As we were heading to Hobart in one of the absolute peak weeks of the year, we had a terrible time finding accommodation for 2 couples. After what felt like 100s of e-mails and calls, we finally found space at Barton Cottage. Given that the rooms we booked were seemingly the last available in Tasmania, we did not have particularly high hopes (our concerns deepened as the result of one negative Trip Advisor review). Alas, we were pleasantly surprised.

We found the owner managers both friendly and accommodating (they got us into our rooms immediately on our early morning arrival). The rooms (we were two couples, so we took two rooms) were comfortable and roomy. The Victorian decor may not be to everyone's taste, but there weren't TOO many doilies. Our room even had a pleasant little sitting area.

The best part about Barton Cottage was its ideal location in Battery Point - a most pleasant walk down to Salamanca Place and the Harbour through the historic part of town. We loved it.

The breakfast served was delicious and there were no shortage of options. Servings were, on the whole, generous. Our only complaint was that there was not enough room for all the guests to eat at once with the result that we were unable to get on with our day as planned. I guess we should have got up earlier!

On the whole, we thought that Barton Cottage was good value for the money. We would stay there again.

We spent a week in Tasmania in February 2004. Our holiday was based around walking the Cradle Mountain Overland Track and we booked into Barton Cottage for two nights at the end of the week, looking forward to exploring Hobart from there and relaxing in it's "luxurious" accommodation.

Things started to go wrong when we called 'Dale' (the owner) a few days before we were due to arrive to see if we could move our booking forward a day. We were told that, to do this we would be charged for the earlier day that we hoped to stay but would not be refunded for the last day that we had originally booked.

This unfriendly attitude seemed unreasonable since moving our booking forward by a day would presumably also have benefitted Dale by us freeing up a room on a more popular Saturday night and instead taking one on the the less popular Thursday. We were then told that Barton Cottage's cancellation policy was clear in their confirmation letter ... unfortunately we never received this.

When we arrived on the cottage (sticking to our original dates) we were disappointed by the gloominess of the rooms in contrast to the pictures on the official website, which appear bright. This combined with the antique decor and elderly age of the other guests made Barton cottage a depressing place to stay.

We had a cooked breakfast on the first morning of our stay, which was average, and organised to take-away a packed breakfast on the second day. This was small and plain but by that stage we were just glad to leave.

Our final dealing with the cottage came when, on returning home, we realised that we had left a washbag there. Our requests to have this returned were never answered.

We thoroughly enjoyed visiting Tasmania, in particular our stay at The Edge of the Bay Lodge on the Freycinet Peninsula. We also thought Hobart was a lovely town however we would urge people to stay somewhere other than Barton Cottage so that their trip is not spoilt in the same way that ours was.