Derwent Bridge Chalets & Studios

Louise who said she was the owner was awful to deal with on the phone, calling me at dinner to check dates and complaining that I didn't immediately take the call from an unknown number. I clarified the date with her thanking her for her time, and was shocked the next day that she cancelled the whole booking and upped the prices to book. Have never received such terrible service.

What can I say. I have never met a manager that was so rude or un comprising. Check in was 3 pm and she rudely told our group not to come back until 3 pm. Whilst waiting outside after driving 4 hours she did not care. After working in public service for 42 years I have never met a woman who had a hatred towards other humans with no justification. How the hell she could work in the hospitality industry is beyond me. Our group of 7 people aged 58 to 79 were declined accommodation after securing the booking 4 months prior. As one of our group had walked to the rear of her property whilst having a smoke she took a dislike to our group and refused our check in even though she took our large deposit. We were then required to drive to Queenstown with no guarantee of finding accommodation. Her buildings looked untidy and need immediate attention to get them to an acceptable level. She is an evil individual that has no compassion to ensure a customer has a positive experience. I can’t believe people like this are in this industry. I have never taken the time to submit a negative review however on this occasion there was no choice. Do not provide her with your credit details she is likely to take the deposit and refuse your booking as she has a monopoly on accommodation in the area.

We had some trouble finding our studio when we arrived. (No one was at the office which wasnt communicated. We found an envelope at the front door of the office with our name and instructions. ) When I called for help, the lady I spoke to was very rude and spoke to me in a raised, sarcastic tone, which made me feel quite uncomfortable. It felt like a big effort for her just to explain the directions. If the instructions had simply mentioned that the studio was directly behind the "Narcissus" studio and down the pathway, it would have saved a lot of confusion. Instead, she responded with “Are you joking? Read the instructions, ” which was unnecessary and unhelpful. The pathway was mentioned in the directions but from the carpark you could not see behind the first studio. I thought I would be encroaching on the first huts backyard or something, never having been here before. I didn't want to go poking around.
That said, the hut itself was very clean and well equipped with everything we needed. The décor is a bit dated, but the facilities were good and we couldn’t fault the accommodation itself. Handy to the Lake St Clair (2 — 3 mins drive away) and Hungry Wombat cafe is right next door. Unfortunately, the customer service and phone manner of the woman in charge were very disappointing and really let the experience down.
We did however have a wonderful walk around the lake on various trails and had a great pub meal just 500 mtrs or so down the road @Derwent Bridge Hotel.

This review pertains only to the service level as we didn't get to stay in our booked accommodation. My partner and I booked a room to break up the drive from Hobart to Strahan. I had paid a 50% deposit by credit card and on arrival, we were required to complete, on a loose piece of paper, all of the personal details we'd already provided, including my full credit card details. Having suffered credit card fraud previously, I'm sensitive to the treatment of my confidential information. I completed the name, address and contact information only. I offered to pay the balance of the room charge plus $100 security, but this was refused. I offered to pay $100 cash as security, but this too was refused. The woman at Reception (Louise? ) had become quite terse during this conversation and when it became apparent that we weren't finding a way forward, I said that we seem to have a problem. She said "No, you have the problem because you won't have any accommodation tonight". She may as well have just told me to "F… off". Instead of trying to find a solution or be even slightly accommodating, she just offered a refund of the deposit, which I took, and we left. I have never experienced such a hostile reception from anyone in business, let alone the hospitality business. I was able to arrange accommodation in Strahan, and so we just carried on driving to Strahan. We enjoyed many wonderful experiences during our time in Tasmania. This was the most memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.

I stay here whenever I go trout fishing, and am so impressed each time with how well equipped and furnished it is. On my most recent stay in early December 2025, Louise went over and above! I had a puncture on a remote unsealed road, and after getting back to the main road I had to leave the car and thumb a lift back to Derwent Bridge. I was really shaken by it all and Louise was cool and collected & advised me what to do & checked in various times — eventually a tow truck took me & my vehicle back to Launceston Airport where I received a replacement vehicle — at 11 pm! Louise, thank you so much! I don't know what I would have done without your calm, practical, help (including lending me your phone as Optus was down & I had no means of connection / communication).

Positive firstly was the cabin was clean and whilst not cheap served its purpose and the heater was on which was considerate.
I arrived at 2.40 and was very curtly told no checking in until 3. Raining and bitterly cold, ok I’ll wait. 99% of places have been 2pm.
Come check in couldn’t believe how rude (guessing is owner as you’d never employ someone who treated your customers so bad). Paper work snatched from my hand. It shook me up somewhat and I wished I could just leave, paid in full by this. Never will I return.

We've stayed previously at these accommodation and I can sympathise with some of the reviewers comments regarding the female owner. I can perhaps describe her as direct and probably a no-nonsense type person and understandable having to handle the sometimes very rude and disrespectful customers. She's very direct in what she wants and doesn't want but she's thoughtful — she said the heaters were already on in our cabin and on this very cold December afternoon, and this was most welcomed.
We have always found her accommodation clean and comfortable. We stayed in Byron on this occasion. The cabin was very clean, modern, fantastically well equipped with quality crockery and cutlery. Its a shame on this occasion we were not staying more than the one night. Lovely hand towel even in the kitchenette. Warm doonas on the comfortable bed. Big plus was the stainless steel kettle as I hate having to boil my water in a plastic kettle.
Its not cheap but basic on the outside but fantastic on the inside.

I’d read a few poor reviews of the Derwent Bridge Chalets & Accommodation, and they turned out to be totally unfounded. We stayed in a Narcissus Studio and it was very comfortable. I didn’t expect the room to have a microwave and toaster (they weren’t specified) so we were able to make breakfast. Great location for Lake St Clair.
Only downside — there was no Wi-Fi. But 4G signal was fine.

We found the place very comfortable for a stopover on our way between Hobart and Strahan.
Derwent Bridge is small with only a few places to stay and this seemed to us to be the best option, as it was a nice midpoint between other accommodation that seemed to be either cheap & nasty or obscenely expensive.

A great place to stay. The room was really comfortable. The fire was roaring before we got there making the place nice and warm. I would stay there again.

Beautiful clean rooms, heater on so room nice and toasty warm on arrival. Host was pleasant and very friendly and welcoming. Highly recommended.

We arrived at 530, so not early or late. The owner made us feel like we were a terrible inconvenience for interrupting feeding her 17 yr old dog.
We stayed in the Rufus chalet. There was one small panel heater in the bedroom and a wood fire in the lounge room. It took us quite a while to get it going, we live on a farm with wood heater so we are experienced. There is no other heating, we put a Log on before bed but by 1am the fire was out, unsuitable wood and not split small enough. It was minus 4 when we got up at 7am so If it wasn’t for the electric blankets we would have frozen.
If you don’t mind a complete lack of customer service & unsuitable heating the cabin was clean and fully stocked — just don’t eat the breakfast cereal otherwise you’ll pay a hefty penalty. Do yourself a favour and stay an extra night somewhere else.

Looks are deceiving! Looks dated on the outside, but warm, cosy and modern on the inside. All cooking facilities available. Hot showers. Heater was left on for our arrival. Very quiet. Close to St Clair lake, and "The Wall" (a must visit). Small servo next door which serves meals. Very good.

Have read the reviews but I'm still giving 5. This may just be the cleanest, best, cosiest self-contained accommodation we have stayed in during our 5 week visit to Tasmania s. BUT you do need to bring all your groceries with you.

The chalet was nice and location was great. The reason of one star review was for the extra $50 charge on my card. I was surprised with the charge and queried it by email. I received an invoice saying $50 was for extra bed. We are a group of 2 Adults and 1 young Child. I had paid extra for the child. There were 2 bedrooms. 1 Bedroom is queen bed and another one 3 single beds. We used 1 queen bed in bedroom 1 and 2 single beds in bedroom 2 as the adults do not share the queen bed. It looks like the accomodation were forcing the 2 adults or the adult and child to share the queen bed, which was a weird rule.
I read the reviews here (should have read before we booked), apparently there were many patrons who had the similar charges.
We had a wonderful stay but the wonderful memory was ruined by the extra charge. It was only for a little charge which I feel pitty about it…

A lovely little place, quant and quiet. Check in was easy and the cabins were close by. There is not much privacy as the cabins are so close to each other, buts again guests keep to themselves. The cabins are clean and tidy and have everything you would need. Please note there are breakfast cereals in the cabins but they are NOT free you have to order and pay extra.

I organised 17 bushwalkers in 7 chalets and Studios for mostly 3 night stays and couple of 2 nights Stays at Louise’s Chalets. The outside appearance is a bit tired looking, the inside of the buildings are homely and well equipped, with very comfortable beds.
Louise was true to form on check in for most of the guests she was Mrs. Hyde sour, miserable, disorganised, yelling at one friend for not parking her car correctly. A couple of older friends tried to check in earlier but were very rudely told no check in’s until 3 pm.
This is stated on the website but as all the bookings were made directly with Louise this was not known.
When the guests were checking into the building I was staying in they were told that were not using wood at the moment. She was very miserable towards them.
Fortunately no one encountered Louise for the whole stay except she became Mrs Jekyll and brought matches to our Chalet so we could like the wood heater as the temperature was plummet ing to 3 degrees over night.
The theme is a lot of reviews on here are the same, Derwent Bridge / Lake St Clair is a wonderful area to explore and fantastic bushwalks but unfortunately as the Hotel up the road no longer offers accommodation Louise has a monopoly.
Hopefully future travellers with encounter Louise as Mrs Jekyll and not Mrs Hyde.
BE Warned.