I have stayed in the Riverside Cabins once before (2007), on my own. On that occasion I was in one of the cabins a fair way from the road, and my recollection is that the furniture and decor were modern and of a reasonable standard. The Riverside Cabins are in a nice location right up the golf course end of the village, and right next to the Thredbo River which is lovely.
My partner and I have just returned from 3 nights in one of these cabins, and despite getting supposedly a cheap deal, I still think the accommodation was overpriced. Thredbo was practically dead, even though the ski season doesn't officially end until this weekend. From the closed curtains and lack of cars everywhere, it was clear that occupancy was at perhaps 10-20%. Half the shops were closed. You'd think therefore that accommodation would be priced accordingly.
We ended up paying $576 for 3 nights in the very smallest cabin, and the one closest to the road. OK, the road wasn't busy, but we were right next-door to the Knickerbocker restaurant and any time we went out onto our balcony we were assaulted by the cigarette smoke of the restaurant employees. In an alpine village that was practically empty, you'd have thought we could have been given a nice quiet cabin.
The decor in this cabin was pretty inexpensive and tired - I'm fairly certain we got the worst cabin of the lot. There was a cheap cane shelving unit with matching tiny coffee table, combined with a dining table and chairs in a faux 'distressed' paint / shabby chic style. The small couch was fairly new-looking and reasonably comfortable. The TV was a large flat-screen, which was fine, but despite the information folder stating that guests had access to about 15 or 20 Austar channels, in fact only about 6 or 7 of them worked (most of them sport channels). OK, you don't go to Thredbo to watch TV, but when you've been out skiing or walking most of the day, you want to relax with some TV during the evening - particularly when there's nothing else happening in a dead village. Austar is provided because the reception for digital and analogue channels is very poor. I can't tell you how frustrating it was having to skip through about 40 channels that had a message saying we didn't have access to them.
The kitchen is fairly well kitted out - lots of utensils, pots and pans etc, plus a microwave, oven/cooktop, small fridge and dishwasher. No complaints there.
The timber venetian blinds in the living area clearly had not been cleaned for a very long time - they were covered in dust.
The lighting was really inadequate - in the living room there was only one dim wall light (shaded) and another shaded light hooked (strangely) above the sliding door to the balcony - and the globe didn't work. No light above the dining table. No lamps. Nothing adequate for reading.
The worst aspect however was the bedroom. No problem with the steep loft ladder up into the loft bedroom - as I said, I've stayed in these cabins before. However the bed was two singles joined to create a king bed. This required occupants to clamber up the bed to get into it because there was no room on either side of the bed. It also meant no bedside tables, and no bedside lamps! The sole light was a shaded wall lamp right up the other end of the room, which could only be turned off from that location - meaning to get into bed we had to clamber up the bed in the dark. Forget bedtime reading, obviously! We also wondered how they cleaned under the bed but weren't game to look... the bottom sheet wasn't even tucked in - it just hung loose over the bed, presumably because the cleaners can't get down the side to tuck it in.
I know Thredbo's pricey and I expect to pay top dollar during peak ski season. But in a nearly empty village I don't expect to be slugged almost $200 a night for poor standard fittings and facilities (and be told this is a bargain!). I won't be staying at Riverside Cabins again, nor would I recommend them to others - unless you were getting a killer deal and knew to expect some compromise in comfort.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC