Fountaindale Grand Manor

Peaceful Retreat

Posted by Frank and Helen Ricapito at Tuesday 18 September 2007

My husband and I have just returned from two restful days at Ranelagh House.

Ranelagh House is the perfect place to escape the hectic pace of today's living. The house itself retains all the elegant splendor of the 1920's and is immaculately maintained. The meals are of the highest quality and beautifully presented on silver service.

We love gardens and those at Ranelagh are extensive with both formal gardens and rustic walks, complete with Peacocks on the lawn.

Highest marks to the Staff, friendly and efficient. Thank you for a most relaxing short break.

Lovely building, great hotel

Posted by Katherine Jackson at Monday 14 January 2008

I simply love this hotel. Fountaindale Grand Manor is a true Australian icon, beautiful gardens, fabulous rooms. I stay here frequently and am always impressed. I am returning this year again for a Murder Mystery weekend in May. I highly recommend.

This is a great hotel

Posted by Faith Fardell at Thursday 13 March 2008

I don't know what the previous person is talking about, this Hotel is fabulous. I was showing my daughter the hotel to pass on the tradition from mother to daughter as I was married here and I return each year, and to my suprise I came across this negative review.

This hotel has so much character, the bathrooms are superbly original and the staff and people of Robertson are the nicest I have come across in Australia. (Anywhere in Australia).

I think if you want a Mc Hotel, then you have no place experiencing this iconic hotel. If I sound a bit passionate, it is because whinges like you are who make owners modernise and ruin the charm and history that many of us love.

Go stay in Formula one if you want modern and leave the rest to us.

I AGREE - BE AWARE

Posted by cathy cheeseman at Tuesday 25 March 2008

I emailed you on Sunday with the above title. All of what I said remains, however it turns out we were given the wrong room. Don't know if was due to the fact that both girls on reception are "trainees", and they just got it wrong, or whether the place overbooked itself, and by checking in at 4pm, our room had already been given to someone else.

Either way, it's still not satisfactory. We missed out on a lovely weekend away due to someone's mistake at Fountaindale.

Nice Venue

Posted by Peter at Wednesday 02 April 2008

I am staying at the hotel on a conference right now (April 08), I am sitting in the formal lounge room on the free wireless broadband the hotel offers, in front of an open fire (yes it is cool up here), after a superb meal in the Grand Dining Room.

Beautiul historic hotel in suprisingly original condition. A rare treat.

The conference is being held in what looks like a Ball Room from a movie, with a huge Chandallier as the centre piece.

The rooms whilst quaint are comfortable, although the organiser is in a King Suite that is the biggest hotel room I have seen.

Overall nice staff, friendly management, good venue and Grand Building. I give them 4 stars.

What a Wonderful Weekend!!

Posted by Annie Ryan at Wednesday 28 May 2008

My husband and I were trying to find a venue for my up coming 40th birthday, when a close friend suggested Fountaindale Grand Manor. Thankfully we took their advise and made our way up the mountain. We had the pleasure of meeting Brett and Kylie the current owners, and found them incredibly accommodating.

I was really shocked when I read the Williams negative review, I actually felt moved to let the public know of our FANTASTIC experience at Fountaindale Grand Manor. We had so many lovely and positive comments after my recent 40th Birthday celebrations, I thought that the sentiment should be shared.

We had around eighty guests, the theme was Cowboys and Indians. The night started with pre-dinner drinks in the relaxed and beautifully furnished bar, large fires blazing in the fireplace. Then we had a wonderful Italian buffet in the elegant dining room, two beautiful fireplaces ablaze in there as well. Then we all proceeded to the bar and ballroom, to a great band, and fantastic service from very friendly and efficient bar staff. It was an absolutely wonderful night. I feel that it is such a unique venue, the fact that we could stay overnight and have such a leisurely and delicious breakfast the next morning, just added to the enjoyment of the whole weekend.

I would highly recommend Fountaindale Grand Manor as a wonderful and distinctive place that will hold very happy memories for us for years to come, and we can't thank Kylie and Brett enough.

Ripped Off

Posted by wenelle at Sunday 29 June 2008

The Fountaindale website claims that "the Manor has been lovingly maintained and retains its period charm, while at the same time providing you with the modern amenities you would expect from such a grand hotel". Well, I'm not sure about their definition of 'modern amenities', but it certainly differs from ours...

$155 / night to stay in an unheated (late June in Robertson is very chilly) room with no facilities (no toilet, shower, TV, etc.) was extremely disappointing for the romantic child-free getaway I'd planned for my husband and me. The romantic lingerie stayed packed in the bag because the room was so cold and it definitely wasn't suitable for the trek down the hallway to the badly lit (only one light out of three was working), also unheated bathroom.

Breakfast isn't served until 8:00am we were informed when we arrived at 7:55am at the Dining Room. We weren't advised of this detail when we checked in, which of course was our fault for "not having asked"?! Arriving just after 8:00am there were no staff to welcome the guests to the Dining Room for breakfast. The hot breakfast included watery eggs - which weren't ready until about 8:20 am anyway. And, of course the vending machine coffee was a real highlight of this 'romantic' weekend in a 'gracious old world manor'.

We have stayed in an enormous range of accommodation options, from inexpensive and fantastic to expensive and fantastic (try the Hyatt in Canberra for a truly delightful old world experience), but Fountaindale was definitely an expensive, misleadingly advertised, fiasco.

Lisa

Posted by Para Meadows School at Saturday 19 July 2008

On June 27th, our Faculty attended the Christmas in Winter dinner and overnight stay at Fountaindale Grand Manor.

We had a wonderful dinner, fantastic atmosphere and enjoyed all the little extra touches that you provided, from the bagpipes to Santa. The whole guest house was decorated beautifully in the Christmas theme. All staff were fantastic and we would like to give a special mention to the 2 young people who served us both dinner and breakfast, thay are a credit to themselves and your establishment.We were impressed with the high standard of cleanliness and comfort of the rooms and loved the interconnecting rooms we were given, a great choice when a lot of people want to stay together.

All in all a very memorable evening and one we plan repeat next year. Once again thankyou so much.

DogS**t Manor

Posted by Anonymous User at Wednesday 13 August 2008

Recently I stayed here and was appalled to see two dogs running through the building. Not only is this a breach of the health codes, it is down right disgusting. I also noticed there was dog faeces in varying parts of this "Manor" and happened to stand in some, which I was not happy about. I intend upon informing the health authorities of this blatent disrespect of the health code.

Well what a disappointment 30-8-8

Posted by Patrick & Debra at Saturday 30 August 2008

30-8-008

Well once you get over the grotty, archaic bathroom thing and decide it is just from the dark ages and maybe some day they will properly clean and paint and renovate anything !!! All right for Monks who have to be there, but not for a commercial hotel at $180 per night!!We had a ball !!! For two week days the staff were beyond helpful and so nice. Then we were told more are comming to stay!!!!!! We were never told it was A whole group of 70, whom were going to to do their loud groupy things all together, taking over all the main rooms in the place; whom had hired this whole place for a function and there was not enough room for both us & them, so we had to make ourselves scarce. No wonder everyone in the room looked at us strangely when we walked into the dining room or whatever room they were in! It made romance very difficult between their laughing screaming and running up and down the stairs. We were told how important the group was and it felt like we were not (we paid $580 for 4 nights bed and breakfast- isn't our money as good as theirs?). This morning, staff had to get people moved so we could find a seat in the overcrowded breakfast room. The place advertises (on a sign out the front, mind you) lunch and arvo tea but there had to be 15 of us (not two) before they would consider opening the restaurant. The group was told they had the place exclusive they were lied to! We and a few more couples are here. If they had told us there was to be a conference of 70 people on we would not have come, we were never given the option. (we were told that there would a lot of people here, that's all - not one group) If the 70 people were couples here and there and families all doing different things, they are easy to have fun with.

My husband and I are constantly on the road staying in accomodation of every sort we are no strangers to telling some one we have a problem and our complaint is usally so well looked after and the nice way the manager or staff handle the problem everthing is okay you really feel cared for and respected and you know that they never wanted you to have a problem. BUT NOT HERE! When I told the owner of my problems at breakfast time, he said "I need to get some baked beans", so my husband told him later and they they said they might do something; but a few hours later we were told that "no our complaint was not sufficent for them to do anything". Also half way through our stay they changed the breakfast room and they were astonished when we asked why we weren't told. The astounded, rude answer from both the manager, his partner, and other staff members was "well we always have breakfast in the dining room on the weekends"; but who told us that? There is not info in the rooms, you have to ask about were breakfast is on the first day or overhear like we did. The staff are lovely and over worked do far to many jobs they never seem to finish them. You should see out the back yuck were they have those big dogs that run through the place in the morning. The problem is that the higher ups like their position, take the money and look at numbers - I thought everyone is important but alas not at Ranelegh house. Wait a couple of years before you even THINK of coming to this place, the management have a lot to learn about the hospitality business, no complaints about the staff - they are lovely. The management has a lot of ground to cover if they want us to come back!