Ramada Resort By Wyndham Rotorua Marama — Hotel in North Island

I booked accommodations for 2 nights for my family a month prior to our arrival in Rotorua for the last two nights of our holiday trip in NZ. A few nights before our expected arrival to the resort we were called by the Resort Staff advising that the property was overbooked and that they needed us to downgrade from a 3 bedroom chalet to a 2-bedroom townhome. Being accommodating people we obliged. We were only offered 15% off of our initial booking rate. This writing comes the morning after our first night at the property. It is beautiful here. The location is about 20 minutes away from the city center and a good number of the tourist attractions. The property is well maintained and the units are nice, albeit the upstairs is warm in the evening because there are no air conditioners upstairs. Heat rises. The staff is friendly, but maybe not too accommodating.

The unit we were moved to is next door to a unit that is privately owned and is under renovation. I requested other accommodations but was informed the property was fully booked. The primary driver for the request to be moved is that I am in my masters program and had designated today to study and work on my capstone project. It is very hard to focus with table saws, miter saws, and hammering going on. I explained this to guest services and received sympathy, but not much else. Upon my return to my room I searched for open rooms at the property and found one - 3 bedroom chalet available for tonight. Keep in mind this is the room I was informed was overbooked and not available. So my frustration stems from being "misinformed" - although some may consider this being lied to - on the room availability.

Trying to not let this experience ruin my last night in New Zealand, as the trip has been...

Friendly and helpful staff. I'm so glad we booked a unit here. One of the very best full equipped units we have seen across various cities in NZ. It was equipped with absolutely everything - all we needed was to purchase groceries. Ample car parking and one can park just outside their unit. The backyard has a deck with a large table and seat. The backwaters flow in the backyard and has multiple jetties. We visited in Winter but I'm sure it must be getting used during the summer season. Lots of ducks to keep the young kids busy however please constantly supervising young kids because once in backyard the access into water is not barricaded and is completely open.

Back to the interiors now. The entire unit was clean and tidy. The unit we lived in had 3 bedrooms upstairs along with a large bathroom which also had a washing machine and a dryer. The bedrooms were average size and allowed room for movement after keeping a std large suitcase. The beds and pillows were comfortable.

This resort is about 12 KMs from the town. There is a mini mart about 5mins away by car for urgent requirements. For bulk grocery shopping I would recommend going into town to Countdown or the other grocery stores.

The resort has a restaurant. Can't comment on the quality, quantity or affordability of the food served as we didn't need to use. I did however get a take away coffee which was done well.

There is also a good view available of the lake next to the restaurant. Again please note there are no barricades so kindly always ensure to supervise the young ones.

We would certainly come back and highly recommend...

Very disappointed with their ill equipped booking system and customer servicing!!

My comfirmed booking (with an email confirmation sent to me along with a message saying "no further recomfirmation needed") was not entered/taken by the resort. I then spent 2 hours talking to both resort's own customer service team and also booking agent to see if anything can be done to restore my confirmed booking, which apparently the resort had subsequently given the room to someone else. All I received from their customer service desk was that "we are sorry that because of our system glitch, there's nothing we can do to help you".

Had I not called 2 days after receiving the confirmation email just to double check my trip, which is 1 week away, we would have thought we have our booking and trip all sorted but only to turn up on the day with even bigger disappointment!

Now our family trip is ruined, with nowhere else available in a short space of time, or unless to pay a huge premium for something that doesn't equate to its value. It leaves us with bad taste in our mouths thinking that how such an easy thing could have so stuffed up!?

Ramada by Wyndham, in this time and age, by saying that sorry we have a system glitch is not good enough. Please sort out your failed booking system(s) or platform(s) asap, and always provide alternative solutions to resolve or accommodate your customers' requests...