Mantra Lake Tekapo — Hotel in South Island

We had a wonderful stay at the Mantra Lake Tekapo in a 1 bedroom apartment. When we arrived we were warmly greeted by the manager Yusef who had the apartment ready for us and also offered discounted rates to multiple local attractions which was great. He also helped us with providing information and maps for the various local attractions which was very useful.

We then went to our apartment which far exceeded our expectations. There was an automatic garage, washing machine with detergent supplied, a lovely front and back patio. The lounge room, dining and kitchen were huge and fully equiped. In particular the lounge room was a standout with the large comfy leather couches and the fireplace that we used every night that we stayed there.

The bedroom was also large with a huge walk in wardrobe with plenty of room to store everything. The bed was very comfortable and cloud-like, the room heater had the bedroom nice and toasty warm during the 0-1 degree nights. But what really impressed us was the bathroom. The shower was large with great water pressure and shampoo, conditioner and bodywash supplied but it was the heated floor tiles that blew us away. Expecting to step onto cold tiles but instead having these lovely warm tiles in the morning and at night when we knew it was freezing outside felt quite luxurious and special. The whole apartment was clean, spotless and well maintained and we didn't expect a turndown service either which was a pleasant surprise. The wi-fi was also very fast and we streamed tv shows and movies while lying on the comfy leather lounges in front of the fireplace in the evenings.

Location-wise, you couldn't ask for better. The Mantra is literally located just on the outskirts of Tepako town so you are away from the tourists. shops and hostel. However, it is a 4 minute walk to the town via a footbridge right behind the Mantra apartments as well as and the Church of the Good Shephard. Driving to town is only 3 minutes, 4 minutes to the Four Square Supermarket and 7 minutes to get to Tekapo Springs.

So thank you to Yusef and the Mantra Lake Tekapo for a wonderful stay. We highly recommend...

This is a warm, spacious, clean and comfortable apartment, with a wonderful view and equipped with most things you need. There is even a garage that will accommodate a medium sized car which is a bonus. ||We have stayed here a few times over the years and sadly each time we come it has worn out a bit more, it is definitely time for a refresh and upgrade. These apartments are not a cheap option and sadly many things are wearing out and, in some cases, don't work or are dangerous. It is looking very tired, and not really worth the high price.||The lock on the bathroom door does not work, the basin is badly cracked and missing part of the tap. The plates are all miss matched and there is only 4 of each item, so if you want to use a bowl for dinner and then dessert you must wash the plates between courses. You are expected to turn the dishwasher on upon departure but as they don't replenish the powder during your stay there was no powder to use. Towels are not replaced and there are not enough rails to dry them on in the bathroom between uses. Quilts were badly stained with what looked like food or worse...||These are minor inconveniences; however, the most troubling aspect was the plug used on the heater in the living room. It is not sufficient for the capacity of the heater and consequently heats up to a dangerous level when in use which has resulted in the plug melting and burning and if used would be a fire hazard. We made sure it was unplugged and not used during our stay.||Finally, when booking on the Accor website a welcome drink was promised, however upon checking at the hotel they knew nothing about welcome drinks or any Accor plus gold privileges. Certainly not the service we have come to expect from...

We stayed at Mantra Lake Tekapo on 29-31 December. Unfortunately, it was a terrible experience for us - poor room hygiene and horrible service. I am going to provide a few examples here. We arrived at 3:50pm on the 29th. When we tried to check in, we were told that our room was not ready. I asked how long we had to wait and the staff at the reception said: "I don't know - it may be one hour or two. We are over booked, you just HAVE TO WAIT. I will call you when the room is ready." He was not even a little bit apologetic! We were very annoyed by his attitude. About 5pm, our room was finally ready. We went in only to discover that the room hygiene was poor - the dishes were not perfectly clean, the outdoor table was completely dirty, and we also found some orange peels on the floor in the living room and dead insect bodies and marks on the bathroom walls. We also found that the dishwasher did not clean the dishes well. We went to report the issue. When we said "The dishwasher in our room does not seem to work properly.", the same staff at the reception responded abruptly: "NO, IT'S WORKING WELL! Do you know how to use a dishwasher?" And only then he asked which room we were staying in. How rude! He said the dishwasher worked well without checking the room or even knowing which room we were in! The next day, we went out at 9am and came back at 4:00pm. The room still hadn't been serviced by then. In summary, we were very disappointed with our stay at Mantra. We would never go back there and we wouldn't recommend Mantra Lake...