Holiday Inn Express & Suites Queenstown by IHG — Hotel in South Island

I’m so disappointed with Holiday Inn in Queenstown. It has practically destroyed my first impression of this town. I’m here with a tour group so I do expect to get some of the less desirable rooms in the hotel, but I didn’t expect the experience to be so bad. The size of the room is certainly a problem. We are a group of 3 adults and we asked for 3 separate beds but the hotel could only offer us one two-bed room (the front desk gave it to us with a “take it or leave it” attitude, as if it is our problem for being a group of 3 adults). They say these are queen size beds. I don’t have a tape measure with me to check, but it’s just so small. We have 3 big luggages and the room is just 20-ish square meters, which is way too small for 3 adults and our luggages. All our luggages are on the floor at the foot of the beds and we can’t walk around the room without running into things. If it’s just a matter of size, I think we can suck it up for 3 nights. Yet, the service is the most appalling part of the problem. We have only been here since 5pm today (It’s almost 10pm now, so just 5 hours), but we’ve only been met with disappointment after disappointment. When we got to the room, after being shocked by how small it was, we realised that they only gave us 2 sets of everything, like drink mugs and rinsing cups. So, we are given the feeling that even housekeeping is accustomed to setting these rooms up for 2 people, and not 4 people as the frontdesk said. The air-conditioning was also out of order with an error message on the screen. The room was SO HOT. We went to the frontdesk on our way out to ask for assistance. For the mugs and cups, the guy just pulled a couple from the bartending area and handed them over to us. We were heading out but obviously the staff of this international hotel group had no care for that. So one of us three had to bring the items back to our room before we go out. Then we talked to the frontdesk about the error in the air-conditioning screen as we didn’t know if it was something we should be dealing with ourselves or not. He made a call and said “oh I can’t contact housekeeping. We’ll get it fixed later”. We said we are heading out and he said it’ll be ready when we are back. We trusted him on fixing the problem but to our astonishment, the room was still hot and the screen still had the error message when we returned at 9pm. I want to stress that we did not put up any do-not-disturb sign so it wasn’t an issue of them not being allowed into our room. By then, we were already so fed up with the staff here, we just tried to fix the error on the air-conditioning ourselves. Luckily, after a few minutes of clicking random buttons, the system reset itself and now the room temperature is resuming normal. I mean, it is some special talent for a hotel to disappoint and annoy there customers 3 times within just 5 hours. If it wasn’t for teh fact that we have already paid for the room for 3 nights, I’m definitely leaving. I saw from previous 1-star reviews that your duty manager would say something along the line of “we will look into this problem and hope to provide better experience next time you visit.” I wanted to leave my comment so soon (I’m leaving this review via your hotel’s wifi service) because I am offering you a chance to redeem yourself to improve my experience now. Otherwise, there’s no way in a million years would I come back to visit this hotel, or any other hotels in the IHG group.

Update at 11:30am next morning: No one responded to my email or this review. At midnight, we were so hot from the lack of aircon, we had to call frontdesk again. Unfortunately there’s no maintenance at that hour so they sent us two fans instead. Really? Our room is already super small for 3 adults. Now we have to fans on the floor to take up space in order to have ventilation? What sort of a nightmare is this, Holiday Inn...

This did not work out well. I’m here for my daughter’s wedding and bike tours after. I stayed for a few nights of the trip. First the fist was eye popping for a holiday inn. Whatever. It’s in a tourist trap. Expected. When I travel for bike rides I bring my own bike and it’s ridiculously valuable. I had picked this place because it had indoor parking and I could lock the bike in the car. Oh…..I am informed on checking in that will be another 50$. Jeez. Ok, it’s in a tourist trap. Whatever. They are supposed to have it so the door opens automatically. Never ever opened. On one late arrival I had to go in the hotel to get the car in. Next day, same thing but when I do get in there is not a SINGLE PARKING SPOT. it is explained to me someone hit the sensor. That had to be at least three days ago, so maintenance is not a top priority. Oh, and they don’t count the number of spots they sell. So, I guess that’s my problem. I have to park outside. No parking refund though. (They say it is “on the property”. That’s not a “garage”). Then they say I can’t keep the bike in the room and have to leave it in a room open to all the staff. Surely they must be joking, it’s a 10000$ bike! Anyway I just sneak it in the room. I can see why they don’t want it there, the rooms are miserably small. Japanese style. Then the icing on the cake, when i do get in there is a giant black beetle greeting me by the door. Crazy. ||I’ve stayed at these places,many many times. Probably have a bunch of reviews for them here saying something like “It’s a holiday inn. Not exciting but you get what you expect.” NOT THIS ONE . Won’t be back. Didn’t love the town anyway. Just tourist junk. And not road...

Loved this new hotel for our six night stay, which lived up to previous reviews I'd read.

The staff were great, the rooms are modern in style and well equipped with 240 volt power points and USB points so there is always somewhere to charge your gadgets.

The breakfast was great with a reasonable number of hot and cold choices. In the morning the Great Room, which is great, is used for breakfast and for the rest of the day is used for relaxing and also as the place to eat and drink by the fire.

The front desk doubles as the bar and the place to order food and the same staff provide all the services in the Great Room. This feature alone, the Great Room, makes this a standout from all the other Holiday Inn Express hotels we have been to.

The parking is all under cover and secure beyond a room key operated gate and access to the hotel is through a secure internal door. A very well thought out design and would be especially appreciated as the weather cools in winter.

The rooms aren't the biggest we have experienced at Holiday Inn Express hotels and I found the bed a bit firm, but even so, overall I would say it is the best Holiday Inn Express we have stayed at whether in Australia, USA or Europe/UK.

The location is close to town, and while the hill up is quite steep when walking, Queenstown has a very good and frequent bus service that goes past the hotel. Make sure you buy a Bee Card to use the bus because then the fare anywhere is only $2 and not $4, and if you have a NZ seniors SuperGold Card, you can link it to the Bee Card and have free travel 9am-3pm and after 6.30pm and all day on the weekends.

I definitely...