Taupo TOP 10 Holiday Park — Hotel in North Island

A Holiday Park is a profit-oriented business, and that's fine. But it is a shame to have the continuous feeling that your business transaction is not over after you paid and want to enjoy holidays.

This Holiday Park has the profit-thought present everywhere. Prices are over-the-top for the offered location, size of facilities and extra charges.

Our experience went steadily worse after arriving at Lake Taupo TOP10 Holiday Park in good spirit. We rented the double cabin which turned out to be just a box with a bed. No place to store anything. Not even a hook on the wall to hang a cloak or towel. Even the YHA provides a desk and chair in a room.

The other cabins and the dorm seem to have at least hooks, but are right across the bathrooms and kitchen.

The laundry is 6$ and a rip-off.* That's 50% more than in other (TOP10) parks, so the explanation that the "costs for gas" are responsible is a bad excuse. Oh, detergent is not included, of course. A shoutout to the nice man with his granddaughter that donated a full box of Persil to share. For hanging up laundry, you need to provide your own pegs - or BUY (!!) them from the reception.* As "People might steal them" Interestingly, a sign in the laundry room says you can get baskets and pegs at the reception "upon request".* I suppose they will take that sign quickly down now. They also have no baskets at all. Because "People might steal them" Location is okay, but check before you arrive. It's NOT walking distance to the town centre nor the lake itself. The facilities are clean. But get heavily crowded on the weekend. The kitchen is ridiculously small and thus always full and noisy. There are a few more showers and toilets closer to the tent sites, however. Would like to write that the facilities were new, but in my shower, the shower head came off. Needless to say that the 115$ per night for the sleeping box (double cabin) are entirely overpriced. The media room offers Sky and a smart TV. There is also a gas fireplace, which you can use - against a charge. The gaming room has an Emulator arcade and billiard which you can use - against a charge.* I am not sure if the barrier at the entrance is necessary.* Do people from outside also try to steal the services? It adds to the feeling of distrust you get here. The keypad for the barrier is definitely placed terribly, making manoeuvering a game of millimetres. At least the toilets don't have keypads (as in Oamaru). To be fair, there is one special touch that we really liked: Not in line with the other extra services, and clearly overlooked, there is a well-maintained herb garden you can (probably) use - in moderation. Anything else that was good about our stay came about by other guests. The internet connection (in the cabin) was not good. Not sure whether it was the shared use or distance to the access point.

This is not the case in other Holiday Parks. This is provided for free there. Maybe people only get the idea of stealing something when you treat them like thieves from the beginning and charge for every little thing, such as pegs.

** To the (shift?) manager: The biggest disappointment was your reaction when we pointed this out. Entirely unapologetic, your reaction was "that's simply the case" - a "Take it or leave it"-attitude. You did not want to spend a single work extra on this. That was inappropiate and irritated us. Despite having paid 115$/night, we were not treated as valued guests. This finally showed us that at Lake Taupo TOP10 Holiday Park, the profit - no matter how small - is more important than giving the guests a "holiday feeling". Please stop treating every customer as a potential thief. It seems to work at other holiday parks!

I am also disappointed with the lack of consistency in TOP10 prices for amenities such as washing machines. All prices should be the same or at least transparent on the booking website. Because of our experience here, this was our last TOP10 visit (out of...

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!! It’s not easy to start. I want to be brief in explaining… We rented a BASIC CABIN and there was Hard and OLD BED, We ask for a better bed and they said “THIS IS A CHEAP CABIN, if you want a comfortable bed YOU HAVE TO PAY MORE” My husband leave a bad review for the old bed and especially for the staff’s response. BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. Next day, one of the OWNERS a ladies around 50th, blonde and short hair… She told me “YOU HAVE TO DELETE THE REVIEW IF YOU WANT TO STAY HERE” I didn’t want to delete that because We were very disappointed with the situation. And I offered to delete that if they change the mattress. SHE SAID AGAIN: “YOU ARE PAYING A CHEAP CABIN, so the bed is cheap too” We paid a cheap cabin just we wanted a nice bed to sleep, nothing more!. She was very rude, she shouted loudly at me. "IF YOU DON'T DELETE THE BAD REVIEW, TAKE YOUR BAGS AND LEAVE THE PLACE, WE WILL REFUND YOU YOUR MONEY BACK". Very surprised and disappointed in her attitude. Since she literally kicked us out of the place... just for requesting a better bed and for leaving a bad review realistically.

She let me know that in NZ it is very rude to leave bad reviews, that this was not done in this country… Many times insinuating that as foreigners we are rude, She wanted to discriminate against us for being tourists. But we have been living in New Zealand for years and WE KNOW that she was the rude one here. And that new zealand stands out in giving the best customers services, the people are very polite and friendly. NOT LIKE THIS LADY! And what a disappointment that she is the owner.... I have also read other bad reviews from a few months ago. Claiming the same thing, OLD BEDS AND POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. I completely agree with that. Please try to improve. YOU ARE NOT A ...

To be fair we diddnt pay alot. But cheap an nasty is what it is. We had the cabin that should be at the museum. Ants everywhere and beetles all in the shower was so gross. It smelt like a hoarders house with an old man that hasn’t left the room for 6 months. Bed was as hard as concrete I actually wanted to sleep in the car but Mrs who had just had major surgery recently wouldn’t let me. Then there was horis outside playing loud music a getting on the piss and smoking while wondering around outside our cabin, honestly rather listen to my mother in law yap all night then that. The barista was nice made a bloody good coffee actually, like very good. Hot chocolate was terrible. I think hot milo with only half sooon full of Milo would be tastier. My Mrs politely complained about the ants. All we wanted was a sorry and an ant bate to keep us happy. We told the old sour lady that reminds me of my auntie actually, that ants are crawling in our baby’s bassinet and she made a smart remark “are the ants gonna get your baby”. Most staff lovely apart from the sour old as lady.

We had booked two nights, after the first we also asked if he could refund the second so we could stay somewhere else and was told no.

Will I be back? No I would sleep better in my car and wouldn’t have to pay $250 to sleep on a concrete bed with insects everywhere.

All we wanted was ant bate or yous to act like you care…. Fake it tell you make...