The Convent Hunter Valley Hotel

We had a fantastic stay in the huge garden suite.. Beautiful self contained suite at the back of the hotel.. Love the gorgeous gardens, water fountain and heritage hotel.. Hotel does need some rejuvenation and we found our bed not to be so comfortable for us.. Amazing reception staff.. We didn’t have breakfast here so cannot comment but limited choices on what I read on their website.. I would like more choice or a breakfast buffet is always wonderful..

We stayed in the Convent for our 30th Wedding Anniversary Sam on the reception desk doubles as the waiter for breakfast. Vicki gave us glasses of champagne to celebrate by the fire. My great grandfather designed The Convent when it was owned by the Brigidine Nuns in Coonamble. The hotel has recently been purchased by Spicers Guesthouse and there are plans to upgrade the dated bathrooms and carry out long over due maintenance on the building.

The grounds of the convent are beautiful and the drive up the entrance really is amazing. The rooms are rustic and beautiful, however they are in need of a touch up to restore some of the original charm. Paint is peeling off, cracked tiles, etc. Also our bed was really uncomfortable as there was a hard bit in the middle (I assume where the two king single beds met). But apart from this we loved the convent. It’s just not quite there, but it definitely has the potential. Also, the coffee machine wasn’t working when we were there which put a bit of a dampener on the breaky as it was quite a long wait. But we understand these things happen.

The Convent is located in a great spot, very central. It’s a lovely old building, comfy beds. The bathroom had a very high bath, would be hard for some people to climb into it to use the shower. The restaurant was closed as we were there Monday night, in fact a lot of places closed Mondays.

Lovely hotel with tastefully decorated room, bathroom let it down being old and a tall bath difficult to climb in and out of for a shower. We stayed on a Monday and Tuesday night as it was my husbands birthday, unfortunately the restaurant (circa 1876) at the end of the drive was closed Mondays but we enjoyed dining there on the Tuesday night. Breakfast was served outside (under cover) it was rather too large for me but excellent. There are lovely balconies (shared by a few rooms) which are a nice place to sit and read. There is a small outdoor pool and tennis court.

When looking at the accommodation choices online, we couldn’t decide between Spicer’s Vineyard Estate and The Convent. In the end we decided to book one night in each to experience both properties and their respective restaurants. If you too are trying to decide between the two, then don’t hesitate and pick up the phone to Spicer’s, as it wins hands down. The positives for The Convent are stunning grounds and a beautiful old building, both of which are highly photogenic. Walking into the building made me feel like I was entering an old Agatha Christie movie. As impressive as the aesthetics were, it was clear that both hotel and restaurant staff were not very well trained. Check-in at the hotel involves walking into an empty reception with nobody on reception desk. There is a helpful sign telling you to call a number but that isn’t the sort of welcome I would expect for the price I paid. every time I went to reception, I had the same experience. The same staffing issues could be seen in the restaurant. Online Circa looks to be the best restaurant in the Hunter Valley and I can only assume something drastic changed since all the awards picked up in 2019. The food was nothing special and the service poor. We asked for advice on the wines, and it was clear our waiter had no knowledge of the wine list. We asked for recommendation on the menu and the best we got was “ladies usually order the scallops”. We were seated by the kitchen, so I had the pleasure of watching dirty glasses and bottles being stacked up on the bar, with nobody willing to clean down throughout our meal. I ordered a bottle of wine and poured most of the bottle myself and finally had to watch one of the staff constantly coming out of the kitchen chewing a mouth full of food. My final issue with The Convent in their internet. Broadband has been around a while now and its fast and cheap to access on most places, just not at The Convent. The free internet provided is slow and limited to 5GB as they want to charge guests $15 a day for accessing normal broadband speeds. Now these are first world problems I agree and if it was just one or two incidents it wouldn’t matter. But so many little things gave us a lasting impression of The Convent as having poor service and an untrained team. While not as aesthetically pleasing as The Convent, Spicer’s is still a beautiful property and having an open fireplace in your room is never a bad thing. The style is more modern, with the room being large and comfortable. The check-in and check-out were both friendly and efficient, with nice touches like giving guests free flower seeds to plant at home. The real difference is Botanica, which is a beautiful intermate restaurant. We had a warm welcome from the team and our waitress was amazing. She was only 19 years old but was engaging and had a great knowledge of the wine list and the food on the menu. The wine she recommended was perfect, the dishes she recommended were amazing. Between the res

The high tea was atrocious and a total rip off $60 per person - you get premade basic sandwiches and store bought cakes and sweets from coles. Absolutely ruin our occassion and get away. Tried to give constructive feedback to the waitress.. wouldnt hear of it and didnt want to listen All i can say is - no wonder we were the only customers there on a sunday lunchtime Very disapponted and never felt so ripped off

We stayed for 1 night at this hotel. The room number is 808. We paid $749 just for the room. One of the highest rate for the whole region. It's a premier room with a balcony. When I checked in, I was told this is the best room in the hotel. The view of the hotel grounds is as described. But that's where the good things end. Its been marketed as a luxury hotel. For people looking for luxury, Forget it! I don't know where to start. The sofa is so old and dirty looking, we never sat on it. There is no proper shower. You have to stand inside a tiny bath tab for shower. We never used it. Toilet bowl doesn't stop flashing unless you keep trying to stopping it. There is no working phone. Closet is the smallest of any hotel room we been to. Carpet is old and tired. A lot of bad chips on the furniture. Etc. Etc. And if that's all, I probably wouldn't write this review. The worst is there are 3 big windows. But only 2 of windows has curtains. At night people can look in and there are some bright spot lights shining from ground inside the room. The lights were only off at 5am. By 6am,the sun starts to shining in. This is so unforgivable, because they knew it. When I complained in the morning, the receptionist wasn't surprised. She just said sorry. Its like sleeping with the lights on all the time. They can at least put a blind or use some paper to cover it. The only thing good is receptionist is nice. That's why the 1 star rating. Otherwise will be zero for not having privacy and sleep.

Took my husband here for his 50th - sneaky night away with no kids. Lovely room, soft bed, friendly staff, great breakfast. We had a corner premier room - beautiful view across the front of the estate.