Kingsgate Hotel Dunedin — Hotel in South Island

I’ll start by saying that I understand this is an older hotel. I understand that there will be issues with sound proofing etc. but there were several issues that should have been addressed as I cannot be the first person to experience it. The elevator reeked of cigarette smoke and even a short ride up to our floor was brutal. The elevator is also very small and if you have large luggage or multiple bags, you may require a few trips. They do have stairs available which we opted to take after the smell made us feel sick. The parking. No where does it mention that the parking is limited. We checked in 45 minutes to an hour after check in opened and as soon as we walked up to the front desk the lady said “there’s no parking so you’ll have to park on the street somewhere but only after 6pm. This was frustrating as when we booked the hotel we specified that we required parking. We had to drop our stuff off in our room and leave with our car for another 3 hours just so we wouldn’t get towed. This was annoying because we had been driving for 10+ hours and just wanted to shower and relax. The bathroom. We noticed that there was mould in the bathroom and the base of the door was damaged. I took a shower and within 3 minutes the entire bathroom was flooded. (Pictures attached). We tried calling the front desk around 7pm but nobody answered. We called a few more times but again, no answer. No employees to be found and we had to use our bath towels to try and soak up the water but that obviously didn’t work due to the amount of water there was. The room. Other than the fact that you could hear everything due to the walls being so thin (which as previously mentioned is understandable). The hotel states it is smoke free but all of the balconies below us had people smoking on them which filled our room with the awful smell of cigarette smoke. This went on all evening and into the night and made us sick. We couldn’t even have a door or window open due to the smell. As well, we noticed that there were lots of stains on the bed, including what looked like a small blood stain on the mattress under the very tiny mattress protector that doesn’t cover the whole mattress. Again, nothing was done about this because there were no staff to answer the phones or attend to the front counter. On top of all of this, while sitting in bed we noticed the sound of water dripping which got progressively louder. We tracked the sound down to behind the wardrobe. It wasn’t a water pipe as we could hear when others flushed the toilet or used their shower and the sounds came from a different location in the room.

Again, I understand that this is an older hotel but there are health and safety issues present that should’ve been addressed ages ago due to the obvious signs that there is something wrong. If I had all of this information beforehand, I would’ve chosen to stay elsewhere. The location of the hotel is close to the city centre which was nice but otherwise there were no other pros to staying here. As I can guarantee that I probably wont get my money back, I would highly advise for others to do proceed with caution when booking this hotel, especially if you have young children or if you have any health issues as the items mentioned above would make for a terrible stay.

This is just from the first night and we have not yet experienced the breakfast or check out so I cannot comment on...

Do not expect anything new or exciting. This place is old and internal linings have been put in by someone that hasn’t really learnt the art of neatness. People are friendly that’s a good point Location although on top of a hill, it’s close to everything, note you can get in via the car parks and not have to walk Stuart if coming back from the octagon. Woolworths, and everything is walking distance. Lift - I thought it was very vintage and charming, people seem to hate it. Common areas - my god they need a clean, revamp, broken cracked tiles, it’s more like a dormitory. Room - they had no ceiling lights except for the bathroom, one lamp had a busted globe but there were two, tv didn’t work and required hard reset, door does not have a slide lock it seems to have been removed and not patched. There is no air con or fans in summer this place would be hot, I hat to regulate in may. Room simply is very dated and set up like no one really cared or checked. The lounge looked like there had been plenty of things happening on it. Bathroom - it was ok considering the rest of the place but I haven’t had to shower in a bath for a long time. It was not the worst but my tap liked to turn off a bit.

To put it in a nutshell, it needs a floor by floor renovation and tidy up in most cases paint would make a difference and putty up holes in doors. The place was ok but I stayed a day too long and the price point you are really paying for the location, it’s not much less than I paid per night in Christchurch for a 5 star hotel, funnily enough had more dramas than the Kingsgate. The hotel could be much much better but right now it’s looking like no one cares and to be frank I’ve stayed at 2 hotels operated by this group and both have been very much the same which means I’ll never stay with them again. People nice but seriously the hotels are showing you don’t care and honestly I was not impressed…I had that pay by the...

The hotel was likely built in the 70s or 80s, and it still looks very dated on the exterior and interior. However, the rooms and bathrooms have been done up a bit to modernise it. The lifts are old and small.

The reception staff were friendly and helpful. The room was spacious, but due to the concrete panelled ceiling, it appeared that it may be too difficult to install modern down lights. Therefore, stand-alone lights and lamps have been used instead. Also, there was only one double power plug behind the bed, but in the middle of wall, which made it difficult to reach to plug my mobile into for charging and to use my alarm.

The bathroom was tiled with a shower over the bath and the old style shower curtain. It was clean and tidy, but the fan ventilation didn't work very well. Also, the old style shower head didn't allow for good water pressure.

The hotel made it very tricky to find the hair dryer, which was tucked right at the back of a shelf in a not so obvious location, and the hairdryer power was very weak.

I had breakfast there one morning for an extra $30. It was a reasonable buffet style breakfast with the standard selection of hot and cold foods.

The location of the hotel is right on top of a hill, not too far from the Octagon and the city, however it would be very hard to walk to as the hill is very steep and the drive-on access is narrow. The view from my room was not very pleasant, as I looked out onto a parking lot and some power/electrical machinery construction site. I would say that with this hotel price being low to average, you get what...