The Swagmans Rest

We stayed in Swagman’s Rest 'The Barn' about fifteen minutes drive from Jindabyne, after booking it on the Internet. This was a most regrettable choice of accommodation we have ever made. Lots of what they claim to offer is not true. Nothing about this place is good, except the nice slate floor, which would be horrible and cold in winter.
We were looking forward to our stay here. When booking we were told most people thought it looked even better on arrival. We did not. It looked like the worst mixture of old rubbish in what I can only assume is meant to be an attempt at ‘rustic’. There is a big difference between rustic and rubbish. In this price bracket you cannot expect ‘No Expense Spared’; you should not be greeted with ‘Everything Cheap’.
The website says there is an oven. There is not. The website says ‘Fully equipped kitchen’; there is a mixture of the cheapest, crappiest equipment I have ever seen in a rental property. The website says there is an outdoor spa. This turns out to be on the owner’s veranda. There is an unrepaired window pane. It was taped up with gaffer tape.
This place is out of town. We had told the owners what time we would arrive and were only a few minutes past our estimate. We drove up to the place on a long and very rough drive only to find it locked and no one is sight. No answer on the phone. We walked up to the owner’s house and were told to wait while the owner put the dogs away. One was old so this would take a while. Standing around in the sun, being second in importance to the dogs, made us feel very unwelcome. When we were finally let in I realised that the place did not live up to its Internet appearance. It is all open-plan with a tiny kitchenette and a bathroom leading directly off the main room. There is a note in the bathroom that ‘Bathroom supplies are complimentary for the fist night only’. So toilet paper and soap must be too expensive to supply for each night. I have never seen this kind of cheapness except in backpacker accommodation.
We were there in summer so it was warm during the day. Many widows are fixed pane and do not open. Without enough screened windows and no screen doors, the first evening the place filled with blowflies. We could not sleep that night due to the constant buzzing. The fly spray supplied said fast knockdown. The blowies must be tough in Jindy; even direct spraying did not quiet them until around twenty minutes later. Must be the cheapest fly spray they could get.
Inside 'The Barn' there are insects and bugs everywhere, blowflies, cockroaches, ants in the kitchen and lots of millipedes in the bathroom
There is also an open mezzanine level with beds. The squeaky bathroom door is directly below the double bed so even a sound sleeper is woken every time someone visits the loo. Most of the light switches are on strings that are too short for kids to reach. The cord must be too expensive to make these long enough. The bathroom switch cord hangs just long enough for our ten tear old, but the actual switch is right above the upstairs bed, so if the squeaky door does not wake you the light switch will.
The high windows, near the sleeping mezzanine, have no blinds at all. The lightening flashed all night and woke us up several times. Maybe it is too expensive to put up these blinds.
Cooking was no fun. The barbeque was old and rickety, with no hood. The kitchen had ancient pots and pans. The utensils were sad and cheap. There was not even a pair of normal tongs. These are cheap to buy, so this was surprising. The crockery and cutlery is cheap and mismatched. You would not buy it, even in Vinnie’s. The teapot is the ugliest thing I have ever seen and the lid is broken and chipped. They could have found a much nicer teapot in any charity shop.
I feel very sorry for anyone who stays here, particularly in winter. It is miles from the slopes and there is no drying area. Jindabyne itself has many way better accommodation options. (Date of experience: Dec, 2011 )