We had set aside 4 nights at the end of our Western Australia holiday to stay in the luxurious surroundings of Cape Lodge… and we were really disappointed. With great regret, we checked out 2 days early. A luxury hotel really should be able to cater for the varying needs of its customers, and look after them so that their stay is indeed luxurious, and effortless. For some reason, Cape Lodge refuses to serve a light a la carte evening meal for its customers. Instead it directed you to the towns nearby, with an expensive taxi ride there and back if, like us, you enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner. That is an effort, particularly on a rainy evening, and if you choose to go into Margaret River, it is quite a substantial undertaking: Margaret River is 30 minutes driving away. The alternative is to go to the Cape Lodge restaurant for the no-choice chef’s tasting dinner, which is $110 for 4 courses, or more if you go for 6 courses. Plus a choice of wine from the incredibly expensive wine list which was far more pricey than any other wine list that we found on our travels. And surprisingly, the restaurant wine list did not list a single Cape Lodge wine. All this would be more-or-less OK if the food had been delicious, but the one meal that we had there really wasn’t. The 4 courses lacked flavour, and both the fish, and the fudge slice for desert were seriously over cooked. So on our second - and final - night in the hotel we ate lunch elsewhere, and had a picnic in our room, watching the surfing on You Tube. The hotel itself is impressive, set in beautiful grounds with lots of birds in the trees. The pool, however, is chilly and looks like it hasn’t been used very much. Our lakeside room was smart and well appointed. But the best thing about the hotel - the very best thing - was the staff. To a man, and a woman, they were consistently polite, cheerful and helpful during our visit. We left Cape Lodge disappointed. We had really expected that this would be a wonderful, happy place to end our stay, and we drove away on the third morning feeling depressed and let down. The silly thing is that it could so easily have been different. An affordable menu for supper and more reasonable options on the wine list would have made all,the difference, and a heated swimming pool would have put icing on the cake. As it is, the hotel was almost empty during our stay, which made it dull for us, and must have been dispiriting for the staff.…