WIFI Reviews

The owner messaged me before our stay asking for my email so I could pay via paypal. I told him we had already paid for the room on hotels.com, but he said that was incorrect. I finally convinced him that I had paid the nightly fee, just not the cleaning or linen fees. At this point I was concerned it was a scam so I checked with hotels.com and they confirmed that it was in fact legitimate. However, they encourage guests not to pay outside of their website until check-in, so I waited until we were at the house to pay the remaining fee. Even though my confirmation said they had free email, this was false and the only access to email was by paying the hotel next door. That connection was so slow that paypal could not successfully complete my payment so I wasn't able to pay until after going somewhere else with stronger wifi. All in all this made for a stressful check-in and stay and I was frustrated that they lied about wifi and then told me to pay for wifi which barely functioned. Otherwise, the house is clean, spacious, and well stocked with kitchen supplies and a few books and games. It does have a sort of old and musty smell to it. We paid $17 for towels which were scratchy and uncomfortable. It was a convenient location to hike the Tongariro Crossing.

Lovely little overnight stay for us - not far from river and lake and bus pick ups.