Peppers Bluewater Resort Lake Tekapo — Attraction in South Island

As Accor Plus Members, we were keen to try the 'More Escapes' package at Peppers Bluewater Resort. The deal looked fantastic:

• Two nights accommodation at a good room rate • Daily breakfast • Bottle of wine and chocolates on arrival • 12pm late checkout

The booking process was... well, let's just say it required some persistence. After checking their website for months without seeing any availability, I reached out directly. Seventeen emails back and forth, plus a couple of follow-up phone calls later, they kindly made a "one-off exemption as a gesture of goodwill." Looking back, that should have been my first hint that things might not run smoothly.

Upon arrival, it felt a bit like we were just another booking rather than loyalty members. No biggie, but it put the onus on us to double-check that our package inclusions were properly applied.

Now, here's where things got interesting. We'd driven up in an electric vehicle (rookie mistake arriving with under 10% charge!), and both public chargers in town were broken. When we asked about using our trickle charger in their car park, they declined due to concerns about overloading their electrical system. Fair enough from a safety perspective, though it left us in a bit of a pickle.

The breakfast buffet was decent enough, though pretty basic for what non-package guests pay ($41 per person). Just a heads up - barista coffee costs extra and you're limited to the continental options for eggs.

Dinner at their restaurant on our second night was actually quite enjoyable - our waiter was excellent and really looked after us well. The main meals were genuinely really good too. However, there was a bit of confusion with our complimentary welcome drinks. Our waiter assured us it would be sorted out, but at bill time, nothing had been adjusted. The cashier explained it would need to be sorted out at the front desk because the bill had already been produced, and when I mentioned we could do that for her as she had other people waiting to pay their food bill, she got quite angry with us and insisted she would get it sorted herself for us.

Checkout presented a couple of final complications. The receptionist mentioned she had been about to charge our credit card since it was already past 11am (it was approximately 11:10am). She explained they hadn't realised we had late checkout and assumed we had already departed. We had to clarify again that our package included 12pm checkout. Additionally, the welcome drinks that the cashier had promised to handle the previous evening were still on our bill. We had to remind them again about these complimentary drinks that should have been resolved the night before.

What really bothered us was that throughout our entire stay, we were never really made to feel welcome. Every time we had to clarify or check on something from our package, we felt like we were being treated as mean and fussy customers - when really we were just trying to get the things we thought we had purchased. That's not a great feeling when you're trying to enjoy a getaway.

Look, the location is stunning and the rooms are comfortable enough. The restaurant food at dinner was genuinely impressive. But between the incredibly complicated booking process and the various administrative hiccups, it felt like more work than a holiday should be. We've stayed at plenty of other Accor properties with much smoother experiences, so this one was a bit disappointing...

In short, overrated. Check in went alright, then we entered our room, we very excited and happy. Then …

1- Being a hot day, we turned the aircon on, and it was very noisy and loud. Called the reception right away, reported the issue and requested a for a fan, as fairly speaking we didn’t expect they could fix the issue on a Christmas day. Anyways, they advised they would send someone over soon to check the issue out. After almost 2 hours, and no one knocking the door, we called again. The receptionist advised they had no one to send over but said: ‘leave it we me, I’ll sort it out’. Still no sign of the fan. Another hour elapsed, nothing happened. In our third attempt, we went to the reception and spoke with a lady and to be fair she was very attentive and helpful. Advised the issues, she said they had no one, but offered us to move to a different room. As our existing room was much better than the one offered in terms of views, we decided not to change rooms and hence asked for the fan instead. As there was no fan available for guests, she kindly gave us the fan she had in her office. While this was a nice gesture, if we hadn’t follow up with them for the third time, no one would have bothered to resolve the issue. She handed us the fan in the lobby and we carried it all the way to our room.

2- Food: With full understanding that the food options on a Christmas day are very limited, when we asked about the options, they mentioned we informed everyone of the Christmas dinner via email! Well, ok, yes we were informed. But, having only and I insist ‘only’ one option and only for dinner (not even lunch), and only buffet style for $90 per person, is not something you’d except from your accommodation. So, yes, there was no lunch option available, and if we wanted to have dinner at the hotel at $90 per person we had to spend at least $180 for the two of us, with no table availability. I have to mention, after we tried the buffet breakfast on the following day, we were super happy that we didn’t spend that $180 for the only option that hotel could offer! The receptionist couldn’t even offer any open restaurant, cafe or supermarket nearby. She advised TLV and service station which were both closed.

3- Rubbish: From the moment we checked in, until our check-out, the rubbish and a full bag of dirty towels, linens, etc from the room next to us were left next to the door and no one from hotel even noticed it.

Having above said, on the pros I have to say the rooms were very well designed and we had...

After staying at multiple hotels across different countries around the world, I can unequivocally say that this is the worst hotel in its price category. More than the absence of good service or service in general, it is the proudness that the hotel takes in the lack of services which is tragic and borderline amusing in itself. This stay single-handedly wrecked the experience of Tekapo for us. The only good thing was the checkin lady at the reception who was helpful on day 1 while she was there.

Bed had red bugs from day 1 which I was told was baby spiders and not bed bugs. We found 6 of them till end of day 1 and reported them via email to the reception and showed them crawling on the bed. The lady replaced the bedsheet but it was not the solution. As someone who has a phobia of spiders, let's just say it was not a good nights sleep. No apology or reply or even a call to check on us from anyone on this after the kind lady from day 1 was not on duty today.

Maintenance issues. Front panel of AC was stuck together with duct tape. Bird poop on the chair tables outside not cleaned even just before our checkin. This is in a AUD 500+ room. Found a staff came along our bedroom and was staring at the AC which was funny. He then told us that he wanted to check the duct taped AC if it needs replacement.

Even after paying for breakfast for the next day with Accor Plus discount applied, the restaurant staff confidently says that the breakfast is not paid for, even not bothering to check if the guest is insisting that it has been paid before being so confident in their replies. The terrible breakfast itself is another story. The canned cut fruits at breakfast could easily have been replaced by fresh fruits from the supermarket nearby. Skip the breakfast.

Inconsistencies galore. The room had 4 face towels on the first day and then after room clean on second day we had just 1 between the two of us. One of the red bugs got squished on the sheet which was clearly visible but the sheet was not replaced the second day as if it was our problem.

No dental kit or slippers provided on request. Had to go to a supermarket at 8:30 in the morning since we did not expect them to not have it, so that we could get to breakfast on time. For a 100 sq m house with old carpets, a pair of slippers would definitely have helped. If we were informed of this beforehand, we could have brought them along.

One good thing - They agreed for a requested late checkout from...