Aoraki Alpine Lodge — Hotel in South Island

We stayed for a night as we had booked flights to head over Mount Cook. I do not have much to say about the room since it was a basic motel set up, and something I would expect for schools or large groups to book than small groups.

My main issue and reason for this review is the lack of communication from the staff at reception. We were travelling over from Greymouth and advised we would be arriving close to 8pm but may arrive around 9pm. As we couldn’t stop along the way to organise dinner, we asked what was available in the small town and were directed to check with a local restaurant at another lodge. Furthermore, we were told they stayed open till late and offered dinner. Going by this, we arrived and then tried to reach out to the restaurant advised by your staff only for them to advise the kitchen was closed. In the end we sorted out some snacks for the night, however it did sour our time here after a long journey travelling to the location.

Worse yet, after reading through the information book within the room, we found another restaurant - Alpine Restaurant - stayed open for longer kitchen wise and would have been a better alternative for us considering the late arrival.

This just worsens the experience with your lodge as it seems your staff has offered what they deemed beneficial to the business by promoting a restaurant which evidently wasn’t going to help us based on our late arrival time. Please train your staff so future travellers who make the journey to your lodge...

We spent $250 to stay the night at a place no greater than a motel 6/ hostel. The room was old, dingy and had flies. The bathroom had no real shower. It was literally a drain in the ground and hose next to the toilet and a flimsy plastic film that separated the two. The sink was clogged with hair and food so when i washed my face the entire sink flooded and i would have to turn off the water every few seconds and wait for it to drain and then resume. It was a nightmare. The mattress was crap! It must have been 20+ years old as it felt like it had a broken spring because the mattress sank in only one side so i constantly had to shift to the other side of the mattress because throughout the night i kept rolling back to the edge of the sucken side of the bed. After checkout we decide to get some work done in the common area outdoor patio before our hike. The hostel manager or maybe she was the owner tells us that we cannot remain in the building after our checkout which includes common area even if were sitting outside on the patio not bothering anyone! I completely understand if this place was crowded with people waiting for a seat but we were the only two people there! This entire experience was the worst! We regret not paying a little more to stay at the gorgeous hotel next door but instead ended up at this overpriced hostel that they call a lodge. ||* side note- the asian girl who worked there is super sweet so they are very lucky to have...

We spent $250 to stay the night at a place no greater than a motel 6/ hostel. The room was old, dingy and had flies. The bathroom had no real shower. It was literally a drain in the ground and hose next to the toilet and a flimsy plastic film that separated the two. The sink was clogged with hair and food so when i washed my face the entire sink flooded and i would have to turn off the water every few seconds and wait for it to drain and then resume. It was a nightmare. The mattress was crap! It must have been 20+ years old as it felt like it had a broken spring because the mattress sank in only one side so i constantly had to shift to the other side of the mattress because throughout the night i kept rolling back to the edge of the sucken side of the bed. After checkout we decide to get some work done in the common area outdoor patio before our hike. The hostel manager or maybe she was the owner tells us that we cannot remain in the building after our checkout which includes common area even if were sitting outside on the patio not bothering anyone! I completely understand if this place was crowded with people waiting for a seat but we were the only two people there! This entire experience was the worst! We regret not paying a little more to stay at the gorgeous hotel next door but instead ended up at this overpriced hostel that they call a lodge. ||* side note- the asian girl who worked there is super sweet so they are very lucky to have...