Majestic Mansions - St Clair Apartments — Hotel in South Island

AVOID IN WINTER:

The Majestic Mansions are housed in a lovely old building. The decor is fab, and the linen is gorgeous. I stayed in a sea view apartment and outlook over St Clair was superb, until the windows fogged up with condensation.

I was visiting Dunedin for radiotherapy and made a booking mid-afternoon on a very cold, wintery day. Given it was a last minute booking I called reception to get the entry code, about 30 mins later I checked in. The apartment was absolutely freezing with none of the heaters switched on. There was a gas heater and bar heater in the lounge, and a small bar heater in the large bedroom with high ceilings. Apparently extra heaters are available on request, but the reception is unattended after 3pm so this wasn't an option for me.

The windows are single glazed and drafty. I splashed out on a more expensive apartment so I could look at the ocean, but sitting at the table next to the window was so cold I had to keep my beanie and puffer on. Not to mention I couldn't see anything due to the condensation. I cranked up the heaters and left the bar heater on overnight, the condensation in the living room had resolved by morning. The bedroom remained cold all night and I was very grateful for the electric blanket. It was an uncomfortable evening.

I did pass this feedback on to the management and asked for a partial refund. The owners claimed they usually prepare the rooms in advance but blamed my last minute booking for the room being cold. They made excuses about being a small business trying to run accommodation in an old building with existing concrete walls. They also dismissed my experience by claiming other guests who stayed that night were happy with the heaters?! I'm envious of those lucky guests!

If Majestic Mansions were unable to provide me a warm place to stay for the night due to the weather, and my last minute booking, I wish they would told me when I called for the entry code. I would have gladly taken a refund and gone elsewhere to be warm!!

I think the Mansions would be a great place to stay in the summer months, but approach with caution...

Majestic Mansions is a lovely, renovated heritage building, full of charm, but it’s an old building and as such does not have an elevator or central heating. They also don’t have an attendant or manager on site, so it’s impersonal. The view from our top floor room was beautiful, and the sound of crashing waves exactly what we’d hoped for. The rooms are quaint and nicely decorated. The parking garages are underneath the front of the building and they are a tight fit for a mid/large car, though there is street parking. We had a small kitchen with fridge, microwave and tea/coffee facilities in our suite/apartment. The bathroom was serviceable, but was a wet room with shower curtain, so the whole floor gets wet and needs to be squeegeed dry after every use. There’s a small set of movable shelves in there that we had to move to the basin area to have somewhere to put our toiletries on. The location is excellent, across from the promenade and a short walk to the beach and salt pool. There’s a number of restaurants a very short walk away, they were all busy...

The best part of staying here was the location. Close to the beach and excellent eateries like 'Salt' and 'The Esplanade'. Get the pork belly loaded fries from Salt and eat them on a bench by the beach.|Our room was smaller than it looked in the photos, the bed was comfy and the room was tastefully decorated.|The TV was super frustrating. Only the Sky remote was available and the Sky channel subscription offerings were extremely limited and appeared to be targeted at over 70s. We would have preferred to have been able to log in to netflix or chromecast.|The building needs some love, there were cobwebs on the smoke alarm.|The outdoor area at the front could be lovely if there was some thought put into how guests might like to use it.|We enjoyed our late January stay, but it could have been so...