Ethics

Dorset House staff and management believe in maintaining a high level of ethics. We are committed to making your stay at Dorset House as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. We also expect our quests to maintain a mature attitude and respect other guests, staff and house facilities.

Terms of Stay

• Check out is any time before 10am. Occupation of your room after this time may incur a charge given it delays cleaning and the availability of the room for subsequent guests. If checking out before 8am, please leave your keys in the letterbox at reception.


• Check in is after 3pm, cleaning is performed between 10am and 3pm.


• The minimum guest age is 18 or 10 if supervised by parent or guardian. You can check out the reasons why we limit the age of children staying at Dorset House in our frequently asked questions here.


• It is standard for us to receive your credit card details at the time of your booking. Your credit card is not charged upon booking, you can choose to pay by a variety of methods when checking in. Your credit card is charged if you cancel your booking outside the terms of our cancellation policy or in the event of property damage, soilage or deodorising. The charge of any damage, soilage or deodorising is specific to the circumstances.


• Smoking facilities are provided outside Dorset House. Smoking in Dorset House is not allowed and may result in you being charged for deodorising. Smoking inside accommodation facilities is prohibited by New Zealand law.
  


• If you use the communal kitchen, you are expected to do your own dishes and clean up after yourself.


• Alcohol is permitted, but not in excess.


• Drugs are not permitted under any circumstances. The presence of drugs on the property will result in guests being asked to leave immediately.


• Off street parking is provided at the rear of the building on a 'first in first served' basis, on street parking is available.


• No pets, sorry - the resident cats Minx and Roger would not approve! 


• Dorset House provides all bedding including sheets, pillows, pillow protectors, under blankets, duvets, electric blankets (in winter) and blankets, consequently sleeping bags are not allowed.


• Disorderly or overtly antisocial behaviour may be cause for Dorset House to cancel your stay at any time.
  

Booking

We encourage quests to book online using our secure on-line booking system , bookings can also be made over the phone, by calling 0800DORSET from within New Zealand or +64 3 3668268 from overseas. Bookings can also be made by emailing stay@dorsethouse.co.nz or in person at the reception between the hours of 9am-6pm.

Cancellation

Any cancellation, postponement or partial cancellation should be advised to reception staff as soon as possible. Bookings cancelled more than a full '24-hours' before the day of your stay will not incur a penalty.  In the circumstance that you cancel or postpone your confirmed booking within the '24-hour' period, Dorset House will make every reasonable effort to resell the room or rooms on your behalf.  Dorset House’s Cancellation Policy is to charge of 100% of the room or rooms if your booking cannot be resold. 

For the avoidance of doubt, if you book to stay on a Wednesday, you have to advise us by the time the office closes (6pm) on Monday to be considered more than '24 hours' before the day of your stay.  An email is not considered notification until it is read by our staff.  Cancellation policies are firmly adhered to - to accept your booking, we have turned away others.

Please note that Dorset House is not able to accept responsibility for any email correspondence not received: if it has been sent from our end, and not received by you, it is likely to have been caught up in your spam filter, please check. This is particularly common with 'free' email accounts such as hotmail, yahoo mail, gmail. 

Found Property

Any items that are found at Dorset House should be brought to reception.  They will be held for 1 month and can be claimed, after this period they will be considered abandoned and will be disposed.  Personal items should not be left in the kitchen or bathrooms, these will be disposed of immediately as we undertake daily cleaning.

Environmental Policy

Dorset House is dedicated to limiting its ‘ecological footprint’ on the environment. Recycling is encouraged to reduce waste; this includes cans, plastic, glass bottles and cardboard. Bedding and towels are washed onsite, this means we can reduce transporting cost and therefore CO2 emissions as well as reduce unnecessary traffic congestion from simply washing our own laundry. In this way it is also possible for us to measure and be aware of our environmental footprint.

Water conserving methods are implemented by the 1 or 2 button flush toilets, as well as watering gardens only in the evening. Low energy light bulbs are installed in the rooms to reduce energy consumption. Recycling of cardboard and paper, cans and tins and glass and plastic bottles is encouraged to reduce the amount of rubbish produced

At Dorset House you will find that we support the Environment Canterbury clean air project, meaning a shift from log burner for heat to gas heating. There is no smoking inside as per New Zealand legislation. Smoking facilities are available outside. Open fires are allowed in Christchurch, however out of concern for the health and wellbeing for our future generation, open fires are being reduced in order to promote cleaner air in Christchurch.

Communications

Dorset House features in several tourism publications, websites and trade manuals. While all attempts have been made to ensure all information provided in these publications is correct, Dorset House Lodge Limited reserves the right to alter any information about Dorset House, including pricing. The Dorset House website shall remain the official source of information for Dorset House Backpackers, and the Dorset Apartments website the official source of information for Dorset Apartments.

Website

This Dorset House website was created on-site and is also maintained on-site by Dorset House staff. Dorset House Lodge Limited reserves the right to change any material, including pricing at any stage. If you have any comments about the site, please feel free to contact us.

Comments

Dorset House maintains the highest of quality hostel accommodation and is constantly seeking to improve on its service. If you have any comments on how we may improve your stay or if you are unhappy with any aspect of your stay, please feel free to contact us and we'll do what we can to set it right.

Christmas and New Year's Bookings

Dorset House is open for Christmas bookings. There is a two-day minimum stay in place covering these dates. If you wish to stay the 24th of December, you must also be booked in for the 25th of December - there are no check-ins or check-outs on Christmas Day.

Dorset House is CLOSED on New Year's Eve (31st December), for a private function, re-opening the 1st of January. Please ask our staff if you have questions related to bookings over Christmas and New Years.