I know I go on about people who annoy me, but occasionally these days, someone goes out of the way to do the right thing. And if I’m ready to go off at idiots, I should be ready to praise the good people.

My partner and I recently went away for a “special” weekend together, after I had been away with work for a few weeks. We chose a place called ecOasis, which is located in a town called Uki (pronounced Yoo-kye), kind of near Byron Bay. We had been there before, and absolutely loved it.

ecOasis is a series of secluded, self contained chalets in a rain-forest environment. Some have spas, one has a fire and they even have DVD’s and sometimes a PS3. It’s VERY romantic, VERY relaxing, and you get great brownie points for spending the weekend there.

This time around, our visit wasn’t so great. The owner, Jill, couldn’t be there herself, so her daughter was taking care of the place for the weekend. Uki is pretty excluded, so there’s pretty much no mobile service, and the distance from reception to the chalets is travelled by car.

We arrived in the afternoon, and Jill had arranged a BBQ pack for us, as requested. There was certainly no skimping on the BBQ pack, and the chalets have excellent facilities. When we went to cook dinner on the first night, we found we had only been given about 2 tablespoons of oil and 1 serve of butter – this to cater for 6 meals.

The following morning we drove to reception, and left a message to ask for more oil, butter and few minor things. To cut a long story short, these never arrived. Not a HUGE problem, but it made it difficult for us to eat a decent meal, as we had to ‘work around’ the lack of oil and butter.

It will come as no surprise, that if my partner and I are unhappy with our service, we let people know. We don’t yell and scream and threaten managers, we send politely worded e-mails to let people know that our experience was not what we had expected. We never ask or demand anything (like a free meal), we just voice our opinion and see how the establishment responds.

In the past, we have received everything from apologies, to discounted or free meals, and occasionally, arguments with managers and owners because they believed they were above their customer’s opinions.

When we returned home from ecOasis, my partner e-mailled Jill to let her know we were disappointed in our visit, and that it wasn’t at the standard as our previous stay. We kind of expected an apology, and a promise that it would be better next time.

But not Jill. She responded VERY quickly, apologised for the issues, and asked us to come back for a weekend, FOR FREE. In today’s world, where customer service has gone down the toilet, it’s amazing to come across people like Jill. I can’t recomment staying at ecOasis highly enough. Whether you’re after a special treat for an anniversary, a romantice weekend away, or just some “special” time with the one you love – get your butt down there.