Kiwi Park Motels and Holiday Park — Hotel in South Island

DON'T EVEN BOOK HERE!!!! In April of 2017, I booked a room for my wife and myself for the end of January 2018, when we would be visiting Murchison. During our month and a half stay in NZ, almost all of the hotels do not require a prepayment, but this one did. So, on 5April2017 my credit card was billed for the cost of our room. That was fine, some hotels do require prepayment. Then much to my surprise, on 26December2017, I got an email from the hotel saying they were cancelling our reservation "due to no vacancies." WHAT? I had had my reservation for 8 months, and now 9 days before we are supposed to leave on our trip, they tell me they are not going to honor my reservation, which had been confirmed by them, in writing, on 4April2017! I sent an email asking about it, hoping it was an administrative error. The reply from the hotel was that they "have had a long term booking for most of our accommodation from the roading contractors who are trying to keep our highways operating at a certain level. This began early last year..." I checked on their site and rooms are available now, so evidently the contractors are not there now, contrary to her saying the contractors began staying there early last year. I have no idea why they decided not to honor our reservation, if the contractors had been there since early last year, why did they accept my reservation and take my money in April? This does not pass the smell test. I would strongly urge you not to even consider booking here, because they do not stand behind their word. Written confirmation 8 months ahead of time means nothing to them. The town is not real big and choices for accommodation are not unlimited. I would not trust them. As an additional comment, we went by the motel the night on the night we had previously been given a reservation, and there were NO contractor vehicles at the motel. There were numerous cars there with beach towels drying on them, it appeared to be family cars. It took me over a month to get my payment back from their booking agent. AVOID,...

Late Review for the Stay in December 2021: (Great if they improved since, but being honest about our experience)

Such a terrible campsite!!! what I wanna say is that their website is a total lie! I wonder how they won the awards and recommended by Lonely Planet, seriously?

Okay, totally understand the contactless check-in under the current COVID situation, so it's fine that we didn't see anyone at reception when we arrived and when we left. We followed the sign on their reception door directing us (campervan) to go straight to the spot and contact them after set up. we did, and they didn't answer the call, and we texted asking the wifi and hot water shower. After 2 hours, we received the reply asking us to check a website (not working) to find out internet options (definitely not a clear explanation).

And one hour later, a text arrived saying "Shower operates with a 50cent coin for 5 mins of hot water". Okay, I got that! wifi and hot water shower are paid to use, which are not included in the staying rates (their campsite rates are not even cheaper compared to others, plus extra charges are applied for amenities)!! Why the information is not mentioned on the website? It will be much more appreciated if the information re. wifi, shower and dumpstation was made clear on booking.

Bathrooms? well, spiderwebs and dead bugs everywhere! It seems not been cleaned for a while. Forgot to mention that their facilities are quite dated! The map on their reception door didn't help us to easily find a right spot, as their sites are not numbered and not well organized.

This place is the worst campervan site we used so far!! And will definitely avoid it...

My partner and I had a room booked for the Friday night of Waitangi weekend 03/02/23 and due to a family member passing we could no longer go. We called and advised management of this on the Wednesday prior 01/02/23 and had left a voice message as no one was there to answer our call. We did not receive any communication back after our voice message despite leaving our name and number to call us back. My partner then called again a bit later. Lynn was not very nice to my partner on the phone. She told him how she had a business to run and that unless she can onsell the room she would charge us the full room fee, clearly showing a lack of consideration. On the Friday night 03/02/23 we had the transaction pending sitting in my Partners account. I thought this was weird as we had not received any communication to say we were going to be charged, so I personally gave Lynn a call. Again she was not nice to talk too. Mentioning how she has a business to run and can only refund us if she sells the room on. I again explained that we cannot be there as one of our family members had passed away. Lynn was not very professional or considerate during this call. Today 23/02/23 almost 3 weeks since our booking we have been charged. We have been charged with no communication from any staff at Kiwi Park and no contact from Lynn herself. We belive that is very unprofessional, rude and unfair. We gave plenty of warning about our cancelation and a very good reason for cancelation. Because of our experience, the lack of communication and no consideration from staff during this time I very strongly do not recommend this...