Rainbow Motel & Hot Pools Turangi — Hotel in North Island

When we arrived we asked the owner for few extra towells as we wanted to use the hot pools. We were told, in a rather gruff tone, that there weren't any more avaialble until the cleaner arrived the next morning at 10:00am. When we arrived in Room 2, the first thing we noticed were the heaps of insects about plus some crawling around on the carpet, of which only the bedroom had. This is an indication that the building isn't sealed properly, for that many bugs to be able to be inside at any given time. Another thing we immedaitely noticed is that there appeared to be absolutely no insulation of any kind between the walls and under the cold, wooden floors, it's 2025 not 1965. There was very noticeable amounts of noise transfer between units (people talking, laughing and dragging around chairs along the cold wooden floors etc). There was no electric blanket on the spare bed in the living area, it gets cold at night in the central plateau of the North Island. The outdated TV didn't even have a built in Chromecast, so it's just as well we took our own! On the positive side, the thermal heating and hot pools were great, although the night lighting in the hot pools was inadequate, so we were only able to use the one hot pool at night that had enough lighting in it. The motel is not within walking distance of the Turangi shops, so be sure to take all of your own supplies. We won't be staying...

For a 3 star motel, this is actually pretty amazing. ||||Pros: private geothermal pools open any time! This was what decided us to come here, and were not disappointed.||Online booking was easy and had a big discount, booked while family driving towards town.||Different sizes of apartment, we had a 2brm that would sleep 5.||Small but furnished kitchenette, pretty standard.||Geothermal heaters in the rooms, plus an extra oil heater in case you needed more.||Sparse but clean.||Close to ski areas etc but not on the main road, so not as busy.||Service was good, friendly and helpful manager.||||Cons: iphone map app can show the wrong address if you input the address without the motel name||Takeaways delivery didn’t happen despite being told they would deliver… but that was a fault with the takeaway company.||The furniture is very simple, chairs not hugely comfortable.||DVD player appeared to be broken, no instructions on use of TV or DVD units. ||Milk was only a small amount in a little glass bottle with no lid, so was in danger of spilling...

Well I’m in two minds about this review. We arrived in afternoon after departing Auckland on the first day of a 13 day road trip to South Island. I thought my mate from Canada would appreciate a place with hot springs. Well, the manager was drunk as a skunk. The reception office reeked of alcohol. The manager was very very obtuse with the customer in front of me. When he finally got to checking me in he came out with the most rude, embarrassing and inappropriate dribble. I couldn’t get away from him quick enough. Yuk!

The room was very comfy, beds fine, TV system on. High pressure shower.

The hot spring pools were pretty filthy to be honest. The white towels we used were stained brown after drying off. The pools all need to be drained and a water blaster used to tidy them up. Maybe I’m a tad fussy as I’m used to Japanese Onsen type pools but, yep, a bit of TLC is required.

So hard for me to give a great rating as it all started so badly with the embarrassingly drunken “welcome” from the...