The Carlin Boutique Hotel — Hotel in South Island

The Carlin is not a "5-star" hotel experience, which it holds itself out as and charges for. The view and private hot tub are great hence the 2 stars. Otherwise this is effectively a poorly-designed air bnb, not a luxury hotel. We left feeling a bit scammed. Some details/notes below: ||-We arrived around 8pm after traveling halfway around the world. As we checked in asked if we could grab a drink at the bar. Bar is closed. Is the hotel restaurant open for food? No, it's permanently closed other than for breakfast. Can we order room service for food? No, room service not available. Any restaurant recommendations? No recs and was told most restaurants would be closed (this turned out to be incorrect) and told we should just "order Uber eats" for fast food or something. Not a great first impression. ||-Walls are not sound-proofed at all. Expect to hear people using the (tiny) elevator in the back and in rooms next door and above. ||-Only one employee was on site during the day that served all roles, including waiter for breakfast, and often at night there were no employees on site. ||-Housekeeping did not come every day we were there. ||-Room has several lights that cannot be turned off. Including a large, glaring neon-green "exit" sign placed in between the bed and the window. I've never seen an "exit" sign inside of a hotel room. I'm sure this is code but obviously should've been thought about when the hotel was designed. This forces anyone staying to close the blinds around the bed so they can't wake up to the view, which is the main attraction. ||-First night, the bright fluorescent bathroom mirror light would not turn off. The bathroom door is glass so this fully illuminated our bedroom. Couldn't place blanket over door since a sliding door, and wires to lighting went into the wall. Almost comical. Called front desk. Was told they wouldn't be able to get an electrician to fix until 3 days later (we stayed 4 nights) and no other rooms. What? After explaining this was not a reasonable solution, guy came up and unlocked a door to an additional musty bedroom with NO windows (kinda creepy - what hotel room, much any bedroom, has no windows?) that didn't seem it had been cleaned recently and was told to use this room instead to sleep. Whatever, we needed sleep. Next day when we asked for some kind of discount but were told no they viewed us as made-whole since we had an additional bedroom. The next day they did end up figuring out how to turn off the circuit-breaker to the bathroom light so the light was just permanently off. Other nice places in the area were already fully booked, otherwise we were close to just cancelling and switching hotels. ||-Furniture is weirdly uncomfortable and TV too large for where couch is located. Gym is a joke, basically a treadmill in a mirror covered closet. ||-poor water pressure in the shower ||-The rooms in general are not appointed well and very out of place given the location. Everything has this cheesy, garish vibe as if a child was given a bunch of money to design a "fancy" hotel and this was their interpretation, rather than a design that reflects the surrounding area. E.g., fake wood and marble paneling, velvet turquoise and mirrors/silver color scheme, overly-complicated light switch panels and other unnecessary tech like a glowing toilet with several dozen options on a screen, Carlin "C" monogrammed on everything including windows, unpleasant perfume pumped into the common areas, the hotel Bentley that sits in the parking lot but does not actually pick any hotel guests up, etc. All of this plus the ghost town of an empty restaurant/common area gives a weird vibe. ||During our stay I read the owner (unfortunately) passed away recently and the hotel is now in receivership. Which explains the low staffing/poor customer service, but does not explain the poor hotel design choices noted above. Seemed there were many other solid hotels with similar views after exploring the city - recommend choosing one of those...

Bizarre. One word I would use to sum up our stay at the Carlin 'boutique' Hotel. The Carlin prides itself on not being a 5 star but 6 star experience. This is far from it. DO NOT book the Skyline Suite for a start, it has been poorly converted to a hotel room on the same floor as the restaurant/check in desk, with major issues, one being a fire escape sign taped up (surely that is breach of fire safety code) to hide the light as well as shodily taped up PIR sensors. No hotel safe, bedside table only on one side, so the second person has nowhere to place a bottle of water or their belongings, no reading or bedside lights, a cupboard practically falling apart, no dnd or service room options, lack of basic (let alone 5 star) hotel room amenities. Can even hear the reception phone ringing outside. But anyways, let's start with the positives:

1. Jerry (who's only been here 3 days) is the highlight. He is professional, courteous and remedied our major issues instantly and moved us to one of the actual hotel rooms. Definitely a much needed asset to the hotel.
2. Hot tub/vast floor space is nice
3. General aesthetic is OK
4. Nice to have a free mini bar stocked with soft drinks and snacks
5. Comfy bed
6. Airport transfer one way included in a Bentley (though we got a Mercedes)
7. Packed us a sandwich and banana for an early tour. Now on to much needed improvements:
8. Service (aside from Jerry) not what you'd expect from a 5 star hotel. First day were told we didn't have a safe in our room as we booked the cheapest room. Were not asked upon checkout how our stay was. No good mornings or welcome backs or even smiles from alot of staff.
9. Breakfast is poor, so much so we opted to have breakfast out on our last day. No fresh juices, poor coffee, and pretty plates of food that lacked any real flavour, french toast was cold and dry, granola had one tiny pot of yoghurt and a mountain of granola (so much that I couldn't eat 3/4 of it) Had to pay for extras, i.e hashbrown, no fruit options, no pastries. No continental choices.
10. Inconsistent housekeeping, only received turndown 2/4 nights.
11. Style over substance, fancy branded hotel towels, however exposed pipework in kitchenette (should be covered with a panel), off-centre fireplace, and dirty sink holes. All in all if you're looking for a luxury stay, Carlin is not it. Luckily we didn't pay for their actual suites, but if we had, would have been severely disappointed and upset. Save your time and money, and go elsewhere in Queenstown. There are much nicer options out there! I would have orginally left 1 star, but because of Jerry, I've given it 2. Hope this helps any future travellers...

I had the privilege of staying at this beautiful hotel for 28 days. I've traveled around the world, 57 countries, and this was one of my favorite experiences.The esthetic and feeling of the hotel was excellent; high-end, sophisticated, classy, and comfortable. The comfortable part is VERY important to me. I have stayed in some ÜBER fancy hotels in different parts of the world that didn't feel comfortable at all. They felt too fake, cookie cutter, not laid out well, and I couldn't relax in them. My room was large, had a small kitchenette (you can ask for appliances from the kitchen), fireplace, comfy bed, and a spectacular view. Did I mention I had my own private hot tub?! The daily replenishment of amenities (snacks and non-alcoholic beverages) along with canapés and desserts every evening brought to my room was a lovely treat. I literally felt at home. Mr. Carlin himself, who has had a fascinating journey, invited me for dinner (a birthday gift) the week I arrived and came to have breakfast with me the day I left. How many owners do that??? Not many at all. I felt honored to share my meals with him.

During my 28 days there were some small hiccups, which was guaranteed to happen. No hotel is absolutely perfect. That being said, what stands out at The Carlin compared to most hotels was that the hiccups were taken care of very quickly with the utmost professionalism. If something was taken a little bit longer I was made sure that everything was being done to correct them. Sachin and his team were fantastic! The communication was on-point! They even went above and beyond for me at times for requests that I had.

Now, let's talk about the staff in the restaurant. They were so welcoming, kind, professional, and knew how to tap into the small details of a guest, which makes a high-end dining experience very fun and memorable. From Chris and Timo at the bar, to Luke, Eugene, Richard, Ellie, Julia, and Maria in the dining room, to the chefs in the kitchen, they created SOOOO many memorable experiences for me. The breakfast, which is also open to the public, and dinner was DELICIOUS! I'll mention about the food in a different section of this review.

Overall, if you want to receive detailed attention with friendly and welcoming energy, you NEED to come and stay at The Carlin. They have set the bar of customer service, attention to detail, and feeling at home in a beautiful space not just in Queenstown, but in New Zealand and around the world. I would easily put them in the top 10 hotel experiences I've ever had in my life. Come and stay with them, even if just for breakfast or dinner. You'll have...