Emerald Hotel Gisborne — Hotel in North Island

I first stayed here in 2010 & it was immaculate! I could not fault it in any way. There was a completely functional spa pool, clean swimming pool set in greenery, a stocked bar fridge in & phone in my room, tourist information & menus, there were reclining seats with cushions at poolside, the outdoor furniture for all rooms with views had cushions on every seat, The restaurant (Nick's Bistro) was open for buffet breakfast, the rooms had spare bed linen, the TV had many more channels, and the carpark had a lot of available spaces with working security doors. It was still the same from 2012 to 2018 when I stayed again multiple times. But, for my visit this past weekend, I was saddened that the town has undergone so many shop closures & at the state of this hotel, which may well be a reflection of the town suffering harshly in this post-covid economy. My room was clean & had everything I needed, but I did notice a red stain near the fridge (I do get that this was likely from a guest & not easy to remove, but a better job could've been done with some Vanish), and the bathroom had a dry urine odour. Other than that, the room met my needs & was clean, but everything was reduced to the bare minimum (no bedroom lamps & the lounge ones not plugged in). The access card for the carpark door/room failed to work a number of times - so I had to walk around the block to the main hotel entrance to get it sorted. Reception staff were friendly & helpful but not always there. The card was left on the door on day 2 to service the room - upon returning, it had been, but the standard of the bed making was poor. It has been my previous experience that the beds are remade fully, not just untidily pulled back up. The sheets weren't even tucked in. I was shocked. The towels were changed - but no new toiletries were supplied. The TV was not worth watching due to lack of good channels available - luckily, I had my laptop with multiple streaming services! Not that I spent much time watching TV. I had a river view with table & deck chairs - 8 chairs but only 1 squab. What if I wanted to have guests out there for drinks? I could not see any other squabs for the other rooms - maybe there is only one in the whole hotel and I had it? Lucky me! The fridge was no longer a bar fridge. An ugly deck had been built over the spa pool; all the lovely foliage around it gone; there were no reclining chairs; the pool was algae green & the restaurant closed. There were no signs up to say renovations were in progress, so I just assumed that to be the case & the fact it is winter, so the pool facilities would not be in much use anyway. Oddly, there was a microwave on the coffee table in the level 2 lift foyer (?). In 2010, I did stay here during winter & the spa pool was used a lot. It begs the question why not fix & maintain it, rather than take the lazy option of getting rid of it? It was clearly a very popular feature. I did not explore the gym so cannot comment as to whether or not it was still there/adequate. My main disappointment was not being able to take advantage of the buffet breakfast, but at least Verve Cafe is a quick walk away! I hope the restaurant returns soon as it is extremely convenient on check out day. If the place is currently undergoing refurbishment, it would help to indicate this somewhere to warn guests that some facilities may not be available - you need to update the website & booking app photos too as the hotel no longer looks like that! I wish I had taken photos! On the whole, even though the place has become lifeless, sad & tired, I enjoyed my stay, as the room met my needs & I was out 95% of the time. I stay here because of the CBD location, carpark, and former buffet breakfast. For the first two, I would stay again (but bring my toaster & air fryer). The foyers could do with some nicer decor/lighting to reduce the prison corridor vibe. The flower arrangement in the glass elevator lobby needs updating - it's ugly. You need more available car parks, as most were reserved for other businesses & a bird net for the...

STAY SOMEWHERE ELSE! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY HERE! This place was disgusting and very expensive for such a poor experience. The Emerald describes themselves as a “hotel that offers all the benefits of boutique accommodation" which is just an outright lie. This place shouldn't be called a hotel, let alone “boutique accommodation”.

I need to note an unfortunate number of issues with false advertising and quality/cleanliness: I chose this place because it had a spa pool, so imagine my disappointment when I found out that it doesn’t have one and this has been the case for a long time (along with the pool which is dirty and in a state of disrepair, and again, that has been the case for a long time). Where the spa was, is now deck with a table and chairs. Very annoyed. So don’t believe the photos. Receptionist was in the middle of eating when I checked in and again when I checked out - this is not professional My room was big, but I was duped again as the picture when I booked showed a balcony and windows, but mine didn’t have a balcony and the window looked out to the hotel corridor, so I had to close the curtains for privacy (if you can see out, they can see in). Agoda (who I booked through), advertises the property as having a bar, restaurants and room service. Again, this is not true. The room doesn't even have a phone so not sure how you would order room service! The “King” bed was actually just two singles pushed together and it had the uncomfortable seams running down the middle of the bed. Other listed amenities that aren't in the rooms: phone, dvd/cd player, coffee/tea maker (it was a jug), minibar Their own website states they have “Sky TV”, but this is also not correct, as all channels unique to Sky are not available, so it’s Freeview on a sky box (possibly even less channels than Freeview though). The hotel does have a car park at the back of the hotel but be aware as space is very limited (I only saw around 10-12 parks on the 2 floors I went to) and the area is pretty tight to get in and out of. Luckily I managed to get a park on L2 because I don’t know what I would have done otherwise (max 8hr parking on the street). You hear the churning of the plumbing pipes in the ceiling anytime someone uses the bathroom (happened throughout the night) The room is dirty - there were ‘drip’ marks on the walls, and bathroom, and the shower caddy was falling off the wall Could hear every word of people’s conversations at 12.30am in the corridor

I also believe that this place is possibly being used as temporary/emergency housing at the moment. It might have been a nice hotel once, but I doubt that this has been the case in the last few years at least. I really wish that I had looked at Tripadvisor before I booked and did not believe the reviews on Agoda as they are clearly false. I paid $176 for one night and considering what I encountered, this amount is outrageous. I contacted Agoda to make a complaint and they take no...

Terrible. Called ahead of time to check if there was any chance in checking in early. Was advised that reception would get in contact with housekeeping and if room had not yet been serviced, they would make it a priority. Reception advised they would call if this was not going to be an option. We arrive about an hour and a half later - the room wasn't ready, and they never called.

When we were able to check into our room, we were given a swipe card to access the parking building along with verbal directions -obviously passed on by Stevie Wonder - on how to get there. We were told that we were based on level 3 so would need to catch the lift. The parking building is terrible in itself in that there is a shared entrance/exit, we were almost guaranteed to run into someone trying to get access to or leave the building as we were leaving/returning.

The hike from the carpark to the lift is LONG, what made it worse is that our room was pretty much directly above the carpark entrance into the hotel. Luckily i managed to find stairwell access which cut down the time to commute to the car immensely and I was able to do two loads of bringing in our luggage (family of 4).

The room itself was quite spacious however it is lacking in a number of amenities. The TV service provided by Emerald boasted Sky TV, unfortunately it is 1 Sky Sport channel, 1 Sky Movie channel and the Discovery channel, the rest is your standard Freeview TV. The bathroom was reasonably tidy however we were only given two towels, for a family of 4. I managed to stock up on some towels from the 'gym' located next to the pool.

The most frustrating aspect to this stay for me was the key card access. I had to, on several occassions request a re-activitaion of my card as I kept on getting locked out. Twice when I was returning to the carpark building. I was told that the card should be kept well away from cellphones (would have been helpful from the beginning) and laptops. After the first incident I ensured that the card was separated from anything - fat luck that done. What adds to the frustration is that this is obviously a regular occurence. My first visit to reactivate the card the receptionist asked if I was having card issues before I even had a chance to say anything?

Very displeased with the stay, the location of the hotel is about the only positive. Will not...