Mt Lyford Holiday Homes — Hotel in South Island

MUST READ TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!

This is the FIRST NEGATIVE REVIEW IN MY LIFE because I couldn't resist myself from posting this. We were 5 of us (4 adults and 1 infant) who stayed at the TOP SHELF cabin for 1 night. The entire cabin was very untidy and most of the furniture are torn and the pillow covers are not even washed. We could feel the dust everywhere and we were reluctant to use them. When we started to cook, we had to thoroughly wash each utensil because they were not at all clean. After noticing that, we rang their office and informed them how poor the conditions were. One of their staff came to us and she started to blame us. She showed the worst hospitality service ever. She told us that it was our fault chosing their basic cabin and we should have read in the website. Cheap doesn't mean untidy right?We told her that this was the only one available at the time of booking and $160 per night is not that cheap,of course.We were not expecting luxury but basic cleanliness. When we asked for a face tissue box, she pointed out to an old dusty bunch of paper roll kept on the top of kitchen cabinet. There was only 1 rubbish bin in the entire lodge(that too only in the kitchen and not even a single one in the toilet) and we have to carry the waste back home. Don't you think this is ridiculous?

She didn't even apologize for the inconvenience caused, which is the basic etiquette of any customer service. She was pretty much saying that " we have no right to complain because we are staying in their basic lodge. So just accept what is available ". She told that the guests are supposed to clean before they leave and they can't come and clean each lodge. Seriously?? Are we supposed to  book a place expecting that the previous guests will prep the place for us???How could she even say that so irresponsibly?They should at least make sure that the place is tidied up for their guests. We are completely unhappy about her attitude and regret booking this place. Yes, the views are stunning but you can't spend 1 whole night looking outside, right? We have traveled many places in NZ and this is the first bad experience.  Even the cheapest backpackers are far far better than this. We have stayed in their Manuka lodge before and  have recommended to many of our friends. But if this is the attitude of their staff, I am forced to share this experience to them because I don't want to disappoint any of them...

Nice place with beautiful views. We haven’t skied for years so didn’t think about a lack of snow until 3 or so weeks before hand which was outside the 30 day cancellation conditions-we would have forfeited 50% of our total booking so decided to go anyway. We still had a great time enjoying the walks near the ski field car park and the hot tub with the unit was awesome. Hanmer is an hour away, so we spent time there as well. We didn’t use the tennis courts-but only due to time. Take racquets or you hire them. Although there were good directions, arriving at night to somewhere we had never been was difficult. We got lost. Directions saying turn at Mt Lyford Lodge would work in either direction. The Eco Lodge was attached to another which we did not realise. A couple of issues-the cooking area had a build up of grease and dust and the electric jug had grease baked on. We arrived late. We booked a 3 bdrm “ Luxury” Eco Lodge as we were a group of 4, with 2 of us not wishing to sleep in the same room as another person. Only 2 bedrooms had beds made up (which defeated the purpose of booking a 3 bdrm unit), and we felt it was too late to ring management. We made do using 1 sheet each for 2 of our group. For “luxury” accommodation we would expect all beds to be made up so we could make our own choice of where to sleep. This was explained to the management via email the next morning and was rectified with an extra set of linen. I’m perplexed at the response of management about how many beds do you need to sleep in-we didn’t more than 1 each but obviously preferred to make our own choice about which room to sleep in! This would be a great place to stay family and friend groups as you can book various accommodation next to or near each other with good activities. Good cooking facilities etc Mt Lyford Lodge had just opened for meals and while it was a limited menu it was good and staff were...

We booked the Top Shelf Cabin and we were so excited as it would be our first snow experience, so we were a little disappointed when we drove up the mountain to not a single snowflake, but that quickly changed when we saw the cabin, it is a beautiful, quaint, clean and cosy little house. We started to unpack and settle in and then it started, just a small flurry at first and then it really started to snow and carried on well into the night, we woke up to a stunning site, everything was white, we were thrilled. The kids got to use their snow sleds, we had countless snowball fights and even made a mini snowman. It was a fantastic long weekend away for us, a cabin that was warm, cosy and had everything we needed and top knotch location, it will definitely become a regular spot for us. My only feedback would be a safety gate for the top...