Lake Tekapo Holiday Homes — Local services in South Island

The check-in process was easy and the key had to be picked up from the office before going to specific holiday home. We had the Garden Retreat holiday home. It's a 2 storey house with the lower floor given out and owners staying on the upper floor. The owners have paid a lot of attention in the Garden and it shows that. It's beautiful. The entry/exit into the front yard is via a two door wooden gate which is not motorised and needs to be opened/closed manually. The lawn is lush green and was wonderful for the kids to play around or for basking under the sun for adults. The backyard also provides a partial beautiful view of the Alps. The overall room sizes including the bathroom is good. The property was clean. It has a single bathroom and an adjacent toilet. The shower area has a special dial style mixer which I have never seen so was a good surprise and works very well. The laundry is provided in a room adjacent to the kitchen on the outside. It has no dryer but there's a large clothes line and rack available for drying clothes. We didn't miss the dryer. No extra toilet rolls or bin packets were provided however on a quick visit to the reception, both items were provided promptly. A little suggestion to the housekeeping staff to always leave these items in extra supply at the property. Large bins were provided and so one has to empty the appropriate trash into appropriate bins before checkout.

Each room has a heater and the corridor also is equipped with a split aircon. The beds and pillows were comfortable. The staff at holiday home reception are helpful and friendly. If you venture out in the evening after its dark you will see lots of rabbits outside the property.

While the property certainly has a fantastic character to it we found the kitchen to be outdated but it was functional. The owners should certainly update the utensils, serving spoons, cooktop, exhaust and the fridge.

For a quick clean only a dust brush/pan is provided no long stick broom. So would recommend the management to provide a long stick broom as well.

We would certainly come back to Lake Tekapo Holiday Homes on...

The apartment wasn’t very tidy upon arrival. The hotel says it charges $50NZ if your dishes aren’t done/the room isn’t clean. However, there were plenty of dead bugs stuck to either side of the blinds in the kitchen and lounge room, cobwebs/bugs in the lounge room corner, masses of cobwebs and bird poo on the balcony and at the front door.

In terms of service… We were initially really grateful that the property was able to book us in for an extra night after we arrived a day early. There was obviously a miscommunication because they brought our booking forward, rather than extending it and keeping our checkout date. We were charged $50 for a “late checkout” the day before we intended to leave. We received no updated itinerary via email or the booking app indicating our checkout date changed. Because we booked for another night rather than actually checking out, we asked the fee be refunded. We weren’t upset or looking to blame anyone as it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was frustrating this miscommunication wasn’t even acknowledged and they then thought they could keep the charge because of the inconvenience we apparently caused them. The response to requesting the fee be refunded was no, because time spent on us “was valuable”. The hotel called us twice in 20 minutes and sent one text, it took me 20 minutes to realise we had missed the calls and 2 minutes on the phone to clarify and book the third night. Apparently, the fee is transferable: speaking with guests/managing mishaps isn’t in their job description, it’s worth $50 minimum. We disputed the charge through our bank and the booking app, and got...

Stay in the Ashley Height house of Lake Tekapo Holiday homes. So far, this is best holiday home we stay since Jan 17. We stayed here for 2N3D. The minute we step into the house, we all love it. It’s very nice and clean like a home. There are 3 Bedrooms-1 Master and 2 Twins. The bedrooms look great and comfy. The living room is spacious, the kitchen has a dinning table for 6. In addition, the kitchen are well equipped with silverware, cookware (looks clean enough that we feel safe to used it to cook a good homemade dinner.), it also has a microwave, gas stove top with electric oven, dish washer. The entrance has a washer and dryer with 3 pack of laundry powder. This is the only Holiday house that equipped with both washer and dryer so we don’t have to worry about where to hang the clothes after washed. There’s a full bathroom and a toilet with sink. The bathroom are so clean and spacious. Even the toilet are clean and big, too. The WIFI...