Hotel St Clair — Hotel in South Island

We had a very challenging one night at this hotel. On a five week self-guided driving tour throughout both islands, we stayed at 16 hotels, airbnbs and bnbs and this was the only one in which we had a bad experience. Although it is a lovely part of Dunedin and overlooks a stunning beach, the hotel left a very bad taste in our mouths after having a room that reeked of a sour smell- what seemed like a cross between old beer, pot and something else. After our afternoon arrival to our room and smelling a bad smell, we opened the windows and hoped it would abate, however, after an hour it did not, so I went to see the desk clerk on duty. He showed concern and came to the room to smell for himself. He agreed there was a funky smell, but wasn't sure what it was. He said he would contact the hotel manager to see what might be done. Many hours later, after not hearing anything, we reached out to the clerk again and he said there was no response from the manager and there were no other rooms available. Being that it was 8 pm, we felt we had no choice but to stay in the room, but made it clear we were not happy about it. We couldn't sleep and unfortunately couldn't leave the window open because once the sun dropped it was very cold. By morning there still was no response from the manager, so we asked for his email so that we could contact him ourselves and request a refund. A day later we received an email response and he denied that the room smelled at all and therefore refused our refund request. This type of poor customer service is unacceptable in the hospitality business. Stay at your own risk, but know that if something goes wrong you are on your own...

So I had issues with this place. Being upfront there was an issue with the booking which was 100% my fault but I will say this hotel is very inflexible and grabby with customer's money, but they can be just be aware that if you need to change things in your itinerary this is not the place to stay. Despite costing me upwards of $500 that would bring my rating down to 4/5.

Putting that aside you pay around $275 for the room and quite frankly it's just not that good for the price. Ok now it becomes a 3 star rating.

Then I think about the check-in process, I used a work travel agency and when I gave them my card they said "that's not the card you paid with", they issued a pre-authorization charge which I couldn't pay wave. Just something I don't want to be mucking around with when it's late. Ok that 3-stars now became a 2-stars.

The location is nice but out of the way.

It's not a terrible hotel but my stay was rather unpleasant, if it was a really nice hotel I'd go out of my way to stay there but I can't honestly say I want to stay there...

We stayed here as part of a 3-week trip to New Zealand. This was my favorite place we stayed for a multitude of reasons. I loved the location -- right on the beach and a view of the ocean. Lots of cute restaurants nearby within walking distance.||The room was great -- very comfortable bed, kitchenette, and spacious bathroom with plenty of towels. It was the only place we stayed that provided more than two towels. Also, it had air conditioning which was a big plus as the insects of New Zealand seem to love me. Most of the places we stayed did not have a/c and you had to open the windows which never had insect screens. The a/c made it so we didn't have to do that. It also had a washer/dryer unit in the room which was great for us to be able to wash clothes.||They have a free parking at an underground garage but there was also ample free parking directly in front of the hotel. ||The staff was very friendly and helpful. Great place to stay and would...