Freemans Lodge - BBH — Hotel in Waitematā

I had booked accommodation here for four nights via hostelworld.com. I paid a deposit and arrived at the property exactly at the time I told the property that I would be arriving at (3pm). There was not even one staff member at the property to help with check in and so I had to call the owner. (As a side note, what do international guests do who don't have a New Zealand phone??)Originally the room I booked was a twin bed private room with a shared bathroom. The owner tried to tell me on the phone that I was to use a dorm room with 4 bunk beds that didn't have a lock on it. The owner said that a guest had only just broken the lock to the door. I was very very unhappy with this situation as I specifically wanted that type of room.The owner said that he was going to arrive at the property at 4pm to discuss it. I wanted to cancel the booking before he arrived due to him making me wait for an hour, but decided to wait until he arrived to discuss it and see if any alternative arrangements could have been made. When the owner arrived I told him I wasn't going to accept any other room other than the one I booked, especially if there wasn't even a lock on the door. The owner simply told me "Oh well, I guess we can cancel the booking and I won't charge you then." He didn't seem to care at all or even explain to me why my room that I had booked a month ago was suddenly unavailable. I find it outrageous that I have had to pay a deposit and then find accommodation on VERY short notice because this incompetent property owner gave my room away or didn't have it prepared for whatever reason. Additionally, his extremely rude behavior making guests not only wait an hour but offering no solutions or even an apology makes me question if they should be allowed to accept bookings or not if they cannot fulfill their obligations. Now I have to try and get a refund for my deposit through hostelworld and this accommodation provider isn't affected at all. This is a 0/10 accommodation provider as I wasn't even able to check in, had to wait an hour, was left with the burden of a deposit to try and get back and had to find accommodation for 4 nights on very very short notice for...

I stayed here in winter 2015, and I stayed in a room out the back, just by the garden. I didn't have any problems with it. The room was cold at night, but I just simply asked for an extra blanket and it was no problems.

There were some cleaning deficiencies, and I pointed them out to the owner, she was very apologetic, and she had the staff clean it as soon as possible. Probably not the cleanest hostel I have stayed in, but for the price is was fine.

The kitchen was always kept clean by the girls. They were always checking on it, cleaning the oven, and the dishes. The kitchen was small, so when it came to peak times, it was difficult to cook in there.

All the staff seemed to be Japanese, strangely. They were all very nice, your typical Japanese. :)

It's located in a nice quiet part of Auckland, just outside the CBD. There was a convenience store about a 7 minute walk away, which was pricey, there was also a Countdown 15 minute walk away. The CBD was an easy 15 minutes walk.

The Wi-Fi was free, which was rare for Auckland and NZ in general. It was a bit annoying to have to use a time code for it. It was also a little bit hit and miss at times. It was generally good enough for your e-mailing and Facebooking.

One problem I had was with the pricing. On her website, she said it was this price for winter, but when you tried to book that price, it was oh no, it's too busy for that rate. I have too many people. Ok, that's fine, all you have to do was change it on the website, but she didn't want to, because she got so much business from the fake rate. After about 3 weeks of staying there, you would be able to go onto a weekly rate, which was still not as low as the one on the website, but still...

I booked (over a month in advance)a double room which looked ok looking at the pictures on their website. But when we got there it nothing like what I booked. The room we were given was out off the main house and smelled like it hadn't been opened for weeks, smelled damp and musty. There was a sheet & a single bed cover on the double bed, & no towels. We had to ask for them and they gave us a couple of blankets & towels, but we had to go and get them. Some of the blinds never came right down so not private. The toilet and showers were in the main building so had to walk between the two. Pictured is the room we given. At least it did have a heat pump which was needed as there was a very large gap under the door & a gap in between one of the windows. The only thing going for this room it looked pretty clean and was quite.

JUST A WARNING, don't hand your license over to these people, I made this mistake & like me you might not get it back. It is illegal for them to take your license, ok to note it as ID but not aloud to keep it. It will cost you if you live in NZ $40 to get a new one. So what they are doing with my license who knows. Have been given a return address but won't send it back to me. Thinking that court action is going to be nesarsary....