Oakridge Resort Wanaka — Hotel in South Island

After travelling through NZ for more than a month living in various BnB, motels, hotels etc., we were looking forward to a few five days of luxury at this resort - and ended up with a lower service level and maintenance standard than we had experienced anywhere else.

The staff working at Oakridge tried their best to make it a pleasant stay and was really nice and competent, but all the way round it was also “yeah I am sorry, we can’t help with that because management has decided…”.

No service of your room (which the management has decided not to publish on the website according to employees), restaurant closed, guest laundry out of order, no dry racks for clothes (after we washed in an external laundry), furnitures worn down, curtains torn, paint peeling off the walls (see pic), door pump removed so front door is noisy (see pic), toilet door needs oil so it squeaks, bed sheets of the quality that irks when you turn around in bed. All this point to a deliberate downgrade of maintenance and operation.

When we mentioned we would stay for five days the receptionist told us we could ask for room service. We had one on day 2. We asked for another on day 4 and were denied with the reason that long term stays only were granted one cleaning. Contrary to an information in reception (see pic).

According to the management the reason for removing room service is the environmental impact. I am unsure what the impact of making a bed, emptying the trash bin or washing a couple of cups for the customer is. At the same time we experienced spot lights being turned on all night, sprinklers watering the grass every night and all lights turned on when we entered our room, and this was the first place we experienced without recycling in the room. Together the “environment” statement seems rather hollow. That is of course on top of the heated pools.

The service level is rather well exemplified by the absence of a welcome folder with relevant information and services. Instead you find a note with three services they ask you to do for them before leaving (see pic).

After making the bed, we had daily visits to the reception to pick up new towels, coffee, milk, dish washing soap or bags for the trash bin. No place to hand in old towels so they piled up (see pic).

Besides the above, the buildings keep on the heat from the sun and it is not possible to create a draft in the room, so it gets very warm during the night. The curtains close out all light which is nice because the aforementioned spots otherwise light up your room. The curtains also keep out the fresh air from an open window. It does though not keep out the noise from the Wanaka-Queenstown road close by. If you are the type that sleeps no matter what you will be fine.

We had the hotel room so I can’t say how the bigger rooms/apartments are, but on my experience with this compared to our other stays you can easily get more...

Wanaka is getting itself a reputation as a town in which you will be disappointed with your accomodation, because of surging demand and lack of competition, providers clearly seem to feel they don’t have to try very hard. This resort is no exception. Here is the email I just sent to the Accor company who manages the property.

“After 50 years of travel, business and leisure, I can honestly say this is one of the most poorly equipped hotel rooms that I have stayed in that described itself as “4 star”. What has led me to this conclusion? Wifi connectivity: regularly either not working at all or dial up speeds down to 2Mps. I understand the system has been upgraded, but it isn’t not performing to a speed that makes anything more than checking email a possibility. For example, downloading a book to read. Spent 20 mins and gave up. Suggested to staff at reception they restart the modem weekly to clear cache. Bedroom storage: no other furniture in our room other than a bed, which didn’t even have drawers in the bedside shelf, and a wardrobe with one high shelf. No drawers at all. Nowhere to put anything other than a tiny little shelf attached to the bed. We have spent the week with our stuff in a case and over the floors. Power points: on my side of the bed the one I had I finally found hidden behind the mattress, which I had to move in order to use it, and hurt my back doing so. Quality of fittings: very cheap and worn e.g the carpet (see photo) where tears have been repaired, and badly. Noise: our bedroom opened directly onto a car park, allowing a vehicle to be driven and parked to within a metre of my head Toiletries: We had booked for a week and yet had to go and fetch a toilet roll and shower gel from reception as their were insufficient supplies.

I have no idea who graded this hotel 4 stars, but in my opinion (and I would suggest by all usual global or local standards) it certainly is not. Our friends who also had a different room in another block who felt exactly the same.

The staff we dealt with though were absolutely delightful, and I do feel sorry for them that all of these issues are, I understand, outside of their control as its Accor Vacation Club who fits out and manages...

A well set up resort in a beautiful spot. However, the service at the breakfast was extremely rude and unprofessional. We had this blonde lady yelled at everyone once the moment we walked in, her way of rudeness is something pretty too much, she led you to a section of the breakfast room, and forced everyone to sit on tables which have already taken with complete strangers. I came with a Chinese bus tour, most of the people don't even speak English, she yells and points everyone everywhere. And my 7 year old son was really shocked as this is not something we experience quite often. We refused and told her that we are not sitting with other complete strangers on the same bench sit . Her reason is there is another tour coming and we need to sit in one section , so they can fit in a different part of the room. I told her that her manners are extremely rude and may be considering not to take these many ppl if it's out of your scope. She didn't like it and kept telling us where we should sit.

Yes, they are understaffed. 2 staff members have to identify every room number for 40-50 pax, come in at the same time, and keep topping breakfast bar and cleaning plates and tables.

The breakfast room is very small for such a sizable resort, which won't be easier for anyone to manage.

However, nothing taking away the way we were treated and people on the tour started to question if she is racist, I believe this lady has bad manners and poor stress management.

I tried to tell her by the end , that we didn't appreciate her, she said that she didn't appreciate me, which is ok. But people like do exist, and we stand up when we believe we were treated poorly, especially in a professional environment. And sorry , you have to appreciate me and people are around me who got treated poorly as well, as we are here to spend money hence contribut to the local economy, so you can have a job.

Management should really step in to give more staff to the breakfast shift. If you don't treat people with respect in business, they go somewhere, as simple as it is. With the post covid ,recession economy, you better keep the Chinese tours，what...