Manor Park Lodge

“Four day visit”

Great location looking out to the Lake and Mountains. 5-10 min drive to town. Comfortable and well kept room. Lower floor patio is great though potential intrusion of privacy if neighbouring room walks by (different blinds should be installed). Despite being asked, no change of towels, emptying of … more

Great location looking out to the Lake and Mountains. 5-10 min drive to town. Comfortable and well kept room. Lower floor patio is great though potential intrusion of privacy if neighbouring room walks by (different blinds should be installed). Despite being asked, no change of towels, emptying of rubbish bin, vacuuming of carpet was done mid way through the stay.

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“Great views of Lake Wakatipu but terrible customer service and poor quality facilities”

The Manor Park Lodge is well located just outside of downtown Queenstown (though not close enough to walk – we recommend hiring a car) with spectacular views over Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables. Unfortunately we experienced extremely poor customer service during our time at Manor Park Hotel, whi… more

The Manor Park Lodge is well located just outside of downtown Queenstown (though not close enough to walk – we recommend hiring a car) with spectacular views over Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables. Unfortunately we experienced extremely poor customer service during our time at Manor Park Hotel, which included but was by no means limited to the following: 1. While the website suggests that the hotel facilities include a concierge, there is no such individual. In fact, the hotel is unmanned and guests have to phone on arrival to get in (there is a cheap mobile phone hanging on the wall for this purpose though it did not work for us and we had to use our own international cell phone). We were told that we weren’t sent the instructions ahead of time because the hotel did not have our contact details. This is plainly not true as our full details were included (indeed, required) for the booking. We received access instructions a day later. 2. We were left with just 1 key for 2 rooms, each with 2 adults. Our request on day 1 for a key for each guest was ignored. A follow up the next day was also ignored. On the third day of our stay we received a supplemental 2 keys. 3. While the website advertises “free parking” bear in mind that there are 6 apartments and only 2 parking spaces on the driveway. Unless you secure one of the two spots on the driveway you have to park on the street wherever you can find a spot. 4. The “business centre” advertised on the website consists of a single desk and chair in the corner of an open upstairs common area. There is no computer and no phone. This is not what one would expect as a business center. 5. There is a common area upstairs which is encased in glass and had been sealed extensively before our arrival so was stifling. There is a TV in one area and only exposed wires hanging out in the other area. The toilet in this area was also essentially unusable. The same toilet is missing a cover on the flushing unit on the wall. You have to use a finger on an internal device in the wall to get a flush. It was like that when we arrived and still like that when we left 5 days later. 6. There is a kitchen area upstairs that you can see through the glass but is locked to guests (unless you book the $18 continental breakfast the night before). There is otherwise no area where guests can eat meals or wash dishes. We ate breakfast sitting on the couch and had to use our bath to wash our breakfast bowls because there was nowhere else for us to wash them (and the bathroom sink was too small). We had dishwashing liquid but no cloth with which to wash the dishes (other than a bath rag). The bowls, plates and cutlery are also in the bedside drawers which means you can’t use that space for putting away any clothes. 7. The walls are paper thin. We could hear every word of conversation between guests in the neighbouring rooms as well as whenever they had their TVs on. There is simply no effective insulation between the rooms. 8. The hotel’s website warned ‘neighbour construction underway’. Concerned about this, we phoned before booking the apartment to understand what disturbance this would cause. We were advised that this was ‘an old report’ and only painting was left to be done on the next door property. On the basis of this representation, we booked the hotel. On our arrival we found 3 diggers building a driveway and workmen active with machinery from 7am on day 1 and 6.20am on day 2. When we asked the concierge why we weren’t informed that this work was still underway (when we’d expressly been promised otherwise), we were simply told ‘we can’t keep track of every stage of their build, it’s out of our control’. 9. One of our apartment doors mysteriously kept creeping open even though it was locked. The doors don’t seem to fit the frames properly. Their web site has a top line heading that says…’One of the most trusted hotels in Queenstown’. From this experience of rolling poor service and misleading answers this is not the case. In short, we would not recommend staying at Manor Park Lodge unless the service is vastly improved.

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