Looking for where to stay in the Hunter Valley—NSW’s premier wine region—can be a bit of a slog. There are plenty of options here, but knowing which one is best suited to your stay is tricky. But this site has you covered.
Plus, read on for a special Weekenda booking discount for any accommodation in the Hunter!
Whenever we go to the Hunter Valley—or any wine region really—and start looking for accommodation, we’re always juggling the factors:
Is the place to stay well-located (viz. close to our favourite cellar doors)? Is there enough room? What are the facilities like? And of course, will it have a level of romance and comfort for our trip away?
In the Hunter Valley you’ll find all kinds of hotels, resorts, cottages and villas to stay in. And we’ve tried quite a few.
You can check out our reviews of hotels and resorts like the impressive Chateau Elan or smaller places like the beautiful Tower Lodge or Spicers Vineyards Estate check out our reviews of hotels and resorts.
With these places, you can book direct or through third party aggregator sites. The problem with this is you’re limited in your selection by the former and aren’t guaranteed good service or the best price by the latter.
And of course there’s AirBnB, but as this site has developed, we’re seeing much less competitive pricing, no service through the app and unexpectedly hefty cleaning fees.
Booking Hunter Valley Accommodation With Weekenda
Locally owned and run, Weekenda is a booking site with a portfolio of over 200 properties in the Hunter Region, which includes the Greater Hunter, Lake Macquarie and the Newcastle area—180 of these are specifically in the Hunter’s wine region.
They’ve got some amazing places to stay in the Hunter—from little one-bedroom cottages perfect for a romantic weekend to huge houses that will easily sleep a dozen friends and family.
We stayed in one of their Ironbark Hill Villas on the Peter Drayton Wines estate on Hermitage Road—the Rodeo Drive of the Hunter Valley Wine Country.
The villa was lovely, with so much space and excellent facilities. It’s one of several one- and two-bed villas as well as a five-bed homestead all bookable via Weekenda. And so we thought we’d talk a bit about this booking process and what you can expect from Weekenda.
From the start, communication is obviously high on Weekenda’s priorities.
The usual emailed booking confirmation is just the start of what will be at least six touch points where the site will contact you with important info—either by email or text—before and after your stay.
You check in, upload security info like your ID, which you also get a receipt for. In this email, Weekenda sends you useful tips about where you’re staying like how to get there, parking, how to use things like the coffee machine and air con right down to where the nearest ATM is.
There’s also a guide to local eateries, wineries, shopping, galleries and tours you can find near the property.
Just before you arrive, you receive a text with the combination code to unlock the box to get your keys to the house.
And just before you leave, you’ll get another message with some last-minute reminders on what you need to do—turn off lights and a/c, put rubbish in bins and things like that.
But it was during our stay that really impressed us.
At one point, we realised the wifi had stopped working (breathes into a paper bag!) so I sent a text to the number we were sent.
Within 10 minutes, I’d had a reply from a real person, who guided me through the process of resetting the modem and working out the problem. It turned out it was an issue way beyond anyone’s control (the main wifi antenna had been damaged), but Weekenda managed the problem.
Not many booking sites do that.
We were also given a late checkout and also a special code for discounts as a return customer.
Check Out Our Special Discount Code For Our Readers!
Speaking of which, you can also access a special discount with Weekenda with our unique booking code ‘romance’ for a 10% off your booking, plus a reduced deposit on booking!
