Fairmont motor lodge — Hotel in North Island

'Holiday from hell' I would not recommend this motel to anyone our holiday was ruined due to the owners. We are a young family who decided to take our kids away who aged 4 and a 10 month old baby for a family holiday arrived from Wellington checked in to hotel prior to a booking my partner had made. We went up to our room unpacked and set up, about 20 minutes later the lady owner came storming up to our motel and said we had made a double booking, this was a genuine mistake, she wanted to charge double I clearly stated we could not afford to pay twice, she went away and tried to charge my credit card the whole amount for a double booking which never went through the owner then came back up accusing me and my partner of being fraudsters without even getting her facts right, discussion became heated this lady got very aggressive and rude and raised her voice infrontt of my children, my daughter ran off scared into the motel room and tired to hide under the bed, I asked the lady to leave 3 times as she had made my daughter cry she was saying she doesn't give a s### or dosent give a S### that we were a family and that she wanted her money, I tried to close the motel door and she stood in the way and prevented my from closing it at this stage I had to call the police due to my children seeing all this, while we were awaiting police the owners husband came out and got his car and parked it right infront of ours to prevent us from leaving, they were ringing our motel phone demanding payment saying were illegally on their property and they were going to trespass us, yet they were blocking our car in stopping us from leaving, police arrived and they had to move car we left without staying any nights. I should not have had to call police because we felt so intimidated by these people my children should not have had to see or hear this and the fact that she upset my daughter is not acceptable of someone that's in business they should be in business, this was so unprofessional, Police said they had no right and were not allowed to blocky our car in, they did not even apologise they were all about money and not about their customers or customer needs whatsoever The room was very overpriced as well Shame on you...

Motel itself was not so bad - room was clean. ||First room offered has a smoke in an air - definitely not stink - but for me non smoker allergic it was obvious somebody has enjoyed a puff in a bed recently. Room has been replaced immediately and hosts were exceptionally helpful including a little dog. ||It was cold night and I opted to use wall heater - to say it was noisy, say nothing. Imagine working on your tablet next to turboprop 12 seater so famous in Air NZ. ||There is a pool but it's not heated :(||Spa instead was great in spite of some unpleasant burnt plastic smell ...||And Hastings!!! I understand there are storm water and/or sewage problems but... Half of city is just blocked and the rest in 3 m deep trenches and holes. It's really looks like Syrian Damascus after airstrike. ||I came back few months later - no changes. The same noise and dust and blocked roads. Sure it has nothing to do with motels in vicinity but to call this warzone "great location"? Only if you came on mountain bike and enjoyed exercises...

Excellent location and all amenities are conveniently close by. Kids loved pool and spa bath and the bed was fairly comfortable. The room was poorly serviced every day - always short one towel and my child, when asking for a towel for the pool after our first night, was told, "There's none left because you guys didn't return your ones yesterday." We didn't know, and had left them hanging over our outdoor chairs. ||The kitchen was ill-equipped, no can opener, serving spoons, sharp knife, frying pan, large bowl, etc... Worse, the fridge part froze our food and the little freezer box didn't freeze at all! Lovely little place and the man we met with was nice, but the motel could benefit from some...