Chateau on the Park - Christchurch, a DoubleTree by Hilton — Hotel in Christchurch

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...

As per other posts Emirates had taken over the lobby when we checked in. While we got our room on time we literally couldn’t move the luggage trolley thru the crowd of them (had to go around outdoors) and I could barely hear the front desk person even checking in. Then our toilet was broken, took 3 hours to fix including my husband telling the hotel worker where the actual toilet plumbing was (have to enter thru a closet in hall). We were in a park suite at quite a high price so a bit shocking to have a broken toilet and accompanying odd smell. They had no other rooms. The duty manager offered free breakfast upgrade (I am diamond so breakfast buffet was already free, this is just a $10 value). Finally talked to GM who agreed to honor a late checkout (which again is supposed to be a diamond perk anyways “subject to availability”). Plumber came again the following day to continue fixing the toilet (Sunday evening was only temporarily fixed). All of this visiting by plumbers meant planning our use of our toilet and shower was a bit of a challenge. Then to top off our day our keys stopped working, the front desk person told me “they just take awhile to work” which is obviously untrue and ridiculous, and then finally gave me new keys without checking my ID whatsoever. Finally on our balcony the last morning and there is an elementary school party on the lawn. When vacationing without kids not super keen to have 30 of them just below the balcony with their normal accompanying screaming and noise.

I had stayed here before (post Covid so the lack of workers isn’t a new thing) and enjoyed it but service has gone downhill. Had our issues been handled with better customer service I would have been fine with it. The impression that I was annoying them when asking for a working toilet and working keys after what I paid was not...

I am here to express my dissatisfaction with the check-in experience at DoubleTree by Hilton Christchurch on July 8, 2025.

I had reserved two rooms with Garden View, expecting a smooth check-in as per the stated policy of 3:00 PM. However, we arrived at 4:20 PM – 1 hour and 20 minutes after the official check-in time – and were informed at the front desk that our rooms were still not ready.

We were told we could wait for 30 more minutes and were offered drink vouchers. However, we made it clear that we were very tired after a long trip and needed to rest immediately. At this point, a Korean manager approached us with an arrogant and dismissive attitude, and informed us that our Garden View rooms were still unavailable. Instead, she offered us rooms facing the parking lot and insisted that these were the same price as the original Garden View rooms — with no apology or effort to make up for the inconvenience.

What made matters worse was that the room type was also changed without explanation — from the twin beds we originally booked to king beds, which was completely inconsistent with our reservation.

We found her attitude extremely unprofessional and unwelcoming. Despite the delay, the downgrade, and the change in room type, she offered no compensation and even refused to give us the drink vouchers, claiming it was because we “chose not to wait” — which was both unreasonable and insulting, considering we had already waited past the standard check-in time.

Our final check-in was completed more than 30 minutes after our arrival, and the entire experience left us extremely disappointed. This is not the level of service we expect from Hilton, especially under the...