Ramada Queenstown Central — Hotel in South Island

Amending my review: Since the hotel put a nasty reply. Monday Jan 29 the FD guy ((blonde tall)) didn’t show up until 807am. Check your cameras — there are 6 of us sitting on the sofa when he finally showed up. Sunday it was 803. Room size and booking. Rooms made by travel company and the couples were booked differently than solo travelers. So keep your nasty snarls in check. Highly recommend against this location. See comments below — rooms not serviced, no fan in bathroom, phone unusable and the list goes on.

The hotel did NOT go out of its way — except to try and poison me. The large bus group left at 6 am so this facility was open 45 mins before we had departure time. Nasty hotel staff.

Excellent location but that’s where the goods end. For nearly 380.00 per night this is a NO GO.

Front desk is not manned 24/7. Check out in morning is problematic for anyone needing departure before 8:10am. (Stayed 4 days here and watch the morning debacle 3 times)

The rooms are modern but with no view, amenities or fan/exhaust for bathroom they turn into sweat shops every time someone showers. The bathroom was a hot sweaty mess. FD said light switch turned on fan - so either mine was broken, disconnected or not working properly.

There is no tasks / reading light at twin bed. So it is all or nothing overhead LED spotlights. There is phone but no number for service or dialing instructions.

No laundry. (Apparently some rooms had laundry but not mine). None at the hotel for general use.

Room is very small with two tiny twin beds less than a foot apart. You can not walk around, no chairs to sit on for work or eating. We each had one small (carry on size) suitcase and backpack and could not walk around room once we opened a bag. That’s how small the room is. Window but it doesn’t open and ours faced the road. Speaking of road - even light traffic and trucks are noticeable transiting.

The breakfast was okay for 2 of 3 days. One GF protein option each day, fruit and cheese some days. They charge separately for coffee. The last day was a s*show. Pack breakfast for me because my departure was before breakfast started. It was a sandwich a croissant some jelly and some granola. All items contained gluten !!! Hard boiled egg, cheese, fruit, meat. - all of these ingredients are available at the location breakfast but no they gave me a bunch of gluten laden stuff and labeled bag GF. (Good thing I carry tester but I was pretty certain that it was not GF and there was cross contamination with all in the same bag ). The lady laughed when I pointed this out (but she wasn’t the one who made packaged stuff so I didn’t bother to explain that gluten given to a person with celiac disease is lethal).

no ice machine. FD will give you a small ziploc bag with 10-12 little mini cubes.

walls are paper thin and you can hear everything.

So. No go on this hotel for this solo traveling experience.

WiFi acceptable.

One package of coffee for two people for 4 day reservation was laughable. But they gladly charge you for one in the lobby 🤦🏻‍♀️

I don’t know where the poster pictures are from but they are not here.

Room did not appear serviced. Had no hang tags either so I didn’t have way to say service or not service room. 3rd day I put trash out in hall. No clean towels or refill...

Ramada room looks smaller than I had expected. We stayed in the Studio apartment with washer, dryer, stove, microwave, and just a home away from home unit. Reception staffs are friendly, helpful and nice.

I requested for the ocean view and they upgraded it to us- thank you! I happen to be Expedia VIP+ member and got all the great perks including late check out... Till 12pm if I'm not mistaken. Anyway we did not check out that late as we were scheduled for a long drive to Mount Cook.

There's also NZD 20 discount Expedia VIP+ for parking but it's only one time but doesn't count by days. If we were given the daily rate we would have taken the offer. NZD 45 parking for a night is their only downside. Later on we realise most hotels in Queenstown are pretty much charging such rate for parkings due to the design of this town with really limited parking spaces. We parked by the street just a short walk from the hotel..

Rooms were beautifully renovated, everything is still very new (hopefully they will maintain it). Looking at some of their one bedroom units, it is probably better than the studio as it is much more spacious. The studio unit is a little too smallish.

The only downside I thought apart from the parking is the distance to town. Although it is 300-400m walk but it's downhill towards town, and uphill again towards the hotel and takes approximately 10 mins? Sofitel is a much more centrally located hotel - literally just walk out and shops and food are there. The reason I picked Ramada is because none of the hotels in town has all amenities, especially washer and dryer. It wasn't really because of the location so it depends on what you are looking for. You will need to walk if you're staying in Ramada as parking spaces in town is limited / short parkings / paid parkings. We didn't have issues walking as we were fit enough to do the short distance.

Given a choice I would stay here again because of the amenities offered in the hotel, but if I don't need it I will choose something like Sofitel or anything else...

Great staff, but the 4 Star label is a stretch

I want to be fair and upfront: the staff here are wonderful. Everyone we interacted with during our week here was polite, friendly, and genuinely tried to be helpful. This review is aimed at the management and the hotel's overall standard, which feels more like a 3-star experience than the 4-star one being advertised and charged for.

My main frustrations came down to a series of small but significant details that you just don't expect at this price point.

Firstly, the room design was baffling. There was no bedside lamp or standing lamp anywhere. If you wanted to relax in bed with a book, your only choice was a harsh, blindingly bright light strip right above your headboard. It made winding down at night almost impossible.

Secondly, the amenities felt basic. I had to specifically go to the front desk to ask for a dental kit (toothbrush/toothpaste). In the bathroom, i was really taken aback to find housekeeping had placed the clean floor mat directly on top of our in-use bath towels on the rack. I know it’s cleaned and new but one thing I don’t know is the hotel’s towel hygiene process (I.e. how clean they really are) so it just feels careless from a hygiene perspective.

Additionally, I found it weird that despite I’ve put the unused pillows aside at the corner of the room (on the floor), the cleaning crew still put one of them back to my bed which is….interesting to say at best.

Finally, the hotel policies felt unnecessarily rigid. I was told politely but firmly that the hotel could not provide me with a fork because cutlery is reserved exclusively for studio rooms. It seems a very strange policy to enforce when a guest simply needs a basic utensil.

While the service was lovely, these issues combined made the experience fall short. Potential guests should adjust their expectations accordingly. I would love to try out Holiday Inn suites across the road which at least have better room designs, lighting, with a...