Taupo DeBretts Spa Resort — Hotel in North Island

When booking a powered site to stay in our caravan I advised that we were celebrating our Wedding Anniversary. The price was very expensive for what was offered, and then we were put right between 2 families with young children despite the grounds being practically empty. The children constantly wandered in and out of our site and caravan disturbing us. Although the amenities were clean, it was unnerving to be a woman having a shower only to walk out of it to discover a man walk out of the toilet/shower right next to the shower I was in, in the same bathroom! We went to the hot pools, one of which was inoperable, but we were charged full price for guests anyway - also extremely expensive having already paid an arm and a leg for a patch of grass! POOLS SHOULD BE FREE FOR GUESTS. I was greeted with 3 used bandages in the pool, babies without swimming nappies in the pool, and our 2 teenage boys were covered in abrasions on their backs from the joins in the slides. When we enquired as to weather there were mats available for this Health & Safety issue we were given a straight "no" and nothing else was done. We had to leave the establishment and go to buy our own. The food in the cafe wasn't appealing and it was also overpriced. A croissant with ham cheese and tomato that looked like it had been made days ago was $8. When checking out there was no opportunity given for feed back. No "how was your stay", just a simple "you can go now". A disappointing experience for a major tourist location and 5 star establishment which boasts "At Taupo DeBretts Spa Resort we pride ourselves on having a culture of quality and highly responsive customer service" and " We have also been recognised for our excellence by a number of awards over the years." We saw no evidence of...

This was highly disappointing, I recommend to avoid this place. The accommodation was totally overpriced considering the shoebox we got, bed was soggy, both doors were unhinged and hard to open, had to repair myself, surely the cleaner would have noticed that the doors are very hard to open. The fact that there are hardly foreign tourists around with lots of money it is a disgrace that you are not lowering your charges for the locals who are struggling as well with finances. On top of that we had to pay for the adjoined pool as well. The shoebox was very dated and looked a bit shabby too. Everything was tiny. The bunk beds were so short and low height (3 on top of each other) that it was impossible to get in or even turn around without hitting something. Even for kids that is too small! The bouncing place had kind of a roof but although it said open to 6pm the deflated it at 5pm when our kid still wanted to use it. Why do you have to do that?? The stench in the pool was unbearable! I am sure the fumes were toxic. They should have CLOSED the pool while they are resurfacing it. If we had known we would not have stayed there! I feel totally ripped off. We spent over $200 dollars for a tiny accommodation and a pool that was reeking with chemical fumes from the working in the next pool over at 7pm at night! This is a disgrace, I am sure the chemicals were toxic, at least I felt quite sick after half an hour and left the pool again (that we had paid for..) The slide was not accessible either for our kid because there was a height restriction of 1.2m for a standard water slide! We had no problems with the slides in Hanmer Springs in...

I don't usually review too much however I feel that I need to put my two cents in for this one. Our stay here was not good. ||So I'll start with the biggest issue I had. The combined unisex toilets/ showers. I had two occasions where I have entered the toilet facilities and there were groups of younger men loitering outside the showers playing music and acting rowdy. There behaviour and proximity to the showers made me uneasy. I have decided to walk out for safety reasons being a young female and the group of men started yelling out to me as i left the door. I feel as though in this day and age we need separate facilities for safety reasons. Especially when the hot water buttons for the showers are outside of the bathroom doors to access. This is the first time I have felt unsafe using facilities at a campsite and I have travelled to a lot of campsites around the world.||The second problem I had with this location was that we booked a powered site and returned after spending the day off the campsite. Upon returning to our campsite it was occupied by another family. I have approached the desk and the female advised that they had changed our campsite and rebooked us to an unpowered site. We received no calls/ emails advising us of this. Plus we paid for a powered site. After 2 days at the location we also identified that the power had not been turned on at our sites so we got no power in the end.||All in all. I would not stay here again. It's far from town so not within walking distance. Facilities are sub par. Safety is am issue. Plus you have to pay extra to use the...