Distinction Hotel, Rotorua

With hundreds of hotels spanning across town, hotels have to be competitive to be featured in the top. Distinction Hotel is a 4 star rated hotel, while there are many other 4 star properties located here, the only hotel that could truly be a competitor is the newly opened Pullman by ALL Accor and the chain hotel Rydges by EVENT.

Distinction Hotel is located 5 minutes drive away from the town centre and within a minute from the famous geyser and cultural experience "Te Puia". The hotel has a large outdoor swimming pool and a spa, and an indoor grotto spa.

CHECK IN:

As it is a long weekend here, and we are checking in on a Sunday, there was a fairly long queue while many guests were left waiting in the lobby as the housekeeping team rush to get all the rooms ready from the previous night stay. About 20 minutes of queuing later, we manage to check in fairly quickly as we've booked directly through the phone and we paid by buying a voucher through GrabOne in advance (NZ's version of Groupon).

ROOM:

We've booked a Deluxe Twin room as I am travelling with my family. I was planning to stay separately at the newly open Pullman, however the rate was fairly steep. As we enter the room, the door was left open waiting for us. Entering the room shows a bed that's not fully made, while the other one was done. We unload our luggage and a minute later housekeeping knocked on our door, he came in and finish making the bed for us. The room has a large 42" TV, work desk, mini bar, 2 lounge chair and an average size bathroom with a bathtub.

Apart from the usual amenities such as coffee and tea, there's also some additional blanket and pillows left in the closet. I wanted to put my valuables in the safe as we were going to go to the hot springs spa bath, but one of the battery got taken out, so I put it back in and I realised that someone locked it and I couldn't unlock it to use it.

Since the hot springs don't provide towels, we took the hotel towels instead. After coming back, I called up reception to request for a fresh set of towels and the receptionist didn't sound too happy about it, she said "don't your room already have towels?", I said yes but we used it when we went to the spa, she responded "I'll make a note". Since Rotorua is well known for the spa bath, I assumed we are not the first one that took the hotel towels to the spa. After more than half an hour, we got a fresh set of towels from housekeeping. It's not too much to ask for in my opinion, it may cost the hotel a dollar more to wash the 2 extra towels.

The water pressure in the shower is intense, water splashing outside the tub even with the shower curtain closed. The entire bathroom floor is soaking wet when someone goes to the shower. The toilet flush isn't great, I'm not sure if it's the piping of the building or the toilet flush design is flawed, but only a few pieces of toilet paper seem to be getting through, it took several flushes to get it down completely. If anyone is doing a large number 2, they might have to flush it a dozen times.

As we were sitting in the room, noises started coming from the air conditioning unit. It sounded like a sea animal crying, it happens every couple of minutes which will not be very pleasant for someone like me who is a light sleeper. It was set to "dry" mode when we got in, there's also heating and cooling modes. I tried the heating and it was rather effective, but the problem comes when I set it to cooling. I thought it would be cold so initially I set it to 24 degrees, but it wasn't doing anything so I lowered it all the way to 21 which should be pretty cooling but nothing happened either, the air conditioning unit didn't even seem to turn on most of the night, otherwise the noise would be audible. I didn't play with it too much as it was already bed time and we have another early morning. There are several other maintenance issues such as several light bulbs not working throughout the room and bathroom.

Under the bed was a snack packaging left there, I am aware that housekeeping was very busy with the turnaround, so I am not going to blame them since majority of the room is done fairly well. Soundproofing is not great, I can hear people talking as they walk along the hallway, the doors are very heavy when closing so you can hear those closing above or below the floor.

BREAKFAST:

Our voucher for the room also includes breakfast for 2. Anyone without a breakfast included in their room can buy it in the restaurant for $25. Breakfast was buffet style, with a good variety of choices including hot food such as bacon, sausages, baked beans, fruit, yogurt and smoothie bar, an assortment of bread and a cheese bar. You can also get fresh chef prepared eggs. It is not too expensive as I do know other hotels could charge over $30 for a buffet breakfast, while offering similar or fewer choices.

CONCLUSION:

I am fairly disappointed by the attitude of some of the staff working here and the several maintenance issues presenting throughout the room. I know that Covid-19 have had a severe impact to the tourism industry, while that's the case, New Zealand has recovered fairly well and many people are travelling locally, with the majority of the hotels here booked out this long weekend. During the quiet period, they would have had the opportunity to do some maintenance work, things like lightbulb are not expensive so there's no reason they can't get that sorted out.

This hotel is fairly large as well, while the lobby separates 2 different sections that house different types of rooms. The hotel has a bar, 2 or 3 restaurants (one seems to not be in operation anymore) and a beauty salon.

Would I be coming back to stay here? Only if it is dirt cheap and there aren't any other good options. Since there are plenty of other hotels around, I wouldn't necessarily say that they have impressed me that much that I would be back.