Name: Thomas's Catlins Lodge and Camp Ground
Address: 8 Clark Street, Owaka, Owaka, Owaka, Owaka, 9535, New Zealand
Rating: 8

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Heating

Garden

Outdoor furniture

General

Non-smoking rooms

Soundproof rooms

Family room

Hairdryer

Wardrobe/Closet

Rooms

Accessibility features

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Laundry

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Common kitchen

Kitchen

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

English

Languages Spoken

Free bicycle rental

Library

Bike rental

Barbecue grill(s)

Billiards

Hiking

Picnic area

Fishing

Sun Deck

Recreation

Parking

Parking nearby

Outdoor pool

Pool and beach

Darts

Cycling

Golf сourse (within 3 km)

Sports

First Aid Kit

Beauty and wellness

Playroom

Children's playground

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets allowed

Pets

Extra decontamination measures

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the hotel

Thomas's Catlins Lodge and Camp Ground

Owaka

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

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7-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

The premises are an old hospital. We stayed upstairs in The Matrons room complete with Balcony and TV room. Was a floor you would if necessary share with another couple. Had shared kitchenette and bathroom facilities but we had it to ourselves. Place is quite rundown but our room was neat and tidy. For $100 per night we felt we did ok. Downstairs was booked out with Freezing workers. Is more like a backpackers accommodation so felt we got what we paid for. Was more than adequate.

Unusual place

We stopped off here as a connection of our trip around the lower south. Planned on one night and extended to 2. The town of Te Anau is friendly and safe. The camp location is so very quiet and central to brilliant coffee shops and hands down the best burger place up the road!

The “facilities” would be described as quirky. Shower in either the morning or evening as the old coal boiler didn’t like heating during the day. We used a powered camper site and whilst the inside was warm it is an old hospital after all. The timber floors creak with character and charm but only when I don’t have to hear it during the night. 

The powered sites are spacious and well laid out. There are 15 chickens on site who wander around which is pretty cool and the owner Jan is lovely and very helpful. 

The only observation was the lady who cleaned the bathrooms chose to do so daily from 8am which was inconvenient for most people I met. Maybe either move that process to the middle of the day (when there is no hot water) or put up a sign to say they will be out of order during those hours. 

Unusual but certainly liveable

Spent a couple of nights here on a tent site.  Friendly staff, facilities clean and tidy - but don't expect 5 star, looks like TLC in progress.  Good location for northern end of the Catlins, plenty of parking.

tent site

I'm writing this review after nearly 14 years since staying here.  I can't remember the facilities too much but stayed two nights. First night we were the only guests in the place - i never believed in ghosts until this night. Literally heard walking all night up and down our corridor, banging in the room next door and just felt a presence..(You know that feeling of someone behind you. THAT) I also felt like a woman was whispering in my ear while I was tryng to sleep. We Had no idea about the history until the following day when my boyfriend at the time started talking to the owners. I was just telling my husband about this place so decided to look it up. I can't believe it's still a hostel now. Would love to come back. Creepy but awesome if you're into the paranormal. We stayed in a private room, shared bathroom.

Stayed here in 2007 - creepy and definitely haunted.

In short:  over-priced, rude and unhelpful staff, no staff on site, weird smells, other guests very noisy late at night, no hot water, disgusting toilets.

We booked this accommodation because it was dog-friendly.  The building is a former hospital so has character or "character" depending on your perspective.  Some contemporary decor has been added but the underlying building is mostly in the state it was in during it's use as a hospital decades ago.  This didn't bother me, but other members of our group found it a bit eerie and talked about how haunted the place must be.

We arrived to no staff around other than a groundskeeper/maintenance guy who gave off quite a creepy vibe.  There was a whiteboard in the entryway directing us to our rooms - fine, but no consideration of privacy as it had all visitors' full names on it.  Some of our group were in a room downstairs which looked fine but there was a very strange smell in the whole area - a strong and acrid smell like a chemical or cleaning product.

The rest of us stayed upstairs in the former Matron's accommodation.  It was comfortably fitted out with decent beds, good linen, tea and coffee in the kitchenette.  Hot water was non-existent and was barely above lukewarm.  Immediate surfaces were clean but windowsills, walls, ceilings etc are grubby, show mould and dead insects and clearly haven't been cleaned for weeks if not months.

After spending some time familiarising ourselves with our rooms we came to the conclusion that at $130 per night it was being overcharged.  We decided we would cut our three night stay short unless they would drop the price for us.  They did consider reducing the price for the third night only, so did show some willingness to negotiate but in the end we decided to reduce our stay to two nights.

The first night none of us upstairs in the Matron's rooms had much sleep.  Some of the downstairs guests were a group of young men in the area for work.  They talked loudly outside while smoking (with plenty of swearing and aggressively misogynistic comments) , and were downstairs in one of the common areas playing loud music, singing loudly, talking and yelling loudly until after midnight.  At around 10.30-11.00 pm it had been going on for a couple of hours and I was fed up and had a child that couldn't sleep.  I called the phone number to ask staff to intervene.

It turned out there was no staff on site and nobody available to help with anything.  The woman I talked to was snippy and went on and on to me that she couldn't do anything, "she was in Dunedin an hour and a half away, had been there every night for six weeks, had chores to do, what could she do about it?" etc.  I couldn't believe this kind of attitude with a paying guest.  She suggested I sort it out myself.  This was a group of tall, solid men who were drinking.  I, a woman on my own, wasn't going to go and confront them.  That is not safe or sensible.  It is unacceptable that they left the building completely unattended and didn't at least arrange for someone nearby to be on call if necessary.  I have no idea what their plan was if there had been an emergency.

The members of our group staying in the second upstairs room didn't hear the noisy guests as loudly as we did but in their room they had a roof tank or something that periodically drained large amounts of water in the night.  This woke even the heaviest sleepers in their family.  No matter what other guests are doing, people staying in this room would always have to deal with this noise.

The next morning one of the downstairs toilet cubicles was coated (toilet, floor, walls) in liquid fecal matter and remained that way for some time until staff turned up again.

Having had little sleep, experienced rude and helpful staff, I had had enough and our members of the group cut our stay short then and there and left that day.  Other members of the wider group stayed for an additional night and said it was quieter that night.

May or may not be related, but I had gastrointestinal symptoms for the next couple of days.

Unless the accommodation was substantially cheaper I couldn't recommend it to anyone.

Stay away

Stayed twice over two weekends. First room was en-suite. Room very small. No heating, only electric blankets. Was OK. Second room was double with shared bathroom. No heating at all. Very cold and not particularly clean. Hot water only on for certain hours. Kitchen could do with a complete clean and clean out of old and broken utensils. Wasn’t expecting the Hilton for the price but was also not expecting to be cold.

No heating

There are few backpacker options in Owaka and the Caitlins, so overall, this is a fine option for that reason. But I had a mixed experience in early fall.

Booked a four-bed dorm but turns out all dorms are full by long-term WHV guests, so I was put in a painfully small double room with a female roommate. The room was so small, our beds were less than one foot apart and with luggage, we were basically on top of one another. Not exactly the best situation with a stranger.

And the hostel wasn't even full, so I'm not sure why we had to be so crammed in when there were roomier double rooms available.

Hostel was cold too. We did get a heater for the room which helped, but hallways and common areas were cold after hours. And hallway lights were turned off around 8pm so one needs a flashlight to get around some wings. Cool cool.

Kitchen is big but outdated and very basic. No labels for food, someone went through my stuff twice.

Wifi is poor, it works a little in common areas, and they claim another network is available but I couldn't find it on either of my devices.

The chickens were super cute running around and there is good parking on-site. Plus, good local coffee shop nearby.

Staff was also an issue. They are usually running around the building and when I asked questions about the property, most said "I don't know" or "I haven't been here in X period of time so..." Not super helpful. 

Sadly this on top of the other issues made my stay not very enjoyable. The room was my biggest issue, they need to manage their inventory on booking sites more or not make reservations non-refundable.

If I had to stay again because I'm in the area, I would, but I wouldn't recommend this in fall. Perhaps summer is better.

Poor wifi, painfully small "dorm" room, dark and cold

Stayed here two nights.  The room was small but inexpensive, the bed was good, the bathrooms were close and clean.  The kitchen was very well stocked with appliances and cooking accessories.  The WiFi in the common areas was GREAT, and still just-ok way back in our room too.  They have a heap of Rhode Island Red Chickens as pets who come running up to you if they think you have any kind of treats to feed them - we shared quite a lot of our granola with them - they are pretty darn funny.  If you are looking for a low-cost but highly efficient place to stay in Owaka we can recommend this place.  Also, if you show up super late its A-OK and they even drop the price a few dollars for having missed part of your stay.  Great breakfast cafe down the street and a 4-Square market also a short walk away.

Great backpackers, Super friendly staff, Hysterical chickens!

We stayed here for five nights. Lovely and clean and tidy. The kitchen had everything you could possibly need. The bathrooms where very clean. There were DVD's for the grand kids and plenty of room for them to play with their Frisbee etc.
It was a good central location to travel to the caves, waterfalls etc
would highly recommend staying here

Thomas's Catlins Lodge and Camp Ground

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