Hilton Lake Taupo — Hotel in North Island

To say we were disappointed with our recent stay would be an understatement. My wife and I got married recently and travelled from Christchurch to stay at Hilton Taupo for 2 nights last week as part of our Honeymoon.

We both met working for a Hilton in Melbourne 7 years ago, and have since worked in multiple hotels and travelled to Hiltons all over the world such as Hilton Molino Stucky Venice as part of our old work perks. So when I say that this is the worst Hilton I've ever stayed at, it speaks volumes, and was hard to vocalize.

We arrived and the two check in staff proudly announced that they were brand new and knew nothing about what they were doing - great. We advised them we had just got married, and told them about our history with Hilton, hence we wanted to stay with them. They acknowledged our engagement, despite it being on our reservation notes they were blissfully unaware. It should have been exciting and special for us. We spent a decade celebrating these moments with guests, and our welcome was so disappointing.

We had booked direct (obviously, we know that third party guests are given lesser quality rooms - trust us, we used to allocate them). We had booked a lake view room and were placed on the ground floor. I returned to the reception and asked the duty manager if he had any better rooms given it was a special stay, he informed me it was fully booked (I'm not surprised, ironman was on). I've been on the other side of the desk for 10+ years, and I hate to be the guest that kicks up a stink, so I let it be and went back to my wife.

We had a nice welcome/congratulations card, but again, it was our honeymoon and we were given two small chocolate fish... I'm sorry, but that was laughable. It was actually embarrassing. We used to give champagne at Hilton Melbourne, or a cheeseboard, sometimes both if we liked the guests on arrival. It's such a special occasion and most people get married once. Not to mention, our rates were significantly higher given ironman, so a chocolate fish would be a nice touch for a first time honors guest maybe?

Breakfast the following morning was pretty lackluster, I noticed a large amount of guests from America huffing and puffing at how below par the breakfast offering was, again, anyone who has ever stayed at a Hilton has an expectation. This was your standard bacon, eggs, mushrooms, beans, sausage, a few breads, some fruit, cheeses and meats. The second day the buffet was in a state of disrepair, no tea cups, the kitchen was struggling to keep enough food out. They advised us we could order a la carte, and I wish we knew that the day before, it was much better than the buffet offering. But again it takes me back to every other Hilton, the offerings are so much grander, omelette stations, boiled eggs, international food offerings. Mostly we were disappointed by the quality and how cold a lot of the 'hot' offerings were.

Enough of the negatives, because we actually enjoyed our time in Taupo as you'll see in some of my other reviews. The bed was good, the room was spacious and modern, I liked the underfloor heating in the bathroom. The pool and spa was great, ample seating and the sauna and steam room were in good condition.

I don't think there was a club lounge? The American guests all seemed displeased with that, but again, it's what you expect from Hilton.

It's a shame I had to write this review. As you will see in other reviews, I love to celebrate great hospitality venues, but always review honestly. I'm not afraid to provide honest and fair feedback based on experience working and travelling through many hotels...

I feel compelled to put feedback or review The Hilton Taupo -something that I don’t normally do publicly after a dreadful experience last weekend, 3rd – 5th July. After COVID lockdown and several trips being cancelled a group of us decided to have a luxury weekend away to celebrate a few birthdays This was a weekend away for three couples in three separate rooms booked at The Hilton Taupo . Upon arrival after a long drive, two of the rooms weren’t ready . We were told it would be half an hour but even after that the rooms were not ready. We were then told we could go to a function room for refreshments where it become obvious there was an issue. There appeared to be a minimum of 20 other people there enjoying the generous refreshments – percolated coffee and carrot cake. We indicated this wasn’t good enough and some complimentary wine was arranged that immediately went to one of other victims that was waiting. After having to ask for more wine they also provided cheese boards but only after one of our party complained several times. Our rooms became available at 530 almost three hours after we arrived and 2.5 hours after normal promised check in time. Unfortunately this set the precedence for the weekend and I will stick to the main issues That night dinner we were joined by two others making it a pre booked table of 8 to celebrate the birthdays. I wasn’t interested in fast food but when we ordered our meals and waited an hour and half to have ALL the ENTREES and MAINS to arrive at the same time it was uncomfortable. The guests who had entrees sent their mains back. I believe the table was offered a bottle of wine that would cost wholesale $15 between the eight of us. The guests then had to wait for their mains to be returned while we sat around and the returned meals were partly cold and sent back (and subsequently refunded i believe). The remainder of the weekend we ate elsewhere and had exceptional food and service without incident. At checkout we remarked that the stay was pitiful. One of the other parties complained and was given a 25% discount immediately by the same person we had given feedback to. They stated we all came as a group and despite the fact we were still in the foyer we weren’t offered anything so I'm miffed as to the inconsistency ? Later the person who made the booking complained in writing to the Manager who said they had not received my feedback- well here it is. I’m sorry but an apology and an offer of 25% discount on our next visit is insulting and to be frank what I’d expect from a 3 star hotel with the 2 star experience we had. I have stayed at several Hiltons previously (including Hilton Taupo) and have had amazing experiences. I heard numerous complaints from others over the weekend and have seen some feedback online and to be blunt I can only attribute this to lack of staff and poor management. I’ve have previously worked 15 years in the hospitality industry so I am sympathetic to the stresses and challenges faced but to me its inexcusable to charge a full rate and ask us to shop local with our hard earned money in these times and only get a mediocre and...

Good location, good food. But the Hilton Lake Tanpo is definitely not worth the stay for the lack for foresight in preparation, delayed checkin and haughty service towards us.

We were turned away at checkin at 3pm, and managed to enter at 5pm. Though clarifying that booking.com made a fault, upon our arrival at 3pm, that our booking was for four and not two, room preparations when we entered at 5pm were made for two.

To our dismay, the bed was not made, and insufficient amenities were prepared for the four of us. The hotel safe had even been locked from the prior guests. The hotel staff told us they would come immediately to fix things.

We were alright pushing our own luggage in, but we had to step in and offer to help an eldery guest with her luggage as there was no bellboy present. Both our families were using the bellboy luggage trolley to wheel our luggage to our room and it was a hilarious sight, because we were both paying for the Hilton but doing their jobs apparently. What's worse was that we actually made eye contact with the front desk staff, and they actually let us by! They completely ignored our obvious need while they were busy with their leisure conversations over the front desk.

We waited 45 mins and delayed our evening plans but nobody came. We called the hotline and the service staff sounded annoyed and dismayed by our call, sighing on multiple instances. He cited that "our housekeeping team is very busy" even though there was practically nobody on the walk in and he told us to wait. Upon asking for a time estimate, I was transferred to a supervisor of sorts.

The hotel supervisor (Lizel?) was likewise rude and unbecoming, speaking down to us for our requests and seemingly annoyed. She even hung up the phone while I was mid-sentence, saying "I will put the phone down now" even though I was trying to clarify my requests and obtain a further time estimate which was never provided.

After what felt like an eternity, the service lady came in to drop off extra pillows, but ran off before we could remind her about the extension of the sofa bed. We booked and paid for a suite in the Hilton – I certainly hope they weren't expecting me to open up the sofa myself?

Overall, the location is great if you love nature and the treks are spectacular, but don't stay at the Hilton Lake Taupo unless you want service to be withheld, to be verbally abused and...