Blue Lake TOP 10 Holiday Park — Hotel in North Island

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL EXPERIENCE!!!! Rats in the roof of unit 11!! We have stayed at Blue Lake 4-5 times now, are Top 10 Members, and are absolutely appalled at the manner of management this trip, we will not be back-my young children are still anxiously asking about "the man" (maintenance manager) 3 days later! We booked a 3 night stay, and were kept awake throughout the entire first two nights by multiple rats scratching constantly and running across the internal roof cavity of our unit through the night non-stop. I expressed my concerns with the staff at the reception desk early morning on the third day as we still had one night left and desperately needed sleep-my 4 and 6yo children were sobbing in terror at the sounds throughout the night. Whilst one staff member (younger lady, blonde) was apologetic and completely understanding, other staff were incredibly rude and dismissive. I spent 40 minutes initially standing at the reception desk going back and forwards being told they could send in maintenance, or we could leave. I was offered a refund for one night after half an hour, and eventually 1 & 1/2 nights refund after asking to speak to the Operations Manager-who was not even at the park at the time. The only solution they had was to google any available accommodation in hotels in the city itself and advise I would need to pay an extra $50-$80 for any of the very limited accomodation options elsewhere available that night. After staff were unable to find any rooms available after multiple calls to alternative hotels, I advised I needed to check my young children were ok and returned to our unit to collect our belongings. During the time I was back at the unit, the maintenance manager banged on the door a total of 4 times. He aggressively demanded to be let into the unit, and when advised by my 6yo daughter that I was halfway through getting dressed, proceeded to stand at the open door, refusing to leave. I was forced to stand in the doorway half dressed and advise that because we were not expecting to check out that morning, it was taking slightly longer to collect our belongings and pack up. This was at 10.15am. He proceeded to firmly demand that we vacate the room IMMEDIATELY, checkout was at 10am, we needed to leave NOW, he needed to enter the unit NOW (whilst I was half-dressed) he "didn't care" what my excuses were, and continued to raise his voice, became threatening and visibly very angry. He demand entry and that we leave immediately, speaking over me when i tried to get a word in. I calmly asked 3 times for him to stop being rude, and that he was scaring my children who were witnessing his entire rant cowering in the doorway behind me. I attempted to explain that it was incredibly unfortunate and unexpected that there were rats in the roof, and i needed a few more minutes to put my clothes on. He refused to leave and continued to rant, raise his voice, speak over me, and demand we leave on the spot and advise I would need to pay for an extra night if we did not vacate the room NOW. I advised I would go back up to the office and discuss this matter further with them because the way in which he was addressing us was completely inappropriate and he was scaring my young children! When I reached the office, I asked for my above complaint about the maintenance manager to be acknowledged in writing, and was advised "it would not go anywhere because the maintenance manager was the operations managers husband." During this discussion, the maintenance manager himself walked out from the back of the office, and interrupted me to advise he did not believe he was being rude and was told to "leave it" by the operations manager. I opted to leave with my terrified children at this time without any alternative accomodation 4 hours from home. 'Management' should be ashamed of themselves and this aggressive man should be nowhere near a family holiday park or...

My family and I recently had a camping trip from hell at Blue Lake Top10 (using their on-site tents).

What was supposed to be a fun-filled adventure turned into a nightmare due to the pervasive presence of mould and an unpleasant smell.

Upon arriving at our assigned tent, we were immediately greeted by a musty odour that was impossible to ignore. As we tried to continue our stay, we noticed black spots on the walls and ceiling. The mould was widespread and clearly visible, indicating that it had been there for a while. We were shocked and disgusted, as mould can pose serious health risks, especially for individuals with respiratory issues like my child who frequently suffers from these issues.

The mouldy conditions made our camping experience unbearable. The smell was overpowering, and we were constantly worried about the potential health risks associated with mould exposure. We tried to ventilate the tent as best as we could, but the pervasive odour and the knowledge of the mould made our stay extremely uncomfortable.

With struggling to sleep so made a rash decision to pack up a night early and drive home. We immediately brought the issue to the attention of the Top10 head office and the blue lake top 10 staff the next day.

Despite our valid concerns and attempts to seek assistance, Blue Lake Top10 has refused to meet us in the middle and refund us one-nights stay. Their excuses, such as not being able to offer our tent to others if we let them know earlier we were leaving, are unacceptable, as there were other unoccupied tents available during our stay. As a family of four with two young children and only one working parent, the $340 cost of our nightmare stay is a significant expense.

Shockingly, early on in our correspondence with Top10 head office following our stay, they informed us that the owners were well aware of the mould issue before our stay, but they chose not to disclose it to us during check-in. Instead, we were left to deal with the health hazard and offensive smell.

We are extremely disappointed with Blue Lake Top10's refusal to partially refund our horrible stay. We had high expectations for our long-saved for camping/glamping trip, but instead, we encountered mouldy conditions, an unpleasant smell, and uncaring, unhelpful customer service.

We urge Blue Lake Top10 to reconsider their decision and take responsibility for the subpar experience we had at their campground. As customers, we deserve fair treatment and appropriate compensation for the unacceptable conditions we encountered during our stay and as paying customers, we deserve better and expect to be refunded for the horrible...

There is no denying that the setting for this park is beautiful, location ideal. Unfortunately for us this was marred by the experience we had whilst staying. We have stayed in many parks across NZ and Australia and this was by far, the most expensive 'camping holiday' we have ever endured and we definitely won't be back. We had a group / long awaited reunion booked in. A few folks on camp sites and others in cabins. Many of us did not get the sites, cabins we were promised - ie grassy sites, cabins with views etc Complaints to management resulted in a move on sites but the cabins with views of the lake just missed out altogether. In summary whilst the park advertised many facilities everything was at an additional and often extraordinary expense. We spent a very wet week onsite in Feb 2018 and were paying around the $12 dollar per load to wash and dry our clothes as one paid cycle through the dryer left the clothes damp, so we had to cough up for additional cycles. You had to pay for use of the onsite spa, ping pong table, pool table, there was just no generosity AT ALL. It was as if the park was run by very scroogy folk. An example of this was in our camp facilities where although there were numerous toilets, showers etc in the block, all bar two were locked, forcing a rather large crowd to line up at the toilet and showers in the morning. One can only assume that this was to save on cleaning costs as when I booked I was told we were booking in peak season. Due to wet weather we ended up forking out for a cabin and no discount was offered despite the fact that we had a large group booking and were already paying for a powered site for the same days. The cabin was tired, old and had mildew on the window coverings, we were paying hotel rates $225 per night, but it was not serviced daily, it appeared to be serviced intermittently. Another impediment to our enjoyment was a hyper vigilant security team who one night knocked on the window of our motor home whilst we were quietly enjoying a movie and told us to turn the telly down. They alleged a noise complaint was from our ONLY neighbour who happened to our best friends who had gone into town for the night for dinner. I ended up forking out $2000 for 2 camp sites for 6 nights and 1 very ordinary cabin for 3 nights, you can make your own minds up as to whether you think that is good value. I would recommend groups to...