Gretna Hotel Taihape — Hotel in North Island

Passing through Taihape and thought we would try the Gretna Hotel for dinner. First appearances of the dining area were, it was run down/dirty, but there were plenty of people there, so I thought there was either nowhere else open, or this place was ok. We were greeted by the waiter and told we could sit anywhere, to view the menu, and to go to the bar to order. We picked a table, then noticed it looked like someone had spat or sneezed their food all over the table cloth, so we moved to one that had a little less aspirated food coating, but most were dirty to some degree - which wasn't a good start. Went through the menu and went to order at the bar. Some people in front of us ordered, but when it was our turn, we were told sorry the kitchen is closed. Wow, these were some big guys. Did they order all the remaining food? Or perhaps the bar person didn't like the look of us? Whatever the reason this was at about 7:10pm. Apparently, if we waited till 8.40pm, the kitchen may have opened again. But rather than wait we left and had a very nice meal in Waiouru. Wouldn't recommend the Gretna, and...

This is to the owners of the Gretna Hotel, we stayed for 3 days at your hotel and your staff were so helpful, polite and welcoming and the locals so awesome to talk to, but unfortunately the rooms need a lot of attention we had to ask for towels, on the first day our cousins headboard fell off the wall and we had to fix it. There were cobwebs and dead flies on the windows and no TV channels at first we only had 2 channels that was sky rugby and the races on the first day the other 2 days we had no tv at all. There’s no vents in the bathrooms so everything felt wet if we had a shower due to the steam from the shower. As for the Restaurant we had a hard time even booking a table as the cook/chef was unable to cook alot of meals and some customers were turned away due to staff shortage. Our stay was a pleasant one. We hope the next time we come back to Taihape there have been some renovations done mainl to the rooms, and you have more chefs in the...

A very warm welcome on arrival by staff who bent over backwards to make our stay a great time. The rooms are so very affordable and - while basic - are spotlessly clean and have a certain dated charm to them. Bed was comfortable and the heating was very effective on a cold winter's night. We got an ensuite room for only a few $$ more so we didn't have to trapse down the hall to the shared bathrooms. No tea/coffee making facilities in the room but a shared kitchen down the hall did the trick.||The restaurant and bar are a fun time. Old-school vibe. Locals and staff alike made us so welcome. The restaurant staff were so attentive and focused on making our experience a good one. Instantly fixed a wee hiccup with the meal and checked we were ok with the music volume etc. We felt very pampered. The perfect stopover for a couple of weary...