The Alpine Chalets — Hotel in North Island

The pictures on their site do not accurately represent the poor quality of the establishment. Unpainted plaster repair work, peeling paint, unfinished (but old) paintwork, un-vacuumed (or poorly vacuumed) carpet, and just poor in general. Worst of all, there is no agent of any kind there.

The only bright spot was the bar right across the street. We had a lovely meal there.

In the end it is a budget bed for hikers, skiers, or bikers. One step up from a tent. We slept well and nothing crawled on us in our sleep (that we know of), and I suppose we got what we paid for, but I wanted to leave a review just so people will not be fooled by the misleading photos.

Update: I don’t see it here, but the owner responded to me by saying that he thought it was severe to say that his/her place was only a step up from a tent.

Listen, I don’t like giving bad reviews. I loved New Zealand and it’s people, and hope to go back again soon. My primary reason for writing this review was the misleading photos on the site.

With just a little TLC this could be a fairly nice if not rustic motel. Finish the wall repairs. Finish painting. Vacuum the floors and the crevices in the sliding door (found a dead moth that took me a second to clean up - why didn’t the room attendant take the time to do that?) Sweep and maybe occasionally repaint the outdoor hallway - it was littered with leaves and other natural debris.

My review is well-intentioned: to help visitors make an informed decision about whether to stay there, and to give the owner some feedback to help his/her business. I truly want you to succeed! Just spend a little time on each room, just a little. Attention to details like cleanliness and appeal....

After booking to stay at Alpine Chalets a few weeks ago,we got shockingly disappointed when they cancelled our booking 48hours before our trip.||||Cancellation can be understandable but the manner in which they failed to communicate is appalling.Initially we booked for 2 adults and a baby via their website and it went through successfully.||||We called to discuss arrangements for our baby at which time they said they dont accept under 2 year old children. But because we had made the booking already,they promised to honour the booking via email.||||Yesterday suddenly they||decided to cancel our booking over fears our baby would disturb other guests.This threw our plans into disarray as accommodation is very hard to find during school holidays coupled with the Covid situation.||||Why did they not reject the booking in the first place and mislead us over email when they were clearly given the babys age?||||Why did they wait for 48hours before we travel to Tongariro to cancel the booking||||They are clearly not professional and need better customer service and communication...

This was our second time staying here and we'll definitely be back! Checking in/out was a breeze. We ended up staying an extra night due to the mountain being closed on one of the days of our trip, booking the extra night was so simple and we were able to pay the same rate as the rest of our stay! We fully expected to be paying extra at such short notice, but Mary was amazing and offered us the same price!! The newly renovated rooms look awesome, everything was spotless and cozy. It was so nice coming back to a warm, comfy room after a long day of snowboarding 😅 Mary was so easy to reach and was very hospitable — it's not often that you get great service like that 😊

PS: Complaining about road noise when you booked accommodation on a main road is a bit funny, you probably should have thought that one through 🤭 You won’t really find a place without road noise in this area. That said, it was so minimal we barely...