Sudima Lake Rotorua — Hotel in North Island

I simply cannot believe this is a 4-star hotel. Even my last stay in a motel is better than this! The only good thing is the location and probably 80% of the hotels in town qualify this.

Firstly the room itself is horrible for a 4-star hotel. When we first enter the room, it’s full of the chemical smell of cleaning products. The room is old and small, facilities are either not properly cleaned or very old. The TV is not even smart TV nor has Sky channels. Poor natural lights and no views from the room. If you want privacy and pull the curtain, then basically you have to turn on your lights cause it’s too dark. Due to the poor design of the room,the noise proof is also horrible, you can hear everything outside if someone is talking or kids running. You cannot open the bathroom window and in the evening you can see bugs covered on the window. There’s even one spider on my bed when I try to sleep. The lights are not working and the kettle was broken! Unbelievable!

Secondly, the service was unpleasant too. We waited for the room for like over 3 hours. I do understand there might be staff shortage but the reception could’ve handled it differently! They provided us incorrect waiting time and wrecked our afternoon plan. We stayed in town only for the room and when we came back the room was still not ready. The staff were kinda friendly however there’s only apologies without any action. No drink vouchers nor discounted (or even complimentary) breakfast was offered! I worked in hospitality industry and had faced these situations but I’d deal with these differently and at least make the guests happy. But my understanding is overwhelmed by my disappointment and our experience could’ve been much better if they had a different approach.

Definitely think twice and choose wisely before coming. The town has many other hotels providing better room and service with similar or lower price. The hotel service and room simply don’t match the brand and price and there’re so many things they need to work on. Firstly is probably the renovation and more professional training.

We regret so much for not researching properly before coming to Rotorua. The town is so lovely but the hotel experience ruined our mood and it’s definitely throned “the worst accommodation” throughout our...

The lack of cleanliness is the main thing about this old run down excuse for accomodation that is clearly profiteering from the public and government. Mould everywhere, a shower that drained eventually (after 20 minutes) I hate to think what was down the drain. Broken furniture, cracks in the walls, torn curtains and blinds, the carpets had been vacuumed at some point, you could clearly see where from the amount of dust, debris and dead insects still left round the skirtings. Considering these places are “deep cleaned” didn’t exactly inspire us and we were fortunate to have a good supply of sanitiser with us. We had to request at least one third of our meals as they always ‘forgot’ to bring us any. Most of which we left anyway as the food was well quite simply unhealthy mass prepped stodge!!! ‘Room service’ $16 for garlic bread, $10 for a microwaved pie (still cold in the middle) with a small bag of potato chips. Food was prepped in a conference room – we witnessed preparation. Surely this does not abide by health regulations? The lack of metal cutlery (just 1 set per person would have been sufficient). Ever tried eating from bamboo cutlery, it’s not nice. We were given 84 bamboo sets in our 14 day stay! $25 for a “snack basket” a tube of pringles, few packets of nuts and a muesli bar. $42 for a bottle of wine that you could get for $12 from the supermarket across the road if you were allowed out or could order in. On leaving we discovered the bed mattress was badly stained on both sides of the bed and appeared to have blood on it also – if we’d known that during our stay we wouldn’t have slept on it. It really was the most disgusting experience, the Sudima hotel chain should be ashamed, we were horrified to have been treated like this in our own country and feel New Zealanders should be made aware of just how low the standard is for the unlucky ones that get the ‘short straw’ isolation accommodation. We survived but I pray for anyone else having to go to this...

This might be an unfair mark - only a 3 when it should be a 10, not even a 5... The room service gets a 10. Beds made beautifully, amazing collection of NZ made, high end toiletries, towels and little touches put there by the staff to make your stay pleasant. Location also gets a 10. Wanna stay in lake Rotorua, closer to the lake than this? Well, that's when you'll have to sleep on a boat. Staff/hosts gets a 10. Every time you pass a hotel employee, they smile at you, say "Kia Ora" or hello, and wish you a pleasant stay. They often ask if they can help with anything. Or they offer a slice of that amazing, dry, sneaky kiwi humor. 10 for the location, not just in terms of the lake, but proximity to amenities. Polynesian spa, Pac'N'Sav, shopping center, McD's or Macca's as they call it here. And the main street. Everything is close.

The 3 comes in when we look at the buildings themselves. The quality of the utilities. We had an unfortunate timing issue that we landed exactly as water was being turned off for maintenance. We had traveled almost 5 hours, through rain, trucks, and a bad KFC meal, only to arrive to "fifteen minutes" of running water. Turns out, there was hot water only. Only in Rotorua. The next morning, one person managed a warm\hot shower. Then we gave up. The geysers more than make up for my BO. They did offer to move us to another room, but we had too many bags to move... and we had a cultural experience with Tamaki Maori Village which the hotel helped us BOOK and PAY for with our rooms. IN OUR OWN CURRENCY (several available, AUD, USD, EUR (I think...))! How cool? See what I mean, 10 star service.

So, short of ripping out the pipes, or giving the place a reasonable update in the utilities and amenities, there is not much that can be done. Just as long as you know that there are a couple kinks in this hotel's otherwise...