What a mixed bag of a property. ||The property is quite nice with gardens and water features. It is located next to a large park so taking a walk is easy and pleasant. It's walking distance to Ricardton with lots of fast casual and Asian food.||The room itself is a bit of a time capsule. It looked like a 60's era room and was a bit on the small side. The bathroom was a bit tight. I was told this was an upgrade so... I suspect the property has multiple designations and so the term upgrade is used a bit loosely. ||The staff are very uneven. At check-in I was given key to an occupied room. It's a fairly long walk back to the desk - so when the second room had adjoining doors - which I had specifically said was an issue - that was annoying. The third room was ground floor. I asked if there was another option - the girl said well... and then went to ask someone in a back room. She returned to say no there wasn't but the first floor room was an upgraded room. So I conclude there were in fact other rooms - presumably better - but the manager would not allow it. So if you are wondering about upgrades- I'm a Diamond and that was my experience.||Also no waters and no Doubletree cookie at check-in. Later I was walking through the lobby and saw the desk hand someone a water so I asked and of course they have water - and cookies. So just realize that some staff aren't well trained.||I noticed that the hot water is apparently turned off at some point during the night. There was no water one morning - after breakfast - so they must have run out of hot water. ||The property is sprawling with lots of kids running about. The wifi and A/C were ok. Note that the A/C has no temp control - just an on/off switch and a high/low toggle. But it was fine.||At breakfast the continental is free (for gold and diamond) but you have to pay (10) for the full buffet. It's not an especially fancy buffet but it's adequate - I'd say it's about the same as a Hilton Garden Inn but for 10 NZ it's worth it.||I walked by desk several times during my stay and noticed every time there was someone at the desk asking for a different room. Some apparently were unhappy, others were checking in and hearing what was available. It seemed odd to me that every time i walked by - probably 8 times total the same conversation about what room was available for switching was happening. And each time I heard the clerk telling folks it was an upgrade.|| I drew 3 conclusions. First, they let you check in early which is nice and for those folks it is fair enough that you have to take what's available early. Second, there seem to be a lot of people looking for a better room. Based on what I saw I get that. Third, the property apparently has multiple room classes - this view, that view, high floor (and high floor means third floor), etc. - so there is always an upgrade room - but it seems that they are all the same room just in a different part of the hotel (upgraded view not room?). I suspect that there are actual upgraded rooms (meaning bigger and better) but you better book that if you want it.||There are also more than a dozen mom and pop hotels on the next parallel street to Riccardton that probably have similar rooms for less. Next time I'd stay on the other side of the park where there are more restaurants and activities.