Black Swan Lakeside Boutique Hotel — Hotel in North Island

Reading some of the recent reviews I feel we stayed at a different hotel with regards to food. We arrived late in the afternoon so decided to have dinner in the restaurant. At the time of booking the hotel's website enthused about the menu and recommended booking in advance. We were nervous that having not booked the restaurant ahead that we would be disappointed. We were ! Not because we couldn't get a reservation, but because we were the only ones in the restaurant. The waitress tried hard however it was an uncomfortable and embarrassing situation. Breakfast was busy, but the food average at best. ||We were independent travellers so well aware of the expected standard and price of accommodation - not always visible to those travelling via agents. The cost of our room, which had been described at the time of booking (10 months ahead of our stay) as a lakefront suite was almost NZ $1,000 per night. Unfortunately, it was not a suite and in comparison with other accommodation during our stay was small. ||We were grateful to Abigail for her understanding and intervention in what could have been a poor couple of nights stay. Abigail is an absolute asset to the Black Swan.||All this said, the location is stunning overlooking the lake with a wonderful outdoor space of a swimming pool, hot tubs and gardens. ||The hotel has recently been acquired by new owners who have an opportunity to make the Black Swan...

We were booked into this beautiful boutique hotel whilst visiting Rotorua by our Travel experts Audley Travel. It is a beautiful located hotel on Lake Rotorua with black swans enjoying the lake. The views of the fabulous garden and lake can be seen from your room. There is an outside pool and 2 hot tubs. |Qe dined in the restaurant and found the food to be exceptional. I am coeliac and was treated to GF tortellini tuna and snapper. Everything was beautiful. We also had the wine flight with some lovely and well matched wines. Bruce looked after us very well. We also used the laundry services which were good. We met Ethan Heng who was visiting from head office and kindly gave us a lift to town for dinner another evening. The breakfasts are fabulous. You may need to wait a short while for the cooked but it is do worth it. Everything is freshly cooked and tastes divine. The staff are amazing and exceplify great customer care is. Particularly the Manager Bruce and CJ were brilliant. We were shown around by another member of staff who was also exceptional (sorry I didn't get his name).|The decore and quality of towels dressing gowns and pool towels complimentary drinks and snacks and customer care sets this hotel out...

Nice quiet grounds, friendly staff, and room was fine, but overall a little shabby considering the price. Most of the outdoor seating was sadly unusable due to being covered in old bird poo. The house itself is beautiful, but cheapened a bit by huge tourism photos on the walls.

My partner was unlucky and got food poisoning from the restaurant, spent the entire night in pain, then ended up in hospital. I had to push harder than I should have to for a discount, which was quite disappointing. The best they could do was to write off the food cost... It was a bit rich of the staff not to take some compassionate ownership, as we literally ate nowhere else that weekend.

Edit: Review lowered to 1 star after the owner initially offered to make up for the experience with a free stay, then reneged - claiming we'd caused them too much financial harm. Even more reason to avoid.

Edit 2: Owner added generic copy paste response. He certainly didn't enjoy hearing our (polite) feedback - he more or less told us to get lost. You can only...