Drop Anchor Waiheke Accommodation

We had a very poor experience here. It was booked via Waiheke Unlimited, and we have listed details of our bad experience on their page - repeated here below. Beware of dealing with this rental agency; we had a very unsatisfactory experience last summer - a brief summary of which follows. What was supposed to be a special holiday for two families over New Year ended up being way below expectation. We found the listing for "Drop Anchor" on Waiheke Unlimited - it had a great writeup, superb photos and in a great location. We were really looking forward to the holiday, and hosting our friends as well. We paid significant rental money in advance, and our expectations were high but not unreasonable (as it's a "retro kiwi bach" which has been "completely updated"). The reality was that the property was a complete let down, and nowhere near the standard as advertised, with numerous defects. Over the first few days, we discovered a long list of things which didn't work, were not up to scratch or were filthy. This included blood-stained duvets, broken mosquito screens, broken taps, threadbare curtains, an absolutely rank/filthy utensil pot and more. Much of this couldn't have been fixed easily during our stay or over New Year, but we let Waiheke Unlimited know that we were not happy. We met with the "Concierge" at the end of the stay and did a walk through, pointing out 26 items, and she was horrified, including with how filthy the house was (thick dust under the beds and in the bathroom), and she promised Waiheke Unlimited would get back to us within two days. They didn't. When we chased, we got a rude response from Ed Coutts, director, on the phone and a promise that we'd hear back next day. We didn't, so we chased again. Eventually we got a very defensive email addressing only some of our concerns, and pointing to the 92 year old owner who "does not worry" about some of the things we raised, plus some very patronising comments about Waiheke Unlimited's wealthy clientele enjoying the property much more than we had. Ed made an offer of just over one night's fee as compensation. Feeling fobbed off, we wrote a very detailed email outlining our concerns point by point (everything we'd been through with the Concierge, as Ed had ignored most of those points) and asking for significant money back. After two more email exchanges, which included criticism of our detailed email and communication style, Waiheke Unlimited made a "final" offer of a 25% refund, which we felt we had no option but to accept. A wholly unsatisfactory experience and even after significant effort, a refund which still leaves us feeling ripped off. We will be going elsewhere on our next visit, and have already found Stay Waiheke which has very good reviews, compared to Waiheke Unlimited's fairly bad reviews they seem to have attracted. Perhaps if they treated customers with respect and dealt with their concerns, they'd have a better reputation online.
Jul 30th, 2020

Apr 2nd, 2020

Jan 11th, 2019

Feb 2nd, 2018