Swiss-Belsuites Pounamu, Queenstown — Hotel in South Island

Disappointing Stay – Not Worth the Price, Serious skin allergy Stay: 11th Jan to 14th Jan I had high hopes for the Swiss-Belsuites Pounamu Queenstown, but unfortunately, my experience was extremely disappointing. Upon entering the first room, I was horrified to find a brown blanket with numerous hairs and dust particles, suggesting it hadn’t been washed or vacuumed at all. The hygiene was worse than the doormat in my apartment. To make matters worse, there was a blood stain on a red cushion and a brown stain on the bed sheet. I immediately called reception, and Justin was kind enough to move us to another room. The second room was marginally better in terms of cleanliness, but it still had some hairs and dust on the blanket. We decided to remove the blanket, though I still felt uncomfortable with the overall hygiene. Honestly, it’s not about individual mistakes, but about the general quality of the hotel. I paid AUD $1000 for four nights for what was advertised as a “Deluxe Room with Garden View.” This was, without a doubt, a rip-off. The room was located half a level below the footpath, making it feel somewhat buried. Guests had to walk right past the window to enter their rooms, leaving me feeling constantly exposed and forcing me to keep the curtains closed for privacy. The room was incredibly dark, had poor ventilation, and the carpet had a persistent odor. The room was very small (even smaller than some Japanese motels), old, and worn. This is not what I would expect from a "five-star" hotel. In fact, it didn’t even meet the standard of a decent three-star motel. By the third morning, I began developing severe skin irritation. By the fourth day, my skin was covered in red, bumpy rashes. I sought medical help and was prescribed a five-day course of steroids, which cost me NZD $255. I’m usually healthy, have no food allergies, and no history of skin problems, so I strongly suspect the condition of the room – the uncleanliness, the dust, and possible allergens – triggered this reaction. It was a miserable experience, and my skin only worsened during the stay. I’ve traveled extensively and rarely leave reviews, but my experience at this hotel was so bad I feel compelled to warn others. The room was uncomfortable and depressing – small, dark, and poorly maintained. The quality is far below what I expect for the price paid. AUD $1000 for a “Deluxe” room is absolutely unreasonable, and I genuinely feel that the hotel is misrepresenting itself as a five-star property. The Positive:
The staff at reception – Justin and Rod – were very nice and helpful, which was the only redeeming aspect of the stay. Upgraded Room:
I ended up paying extra for an upgrade to a River View One-Bedroom Suite. While this room was slightly better, it was still old and worn in several areas. For the price, it was still far from “luxury” and not worth the cost. Final Thoughts:
I regret staying at this hotel and strongly advise others to avoid it. The poor hygiene, lack of maintenance, and uncomfortable conditions made my stay miserable. I’ve since discovered that others have had similar issues, with some even reporting skin reactions. I hope this review helps future guests make a more...

Let me break this review down

Reception staff – 4 out of 5 stars. They were friendly but when I requested a later check out of 1 hour I was going to be charged

Rooms – 1 out of 5 - You are selling Deluxe Room, Courtyard View (no view). It’s not a Deluxe room, it’s smaller then a studio apartment. It was so small, no room to do anything. We had friends staying next door in the same room. I came over for my 40th, I stayed in plenty of Deluxe Rooms that were bigger and nicer then this bunker. I do not recommend staying here Our neighbours. We had 2 lots and both were loud. You can hear everything happening next door. First lot, banging the doors, coughing up a lung every morning, washing clothes late at night. 2nd lot, 1 guy and a few women. The guy and 1 girl goes out first night here. Comes home 2:45am drunk AF and come through the door, turn the light on (that then shines into our room), spend 5mins trying to open their door, slam the door shut and leave the light on. Go in, slam some more stuff and start vomiting (yes you can hear that as well). All through the morning to the afternoon vomiting. Then arguing and girls crying and him yelling. What a great way for us to spend our last days at a Swiss-Belsuites Pounamu Queenstown listed as 5 stars. Bathroom light – The person who decided to put the bathroom light outside the bathroom should be fired. If you get up to use the bathroom during the night, expect to wake up the person staying with you by turning the light on

Housekeeping – 1 out of 5 - 100% useless. We requested 2 times for the room to be made up, we came back and it wasn’t done. They never even showed up while we were in the room. The sign was up. One day we came back and they were cleaning the room next to us, I requested 2 towels. I got back (after we have our break). How hard is it to pass over 2 towels while you are there, you’re still working? Our bathroom was uncleaned before we got there. There was hair built up behind the door. It was black, I have blond hair and my husband has light brown/grey. They are lazy cleaners. We would see them sitting on the stairs vaping. I know it’s the new trend to cut your lift off quicker, but there is a time and place. Especially when this accommodation claims to be 5 starts. We also had a towel that had a hole in it and the tiles look to have mould in them form lack of cleaning

I do not recommend saying here, it’s not 5 stars and for the amount you pay, you can find...

The good: wonderful views and the one bedroom suite room was large and comfortable. Check-in was quick and easy. ||The bad: the breakfast offerings pre-delivered into the room were pretty underwhelming. The room has a kitchen, so eggs and bacon in the fridge would have been a nice touch. Despite the amazing views, the ground floor is a peep show for the entire public of cars and walkers, with the large windows just feet away from the footpath and roads. More effort could be made to get more privacy into the ground floor rooms. Also, a request was made at booking time (via Qantas Hotels) to not be on the ground floor, this was lost or ignored. I’d guess it was lack of professionalism from the staff.||The ugly: Despite warnings all over the place of not parking in someone else’s space or be towed/clamped and Queenstown’s horrendous traffic and parking problems, we arrived back to the room one evening to find our space taken by someone else. Office was closed, and there’s no room phone. It was late, so we took an available space ourselves. This led to a restless night sleeping aware our car might be clamped or towed. In the morning when the office opened I told the receptionist of the issue with a photo of the offending cars license plate. She reacted with indifference and simply said, let me find a place you can park. She then scratched some irrelevant numbers and letters on a note and handed the to me. No apology, no thank you for letting us know, no we will get this sorted out immediately type thing. Her notes literally had zero resemblance to the numbers and letters in the parking spaces. I just parked in the cleaners spot and we checked out. ||Another small staff issue.mwe arrived back to the room at about 1600 one day to find it being serviced. We apologised to the staff for being there, not that they minded. They continued on, it surprisingly kept up their negative bitching and moaning to each other about the job and working for this hotel. Not a good look, but obviously a view to the culture of problems this property has. ||Overall: it was ok, but we wouldn’t stay at this place again. We chose it for the kitchen and spacious rooms. But the privacy and the parking/staff issues don’t...