On a Monday night we sent a booking enquiry by mail. We called the next morning to confirm our intended stay. The host didn´t have the books at that moment, but sent us a confirmation shortly after that the room is available in that period of time we wanted to stay there. We confirmed by mail that we take the offered room. A few hours later we got a notice saying: "Unfortunately someone else has booked the room in the meantime."
We asked how this is possible as we rightfully made a reservation for this room. But instead of solving the problem, we just got the answer, that somebody was "faster".
In fact they just cancelled our reservation because they double booked.
Really bad and unfriendly!
No points at all for beeing that unorganized and careless towards customers.

We were planning a few days around Golden Bay and hadn't booked a hotel in advance. Two hotels that we had brochures for, were fully booked. We were told about San Souci, so we went there with very low expectations. Imagine our surprise when we drove into this beautiful little oasis of tranquility. It was created by a Swiss couple as a place for travellers to come together and mingle. There are a number of rooms, two per adobe building, in our unit. There is a large kitchen, dining area and sitting room, with a large fireplace. The building are set around a central grassy area, complete with hammocks. The ablutions block has 3 shower stalls, a bath tub, a central wash basin area (complete with tropical flowers) and 3 composting toilets. Brilliant idea to have all of the plumbing in one area, rather than en-suites for every room. The toilets are fantastic - nothing like a Port-a-Potty that you would get on a trail. No smell, no offence! The dining room offers breakfast and a set dinner menu that must be ordered by 4pm. The Inn is located just 3 mins from the beach, but on a side road and is noticeable from the street. It has a huge vegetable garden and a field in the back with patios for each room on that side. The people were delightful and friendly and we loved it so much we stayed an extra day. The rooms are large and comfortable and very quiet. If you plan to visit the north shore of New Zealand's South Island, you owe it to yourself to stay at San Souci.

Sans Souci is a peaceful simple well-run little world of its own. I loved it! Even in winter it was warm (love those fires and the adobe walls retain the heat). There were tamarillos and figs in the garden, a clean fresh shared bathroom with composting toilets (not a big deal at all - and no smell), unobtrusive but very friendly owners and staff..... and Pohara, the little village Sans Souci is in, is gorgeous - NZ of my childhood with unlocked doors, ready beach access and friendly people.

This small inn must be in demand during high season, as it is very well located. The inn is small and there is a restaurant on-site, which is supposed to be excellent.

Our booking experience was unpleasant. The reception do not answer the phone regularly, and there is no contact e-mail address. As a result, our booking was done by leaving each other phone messages. When the Inn host left a message that we need to provide credit card number, we called back as soon as we could (the next day), but were told that we were not quick enough to respond, and our room has been sold to other people. There was no more rooms available for our travel dates. The host then suggested that we could have another (more expensive) room on different days. We wanted to stay at Sans Sousi, so we agreed, re-arranged our itinarary, and provided credit card details. The host, however, failed to mention that on these new days (except for the first night) their restaurant will be closed. We only found that out later, when we tried to book dinners. This was a great disappointment, because our main accomodation requirement was to have a restaurant on-site. Once you submit your cerdit card details, there is no no-fee cancellation, so we were stuck. At no point the hosts expressed any concern or offered any apology.

Apart from the unpleasant booking experience, the place is nice. It is well-located, close to the beach and has off-street parking. Our room (the family room) was the usual motel size, the furniture was fairly basic - beds, two chairs, some tables, and a coat hunger. Our room was quite shady, but we were there in the autumn, and in the middle of summer the shade may be a good thing. There was a kettle and tea/cofee supplies in the room.

The bathroom facilities are shared, but are pleasant to visit. The composting toilets are nice, they were clean and no smell at all. The showers were clean, easy to adjust for height, with excellent water pressure, and hot water plentiful. The bathroom was heated, so coming out of the shower was not a cold experience.

The kitchen is available for guests to use, you get a shelf in the fridge and can cook your own meals. The kitchen is well supplied with various tools, cooking pots, knives, etc., although some may be in shorter supply than others - for example, only two flat frying pans. There is no microwave oven.

The Inn was very quiet, although we were there out of season, when the whole area is quiet. The rooms are quite expensive for this type of accomodation, so this Inn is probably not suited for young student travellers. The shared bathroom/shower facilities are fine. I don't rate the Inn as very good/excellent because the booking experience was unpleasant and disappointing.