The Hermitage Hotel — Hotel in South Island

At this point I'm not sure where the 5 star reviews come from. Just to preface the review, I booked through an agent due to busy work schedules and didn't do my own research on the accoms so could've potentially avoided this place. Long story short, if you're not getting a room with views I'm not sure what you're coming for. If I had to guess by the definition of hotel star ratings, it's a 2 star at best since you should be rating it based on the lowest tier rooms and facilities accessible.

To start off, if you must stay here, please book only premium plus or there's no slippers or dental kits for you. What kind of hotel doesn't provide bedroom slippers for all rooms? 🤔

Pretty bad service from the get go, check in desk freed up and the staff wasn't too interested in helping us check in. Asked her if we could make a reservation for dinner at Alpine (buffet), was told that we had to make a reservation at the restaurant. I went over after check in and was greeted by a sign to do so at reception (no surprise). Ended up calling from my room.

Rooms have very poor fixtures, pretty windy and rainy day when I got here so we could hear the winds howling through both the balcony sliding doors as well as the room front door. Looking at the state of the corridor, there are water stains on the carpets (not shadows, I checked). Doors were clearly pretty aged (maybe same age as the structure circa 1960s?), stepped in to the room to see on the side a badly stained ironing board. Both chairs (brown covers) in the room were heavily stained so we had to sit on the beds that were probably on the verge of being shapeless based on how much it sank when we sat down. Do be careful as these beds are on wheels so no big movements yea? Coffee machine was all dusty so didn't touch it, furnishing like coffee table and bedside table were all clearly aged too and blast from the past wall heater that I didn't really dare to use. At the very least the shower seemed clean with all the white tiles, while the ceiling light in the room clearly showed it hasn't been cleaned in a long while with remnants of an insect carcass right beside it.

On to the Alpine buffet dinner, the cold dish selections were as extensive as your cooked food. I can't say much about the quality of each dish (pretty average I suppose? I did try everything) but I can tell you with confidence to avoid all the cooked food carbs (very very bland, even the pasta), the shroom and lentils wellington to be avoided, the fish wasn't well done and chicken was pretty dry despite swimming in a red/green sauce. Lamb rump was ok, so was the roast beef. I actually liked the potato salad. Mocha was good from the machine on the right (that doesn't have latte) while the types of desserts available was impressive it was still quite average. The seat I had at Alpine restaurant looks like it was stained with bird poop (white streaks on the seat back with red cover) and as stained as the seats in the room. View is great if you're not too distracted by the amount of cobwebs on the structural girders outside the window. 1 extra star for service due to the gentleman who was so fast at clearing the used dishes from our table.

It's honestly my first time posting a review of a hotel with so many photos to avoid people thinking I'm exaggerating.

EDIT: Ok I just might have itchy hands but just found out that blanket is a very thin duvet sandwiched by 2 separate pieces of cloth with unknown hair on both sides of the duvet!! (Please see photos).

EDIT 2: if you're not staying on the top floor, please don't stay here. I was doing my best to be nice when walking on the first floor outside rooms 1xx as the floors are plywood and make alot of noise. I'm staying on the third floor and can hear elephants stomping upstairs, fixtures vibrating with the stomps and many kids crying, laughing, screaming. Must be a good time, sadly just realised the video doesn’t play sounds for some reason? Was so looking forward to sharing the...

Booked this hotel for NZD$268 directly on their website for a standard room in Mount Cook Wing on my honeymoon trip and was sorely disappointed. Was looking forward to this accommodation due to the highly-raved reviews but this whole experience just fell embarrassingly and depressingly short.

Firstly, the wifi does not connect in the room. It only connects in the lobby or corridor and you’ll be unable to connect to it while in the room, which means that I have to use my own roaming data while in the room. The tv is also not a smart tv, which took us by surprise because for much less a night, we were able to stay in so many more motels and hotels across the whole of NZ and could enjoy our netflix shows in peace. There is also no aircon in our room, but thankfully a small standing table fan was provided to help circulate the air in the otherwise stuffy room.

Secondly, the shower water magically switches between scalding hot and freezing cold even though the handle has not been touched or moved throughout the duration of the shower. The sink in the room is also extremely small and one would have to be very cautious while brushing their teeth, washing their face or even washing their hands so as to not splash water all over the floor. There is also no separate switch for the lights and exhaust so we were left shivering because of the cold air while trying to shower after a long day, on top of the unpredictable water temperature. The supposed heated towel bar was not working as well, and our towels were remained cold and damp until the morning. The only source of heat in our room’s toilet was the mirror.

Thirdly, the soundproofing in the room is terrible and I can hear my neighbours’ every movement- be it them shifting their luggage, opening and closing their cupboards or even stirring of their teaspoon in their cups. Not to mention the loud howling of the wind outside of the sliding doors late into the night. Side note: for first floor rooms, they all have a patio outside the sliding doors and they are all connected, which leaves no room for privacy or security.

Lastly, our first impression was unfortunately ruined because of the duty manager Sarina upon our arrival. After a long drive, all we wanted was to check-in asap so that we could rest for a bit before heading out to the stargazing tour that we had booked online previously. However, she did not seem interested at all to help check us in and did not communicate to us that she was in fact checking on something for a tour guide (which we later found out on our own that they were trying to locate some missing item). No one else was there to help us so we stood there for a good few minutes before another duty manager came out, spoke to Sarina about that very case and also completely ignored our presence for the next few minutes, somehow decided that the case can’t be settled and then diverted his attention to us (finally) to help us check in.

All in all, the standard rooms are definitely majorly overdue for renovation and is absolutely not worth the price we paid at all. The silver lining is that we only booked this place for one night and won’t have to put up with this place for any...

Unfortunately we decided to cut our reservation short and leave early, ultimately eating the cost of a night, due to excessive noise issues that significantly impacted our experience and ability to get a quality night of sleep. The disruptions and issues we encountered: Frequent construction noise (hammering, drilling) that occurred on and off from mid afternoon until night time, from somewhere in, or nearby, the wing of the property we stayed in. Considerable lack of insulation and sound proofing between rooms/hallways. Doors slamming shut, hearing neighbors through the walls, large and loud groups of people roaming the halls at all hours. The streams of light coming through all four sides of the room door tell the story.

Early the following morning we very politely expressed our concerns and asked that our reservation be cancelled for the second night. We had no problem at all paying for the first night, but weren’t going to pay for a second day/night just to be as disrupted as we were the first day/night. It was quite frustrating when the general manager Eddie, in a back handed way, dismissed our concerns as being fabricated (“we didn’t have any construction scheduled”, which eventually turned into “our only construction was 100 meters away”) or wouldn’t acknowledge the lack of insulation or excessive hallway noise as being valid concerns. Ultimately Eddie accused us of making these claims up and said we were trying to get out of our reservation due to the weather. We had actually already completed all of the hikes and outside activities we planned to do in the park in the days prior, and were looking forward to relaxing at the property. Eddie encouraged us to do other activities in the hotel (all of which include a fee) such as visit the small museum or their theatre.

Other things guests considering this property should be aware of: Rooms and bathrooms show considerable wear and tear No air unit to run AC resulting in poor circulation which leaves the rooms feeling quite stuffy. Property provides a small floor fan. Depending on your preferences you may or may not enjoy the aroma of laundry exhaust from your balcony, contributing in part to the above issue if your room is near the exhaust area.

While this hotel has a great location in the park, that’s where the positives ended for us. We’re in the third week of a trip around the South Island of New Zealand and this was the worst property we’ve stayed at to this point. Our room comfort and experience felt on par with a low tier, budget motel.

Would highly encourage anyone looking to stay here to instead consider accommodation options in nearby Twizel. It’s about an hour drive into the heart of the park, but room rates are much more reasonable and the accommodations, in our experience, significantly nicer. There are also grocery stores and an abundance of restaurants available. The drive is flat, easy, and low stress with stunning views of Lake Pukaki, not a high stress and challenging drive like you may encounter in other parts of the country.

You can get better value and have a more enjoyable experience staying somewhere else and making the drive...