The Novotel Rotorua Lakeside is well located, close to many tourist activities, easy walks to the lakeside and town amenities and maintains excellent services in the hotel. Their breakfast is excellent, esp their museli. I will return.

Friendly , clean , good location

I’d spent a little more money than usual as it was my Birthday and had travelled for a conference and then wanted to unwind after with a couple of nights at a nicer hotel. I found the room very tired, and basic. It was quite noisey and, the lake view only really showcased the side of the building.

The room was lovely, the breakfast delicious and the spa was a such a treat for the end of a busy day.

Very tired and dated rooms, found rubbish and old bottles under our beds. Bathrooms very dated could do with some modernisation. On the upside breakfast was great, lots to choose from.

We stayed for 3 nights. Rooms were big enough for a family of 4. Facilities were clean, staff were friendly. Buffet breakfast was yum!

We had an amazing time and the staff were incredible

Rooms were great. Bed comfy, rooms warm and clean. Only downside was the wait to check in because reception was unsure if one of the rooms was ready. One system said it was ready but the other system hadnt been updated. Disappointing because I had already advised when they called what time I was arriving. Anyway, a part from that hiccup it was fine and I appreciate you assigning side by side rooms for our stay.

All good. Except breakfast

After calling ahead of booking and being told the lake view rooms were the key to a quiet stay due to Eat Streat getting rowdy on weekends, nothing could have been further from the truth. When we arrived the foyer was chaos, brimming with people who were not able to check in. I approached a woman named Sunny at the desk to check in and wondered why she stated so emphatically and then sought verbal confirmation from me three times during our brief conversation that there would be no refunds. Why would I need a refund? I was soon to find out. Sunny gave us free parking and told us to go for a walk, that she would call us to let us know when our room was ready. We went for a walk for an hour, on return we were told the room still wasn't ready. I desperately needed to use the bathroom and Sunny directed me to the toilets in the foyer. I was disgusted to see after dropping my phone on the floor that the toilet floor was filthy. We stopped at a truck stop toilet on our drive back to auckland that was spotless so I'm not sure why a 4 star hotel wasn't. Ironically, Sunny was immediately able to find a cleaner for the public toilet but not our room. We continued to wait until we were given two more drink coupons and told to go and sit in the bar, which wasn't open. The young man who served us from the restaurant was not ready for service (fair enough the bar wasn't open, it's not his fault) and clearly didn't have training on how to engage with guests that he was about to disappoint, he should probably be given some training in that because nothing was more disappointing than the Novotel Lakeside. 2 hours after we arrived, we were told our room was ready. We went to Room 215, yet another disappointment. In addition to sticky carpet, instead of the lake view I'd been promised before booking, the couch looked out on a wall of other rooms. Our view was of the people who had a view. The only lake that could be seen from the room was if you stood hard up against the desk facing the couch and craned your neck. The bath was grubby (a sign on the wall mentioned stains to ceramic and metal, but the bath was plastic so why was it so stained?) and although I sent an email asking about this and the noise in the room, then asked the trainee on reception face-to-face that evening about when I could expect to receive a response, she replied she would expedite it and that I'd receive a response in the morning, no one ever reached out. Not a soul. We were forced to flee our room on the first night of our stay due to the amusements parked in front of our window. The high pitched screaming of the people on the extremely loud side-show attraction with its pneumatic engine, lights and music which was cranked up between rides drowned out the TV. We went to the bar to use some of the many vouchers we had been bribed with after waiting to check in. The bar was grubby, the windows were covered in smears, a young woman noisily swept her way around the room as if she was trying to be ready to leave the moment her shift ended, the wooden broom clattering on the hard floor and other staff seemed unfamiliar with the usual level of service a 4 star hotel offers. Next came the gendered discrimination, the bartender when faced with more than one customer at the bar deferred to the male guest, who then politely told him that I was there first. Don't assume men have preference, ask politely who was there first. We are equal nowadays, women even have the vote. The next morning I approached Georgia and asked about my email, the trainee I had spoken to the night earlier looked panicked and rushed over to the desk to hear what I was saying. She had not expedited my complaint and had not made Georgia aware of its existence. Flustered and sharing that she was upset that no-one had told her about the complaint, Georgia asked me what the email said, so I gave brief details and told her to read the email. In an instant, she was again offering drinks, coupons, desperately escalating the offer to free bottles of wine, asking what would fix things. I again told her to read my email, which detailed what I thought was an acceptable response to the complaint and reply by return email. I had no appetite for allowing the Novotel's incompetence to yet again interfere with my weekend and preferred to deal with it in writing. What Georgia and the hotel need to understand, is that some people can't be bought with coupons for bottom shelf wine and tap beer. I never heard anything more from any of the staff of the Novotel either in person or by email for the rest of the stay. I did hear the phone ring while I was in the bathroom once, but when I went to check the answerphone there was no message, I checked the on-screen messages because that's what the Pullman overseas uses and that had nothing either, so I chalked that up to a wrong number. I reached out on the first of a three night stay about noise and a dirty bathroom and the staff of the Novotel did nothing in response. I repeatedly tried to have the issue resolved in a way that was satisfactory to myself and my guest. The Novotel, which is more like a 3 star motel than a 4 star hotel, ignored me. If this is how they treat a gold status member, how are the silver card holders treated? I have more than 30 days possible travel coming up over November, which would take my status to Platinum but I have never felt less inclined to book through Accor. I'm simply using the site as a comparative reference.

Hotel felt like it needed a deep clean feeling and appearing dusty. Breakfast was poor staff were rude and it felt unwelcoming we went once and never returned you loss as we had intended to eat there for dinner.

Lovely clean premises, wonderful food - especially breakfast and a comfortable stay

We have been staying here for more than ten years , as always immaculately clean , great beds , fair price for food , fab location and establishment you can trust to deliver unlike so many Rotorua hotels , yes Millenium great too , but Wai Ora shocking with drug housing guests( and dirty with rude staff ) , we always book one of these but got sidetracked with Wai Ora’s photos and boy oh boy what a mistake , thank you Novotel for always being you , we did the breast cancer topless swim fundraiser, we will be back more times in the year and next year maybe with many other breast cancer survivors Your staff are as always truly wonderful, also not far from Wai ariki spa which is truly amazing ( thank you also to Herbs and spices Thai )

The stay was good. The rooms were well kept and vibe of the general hotel was good. The only downside was the breakfast buffet. The options are very limited especially for someone who doesn’t eat beef and pork, there is no alternative meat option, I think if there was baked beans or spaghetti or any other ‘hot breakfast item’ to compensate it would have been okay. On the first day of the buffet (Saturday) there were no labels for the food so we had to guess and also ask staff which is hard when it’s busy. The gluten free area was not well separated from the gluten food and was a huge risk for gluten free/ celiac people. Otherwise, the staff were friendly, the rooms were clean and check in and check out was easy.

The location and room was very good but the bathroom was very poor - damaged and worn.

Great customer service, clean and well presented foyer. The room was quite dated, the walls are thin, could here the TV in the next room. The batteries were flat in the TV remote, we called but then had to go and pick up the batteries at reception as there was no one to deliver them to our room.

Good hotel in a great location. Only downside was aging bathroom.

Like the stay with your hotel but some small improvements can be made.

I booked an accessible room for myself, my daughter and our carer. The beds were great, clean and comfortable. However the bathroom, buffet and cleanliness made for a difficult stay. The bathroom sink was cracked and poorly repaired, the shower bench was unstable, dirty and needed a good scrub, the sink was blocked and flooded the bathroom after every use, the cups were marked and tasted like they weren't cleaned properly, the walls had residue on them, the bathroom fixtures were rusted & worn down, the shower head sprayed all over the place etc. There were also issues with the air conditioner, it didn't lower the temperature of the room and when you're adjusting to a different climate, that's challenging and made us uncomfortable. The buffet was fine but compared to other novotels was actually lacking with limited options and bland food. The staff were lovely, I appreciated every interaction with them as they were impeccable hosts who did everything they could to make us feel comfortable and welcome. The housekeepers we engaged with were also respectful, thorough and seemed really good at what they do. Free laundry service was appreciated, and the thermal pools kept me sane. Generally grateful to have had the stay, but also want to comment on the state of the room specifically because accessible rooms are never available at any kind of discounted rate or package (like breakfast included) as other specials would be. There's an element of exploitation in this, where those with accessibility needs are left to deal with lower standards than those afforded to others, simply because they have no choice. In this regard, I'd expect a chain like Accor to maintain the same high standard as they would for others.