Garden Court Suites & Apartments — Hotel in South Island

Our intended stay at The Garden Court Suites was from 20th to 24th December 2024. ||However having paid in full at reception the accommodation was so bad we left after about 40 minutes without unpacking having agreed on a 3 night refund. ||The property failed to refund us and after 30 days of constant chasing them, the well know booking platform we used for the reservation stepped in and refunded us. Full credit to them, but shame on the Marsden Group that own the property. ||This is the first time I have had a bad experience of a property. The accommodation was so poor in relation to its description that we did not stay and made alternative arrangements at our own expense. ||Whilst the receptionist was very kind, she only had authority to refund three out of the four nights. I felt we should have a full refund for the four nights as the apartment we were allocated was simply awful. I guess that isn’t going to happen so beware if you do opt to stay here. ||The issues were.|1. Upon opening the door the whole property smelt foul and of stale curry.|2. The kitchen area was dirty and greasy.|3. The furniture in the lounge was very dated and getting tatty as were the carpets and the bedrooms.|4. Similarly the bathrooms were not to a standard you would expect for a £250-£300 a night property or its description. |5. The”patio garden” was not a garden. It wasn’t even secure. It was a small area which was pretty much a path along the entire length of all the property’s which anyone could access.|6. Views were limited to say the least. |7. Parking was awful. Basically our allocated space was tight up against next door’s front door in a very tight alleyway.|8. Beware of the photos with lake views. Whilst I am sure the far end properties probably do have some sort of view, the majority are at right angles to this, and have either no view at all such as ours would have been or run parallel to a road. ||In summary we left without unpacking and within 40 minutes of arrival and stayed in a hotel over the road. ||You will see from my previous reviews I have never had the need to do a review such as this before. ||I note other reviews are positive maybe we were unlucky but I wouldn’t ever consider staying here or any Marsden Group...

We stayed here for 2 nights as part of a month long tour of NZ. Our first impressions of this motel were dismay - it was right by a large set of road works and the accommodation blocks looked very uninspiring to say the least. It also looked to be a pain for parking - there was a fairly narrow access driveway in, and then spaces were numbered by room, and we had to put our car in a numbered space just to check in at reception. We were then directed to our room which was in the furthest block down the hill, for which the allocated park was underneath and had another access driveway. This was fine, although it would have been tight to manoeuvre in if another car had been in the bay next to us (thankfully not). |The room itself was far nicer than we anticipated - it had a very nice view out over the lake, with the Remarkables mountain range to the left, and a balcony to enjoy this from too, with a small table and chairs on.|There was a very spacious open plan lounge and kitchen, with large dining table as well as sofa and coffee table. Then there was a separate bathroom and also a washing machine and dryer in the passageway to that. The bedroom was rather dark, being at the "non view" side of the block, but fine. The kitchen was very modern. I note comments about the lounge wooden furniture being old - yes it is, and perhaps not my taste, but its good quality so nothing to complain about.|Queenstown is hilly so it was a steep walk down into the town and a hard climb back up, but good for us especially after dinner! |On that score, we highly recommend Boardwalk by the waterfront for a nice meal, and Perky's floating cocktail bar is lovely too on a warm evening which we were lucky enough to enjoy! Also enjoyed the Minus5 Ice Bar on our second night for...

Firstly I stay in Queenstown monthly on business and not by choice as my usual accomidation the Holiday Inn was fully booked for the evening of 23rd October so the only other choice I thought was of the same slandered was this place , how wrong was I. On arrival entered reception to the smell of somebody's lunch cooking then the receptionist came out from eating ( if I hadn't booked in advance a non refundable room I would have walked out then ) Anyway from receiving my key and directed by map to my car park but as i found out there was no park for 408 eventually found room 408 studio at the end upstairs to which was like it was an add on room . When I entered the room it felt very depressing like a 1980s through back so went back to reception to ask for another room and mention there was no car park for 408 . It was like talking to hot air as clearly they didn't care less with there smug false smile saying sorry but we don't have anymore studios available plus the reply to car park was just park in 409s spot . Now I must mention the most discusting part of this stay as this studio has a connecting door to the next studio well at 11.30pm I am woken to the most vial smell of like burnt roast lamb only to discover the connecting door isn't sealed and the fumes are coming through the connecting door and as there's no veneration in the room I turn on the kitchen extractor and bathroom fan . Never ever as long as I live will ever stay here again or recommended it to my worst enemy and feel everybody needs to know how discusting Garden Court Motel...