Aoraki Court — Hotel in South Island

We booked 2 bedrooms unit for our stay during September 2023. My family come from a very hot country but were well prepared for the alpine conditions. I do live in NZ and well aware of how to stay warm in our beautiful South Island.

I was so excited to bring my family here in a place that has fantastic reviews but unfortunately so many things have fallen below the acceptable standard of any alpine accommodation provider.

Firstly, our unit was not ready at check in time indicated at 2pm, the lady at reception kept saying that room will be available soon because there is some problem in a shower that staffs were trying to fix.

Secondly, at 2:40pm after finally being able to check in and were surprised by some of the rules relating to cooking salmon, seafood or curry type meals in the room. I totally understand where they are coming from in relarion to curry type meals, however salmon is a local delicacy and not known to be partocularly orderous.

To inform guests at check in of the hotels preferences is a bit late, dining options are very limited here in Mt.Cook. Many guests (including my group of 4) brought our own groceries here so we can cook while stay at Mt.Cook. We are not backpacker types but having traveled here with my husband before I was well aware of the shortcomings of local dining options.

Thirdly, all 3 of our wall heaters stopped working after we turned them on for 2 hours. I called the reception, a staff member came to look at it. He went to check at motherboard but unfortunately he could not fix and he had to bring 2 SMALL Goldair heaters to our unit as a partial substitute, not suitable in an extremely Cold Climate such as Mt. Cook.

We are so disappointed of the service and restrictions placed on us as guests, when considering the high rack rate that we paid.

If anyone wants to stay here, I would say don't check in on time because your room might not be ready. Call in advance, tell them what time you will be there and test every appliance before unpacking your bags.

We were not compensated in any way for our delayed check in, nor the lack of sufficient heating (even under the healthy homes act in a residential setting). It was snowing freezing, and we were left out...

Construction at this motel We would not stay here again. Firstly we were taken aback by the cleanliness and presentation of the room, considering the cost per night to stay, it was actually the most expensive hotel we stayed at during our travels around NZ. We didn't want to use the toaster because to us it looked dirty (photo provided) Construction at this motel The room we were in, faced towards the construction site (photo provided) there is no mention on this motels website that construction is being carried out. You are only made aware of this, only a couple of days out from your arrival - this motel has a 48hr cancellation policy, but it is at "managements discretion if they charge for the first nights accommodation" (more than likely they would). We felt we had no option but to stay, as we were concerned we would not find anywhere else to stay in the village in 2 days, and we didnt want to lose a nights accommdation. We feel that as guests, we were mislead by this motel, as it does not advertise the construction, and we feel that this is deceitful and not honest. We did not sleep very well, as the bed and pillows (which seem very old), were very uncomfortable. Looking at other guests images, it appears we were in an older room. We were also quite shocked at the treatment by Management towards another quest (removing the guests belongings from the room and placing them outside the door). This is our experience Any guest that writes a negative review is met with aggressive comments by management, with accusations that your comments are false and fabricated. They discredit the guests experience, and they warn travellers from believing what the guest writes. This review is what we experienced, what we witnessed, and what we regard as an honest review. All travellers have the opportunity to read other reviews, and make their...

This motel has many rules for guests that the staff strictly enforce. These interactions with staff made the visit less pleasant.

During our visit we found that the motel has strict rules about exactly where guests park their vehicles, what types of food guests cook in their rooms, and the amount of cleaning that guests do before they depart. The documentation in the room threatened fines if these policies are not followed.

We had a particularly inconvenient interaction with staff related to parking. Our group had two vehicles, but each motel room is allocated only one parking space. We parked our two vehicles in the spaces closest to our room, but we promptly received a phone call instructing us to remove our second vehicle from the motel premises. We asked whether we could park the second vehicle somewhere else on-site, but we were flatly refused and instead told to park off-site in a field in the dark several minutes walk away. This seemed an overzealous approach to parking rules because there were still dozens of unoccupied car parks available on-site, the vast majority of the motel’s units appeared to be unoccupied, and the motel clearly had a “Vacancy” sign displayed. Forcing us to park off-site seemed unnecessary.

Similarly, upon check-in we were explicitly instructed of several food items that we were forbidden from cooking.

Of course, the motel operators are well within their rights to set whatever policies they want, but I think our experience would have been more pleasant if the staff took a more flexible approach to their enforcement of their policies and interactions with guests.

Mt Cook is a lovely national park to visit, but I would recommend you consider other...