Bella Vista Wanaka Motel Accommodation — Hotel in South Island

Don't Let Ugly Souls Sour Your Holiday

Our family has traveled throughout Australia twice and New Zealand once. We have only encountered beautiful souls in these travels - friendly, cheerful, accommodating, inquisitive, and interesting.

Well that all changed at Bella Vista. Upon check-in I had the unfortunate opportunity of dealing with the female proprietor who was more excited to see her suspicious looking acquaintance (who entered behind me and proceeded to exchange small items and $$$ with her) than she was her newly arriving guests. While she wasn't rude, I just didn't feel the same cheerful greeting that I had become accustomed to. Upon going back to the car, I mentioned this to my wife. I said to her that this was the first time in both Australia and New Zealand that I really did not feel welcome. Subsequently, I came back to the office to provide our license plate information and encountered her husband who was actually surprisingly pleasant at this point.

Sure enough, the following morning upon delivering our keys to reception the same woman told me that I am a "liar". Upon inquiry, she indicated that I did not tell her that I had 2 children and that I owed her an additional $50. I said that there must be a mistake and I showed her on my cell phone that I had booked and paid for the accommodation for 2 adults and 2 children in their FAMILY ROOM!!!! She showed me a printout that said 2 adults. I suggested that she take the issue up with the booking site. She said that it wasn't the booking site and that I am a "liar". I really felt personally attacked by her accusations and I do have some thick skin. We would never try to cheat anyone and would happily pay what fees were appropriately due. Interestingly enough we passed the office and hauled all of our luggage upstairs with our children - if there was an issue, this could have been brought to our attention at this point or at any other point when we entered or exited throughout our stay.

She proceeded to chase me out of the office upon my refusal to give her more money. Her husband was on the balcony and ran down and started screaming in my face for the entire motel to hear accusing me of being a liar and insulting the United States of America from which we come. I must say at this point I did begin to use profanities and rightly so at this point. They threatened to call the police on us and we promptly departed.

Who raised these people?...How could one human treat another human this way?...It was just a horrible experience that my family should not have endured during our otherwise amazing holiday in New Zealand.

As far as the room goes, our only complaint was that there was no air conditioning and we could not let our equipment charge when we were not present due to the nature of requiring the key to power the room.

There is a reason that Bella Vista is the only lodging with a vacancy. I would have rather slept in the car with my wife and 2 children (10 and 11) than spend a single minute at these ugly souls'...

This motel refused to give me a fair refund when the roads were closed (so we couldn't possibly get there from Tekapo). I've honestly never dealt with worse customer service or just the general attitude from a company. They even tried to blame Wotif for not refunding me. Instead I was offered a credit that I was only allowed to use in the same month, when I attempted to use it, they tried to charge me double the original amount for the same room because it was 'a busy month' for the motel. I can't afford to go up again with petrol prices anyway, let alone doubling the amount for accommodation. $200 may not seem like a lot of money to them but it is to me so I will be taking them to the Tribunal for breaching the Fair Trading Act. As a NZ business you don't actually get to make up any terms and conditions you want, they need to be fair and this simply wasn't.

EDIT: As a reply to their pretty condescending reply below... I had booked this accomodation the day before, as I have a disability I was unable to safely drive the 4 1/2 hours (vs 2 hours normally) in the deep fog and constant frost to get to Wanaka. I let them know this. They did offer me the credit that they told me I had to use within the month of July or it would expire. When I tried to use it they told me there was no accomodation in July other than paying more money for an upgrade I couldn't afford. So whilst they're making it all sound very reasonable - they are assuming a level of ableness and extra money (which I do not have and let them know this at the time) to pay for double the petrol and an upgrade simply because they didn't want to lose $200. A lot for me to lose but very little for them and that's why I bothered to write...

when i booked the room, 3 months in advance to ensure i booked a room to suit our requirements. i specifically asked for a down stairs room, no steps as wife is disabled, and a walk ion shower. the room type booked was a superior king studio, and as the description on line says it is larger in size. when we arrived for our stay. i did received confirmation from the motel with my special requirements, that yes, the room as requested has been booked for me. Alas, when i arrived at the motel for my stay, the motel obviously completely ignored my special request and proceeded to tell me that i now have an upstairs room. I questioned this allocation based on fact i had confirmation that a down stairs room with walk in shower was confirmed as a booking. they then rejigged the booking so as i had a down stairs room. BUT with no walk in shower. in addition the room was so small, it was difficult to manage with a disabled person. will i stay with them again, no way, the motel management, just does not want to care or provide facilities that...