An embarresment to New Zealand

As a Kiwi showing my American husband the beauty of Queenstown, I was disgusted and embarresed with this hotel. It is by far beneath anywhere I have ever stayed, including the floor of a train travelling through Morocco.

(Having just left the Rydges in Christchurch we expected the same standard of room. We were wrong.)

The standard rooms are filthy, old, and smelled to the point it made me ill. The paint was peeling in the room and down the hallways there where holes in the walls,The heater was broken, the toilet would not stop running. After complaining we looked at 2 other standard rooms, each as bad at the other.

We moved to an upgraded renovated room at extra cost and that was a vast improvement.

The lake views and location are great, if you choose to stay in this hotel stay in a deluxe or renovated room and stay in the main hotel, if they offer any floor above the 6th floor do not stay there.

We found the breakfast good, and reasonable in very expensive Queenstown, (expect to pay $30NZ for a main course average in Town)

Queenstown is magnificent this hotel is the total opposite, I would not reccommend you stay there.

Worst hotel in the world I've stayed in ever - avoid at all costs!!!

everything about this hotel is deceptive... it seems like it hasnt been cleaned or updated since the 1970's... I've stayed in motels much better than this!

try having a cold shower in the mornings when the temperature outside is 5 degrees celsius...all the facilities are way below average

- there is no food/drinks in the minibar (i wanted a bottle of water one night at 3am [jetlag], all they could bring me was tap water.... i might as well drunk out of the toilet)

- breakfast was not included and NO way worth what you're paying for unless you're a fan of stale

- the spa is OUTDOORS with only room for 6 people coveniently ouside the bar where everyone can see you

- the rooms are the dirtiest, the carpets are full of stains and hold collonies of undiscovered organisms

- the shower/toilet facilities are terrible

- outside our room was the carpark... lakeviews?

- the beds are the worst bed i have ever been in, im sure springs were invented when they purchased the mattresses

- service is always bad, it seemed a daunting task for the staff to help you out

- its location is the most distant hotel to walk to in queenstown

do yourself a favour and stay anywhere else!

The Pits

We made the mistake of booking this hotel without checking the reviews here first, and they were all spot on.

Problems included:

- dirty carpets

- daily room servicing included making the beds and leaving new toilet paper out. nothing else incl. rubbish left next to the bin not removed.

- ripped curtains

- paper thin walls, could hear the phone ring in the room upstairs and next door.

- non-existant advertised 24 hour room service - we were advised they couldnt deliver bottled water because they didnt have any. The next day we found a vending machine with bottled water - was it too hard to tell us about it?

- spa holds 6 people max

- sauna was dirty and didnt work properly.

- staff that would yell at you if you needed to make an internal phone call from reception (no, its not quicker to walk up to the relevant room, with most of the rooms having to be accessed via 2 lifts, it often took a few minutes to get from reception to the room.

Dont get too excited by the fact that you get a lakeside room - only the staff quarters do not face the lake.

The only saving grace of this hotel was the value tours booking desk, who were very helpful in organising all activities etc.

Don't pin too high hopes...

Well, kinda diasppointed with the room itself, though really looks nice on the outside....

Room is very small..... I had an additional single bed though there was already a queen-size bed which made the room space even more cramped....

The only consoling part is the location.... Good location.... Within 5 mins of walking distance to the town center.... Lucky we got the room facing the Lake Wakatipu, the vew is very breath-taking....

Book anywhere else...

This place is awful- the other bad reviews are spot on. The photos are misleading, the rooms are small and run-down, and the service is amongst the worst I have had travelling throughout Australia and New Zealand. The staff are rude, overly-busy accommadating the numerous tour groups that book through here, and frankly don't have proper training- one staff member told us a free shuttle to the airport came to the hotel every hour, and come to find out the shuttle was not free and had to be booked in advance to secure a pick-up time. All in all, Queenstown is a beautiful place and well worth the trip, just don't take away from the experience by staying here.

Back to the 1960s

Rydges looks good in the photos. Admire them, but don't be tempted to stay there.

The rooms are small, inconvenient and noisy. The downside of having a lake view is that all the traffic noise from outside is magnified. Are the walls made of cardboard?

The restaurant service is so slow, it would embarrass a snail. It took three hours to serve dinner to ten people on a quiet night. The following night, four people waited two hours for soup and bruschetta. The food, when it arrives, is cold and the meat is tough.

The bar is straight from the 1960s. If there is a tour group in, there are not enough chairs to sit on - there is only seating for about 30. There is nowhere to have a quiet drink away from the loud TV sport and 1980s canned music.

This hotel needs a major refit, and the staff need basic training in service standards.

Is this a youth hostel?

This place is the pits. looks nice from outside but the rooms, the staff and the noise really let it down!

rooms - awful - the vents in the bathrooms act as a megaphone so you can hear what everyone above and below you is doing in there...

The staff - someone from room service told me mid order that they didnt have time and hung up on me - nothing was done about this - even after a written complaint to the manager - in fact the receptionist giggled and said ' how rude, hee hee hee'.

There are dorm style rooms in this hotel and it seems to be full of school kids who have never been away from home before going crazy on school trips.

Not a great location either for the nightlife in town.

Over all a complete let down.

A major disappointment

I changed my schedule twice to get into this hotel based on the photos and some reviews. I decided to do the king size suite with views and balcony for a very special top-line experience. I have never been more disappointed. Except for the views and location, it is a very, very poor value property. The sofa and chair belonged in an old fraternity house or motel. The King bed was two single beds with a king sheet over it. The three rooms were heated by a single wall heater in the living room which wasn't up to the job. I stayed it out. A friend stayed one night and left.

Location, Location, Location

Rydges' best asset - location. It was within walking distance from the town centre and the view from the room was great. It seemed to appeal most to younger travellers and had a very casual and laid back atmosphere. Problems: lots of the restaurants were unavailable due to conferences, early check out time, no sense of urgency paid to reasonable requests. All in all, Rydges is a basic hotel with satisfactory customer service.

Nice upgrade!

Amazing location for a brilliantly priced quality hotel. Thoroughly reccommended for recovery after a few days tramping!!