Novotel Rotorua Lakeside Hotel 4.5 stars

Pleasant and comfortable.

In room 229 Thread bear arm chair, split in headboard, mould in bathroom. Mould on the interconnecting door between room 229 and 227. Mould in bathroom 227, No complementary water. Stains on carpets, General tiredness of the rooms compared to the cost. Cleanliness of the changing rooms in pool are was bad.

Had a very difficult time booking my stay, Accor App was not working correctly & would not complete booking process, after 3 attempts on the app & ringing the reception directly went to the Accor website booked successfully but at a more expensive rate than the app advertised. I checked my booking the next day, even though I had received a booking confirmation & reference my booking was deleted, I again rang directly to the hotel I successful booked agin on the website but again it was at a higher rate than advertised on the Accor app. While on the phone I requested the top junior suite with lakeview, I was assured it was booked for me. When I checked in I again asked if I had the top suite I was told yes but we were put on the 4th floor, room 401. Asked room service to drop off a plate & cheese knives but after an hour no show so we headed out for dinner, for a 4 1/2 star hotel I would expect better customer service. Bar staff on the sat night were lovely.

The hotel and rooms were great. The breakfasts were terrible. I presume this is partly because it is usually run as a buffet. We waited 30 mins before anyone took our order. The creamy mushrooms came with no toast despite the menu saying creamy mushrooms on toast. Waited another 20 mins , asked staff twice for toast before getting some after the staff queried why we wanted toast. Orange juice didn't arrive- they had run out by 8.15. One coffee didn't arrive in the hour we were there- only one machine was the excuse. My husband who didn't have to attend a conference like I did, waited 1 2/2 hours for coffee. I didn't bother to even try to have breakfast there the next morning, I couldn't stand the frustration. You really need to sort this out, it ruined what was otherwise a lovely stay.

Nice staff who are friendly & polite & helpful. The room is nice & comfortable.

Been there before and know what to expect and not.Consistency is what I like about my Hotel stays.

breakfast was not good bacon terrible. Our remote wasnt working properly young maori receptionist said he would come up and fix it twice he didnt turn up. The quality of movies unclear and budget not worth the cost. The room and service very good. We enjoyed our stay. Spa an pool lovely and relaxing.

We booked 3 rooms for 6 of us at Novotel Rotorua because you had a bar on site and said the big screen TV would be on in the bar that evening for the rugby etc. However at 7.30 the bar person began packing up and left. She said her shift had finished and the bar wouldn't be reopened. As you can appreciate, we weren't too pleased, and neither were the other 10-12 people in the bar. Not to mention the additional groups of people staying in the hotel who came down into the bar to then discover it was closed. We went to reception and asked if someone else could open the bar. 8.15ish it was reopened for about 10 min. Then just before we went up to get more drinks we realised they had closed it again and she had left. (No announcement that it was closing) 20 min later someone arrived back and opened again and served a few people, but instead of asking anyone else, they just closed again and left before we could reorder. Not very impressed. If we had known we would have stayed elsewhere.

Staff throughout the stay were lovely from start to finish. Our room was clean with very comfortable bed. Older hotel but well kept. Directly across from Eat Street so plenty of food choices.

Unfortunately we didn't enjoy our stay this time round due to mainly the shambles with the breakfast ala carte setup. It was apparent that the staff were either not properly trained or lacked a coordinated approach (or confidence / competency) when taking orders and / or completing simple tasks that were requested of them. Often we had to repeat things and they'd come back with either the wrong food or things we're missing and on the 2nd day we asked 3 times for one of our daughters breakfast to be served and apart from the muesli the mushrooms on toast and granola never came out and we gave up in the end. We also had paid for a buffet setup and whilst we understand why it had been changed to an ala carte setup we we're annoyed to hear that we couldn't request a side of bake beans as part of the dish (on the 2nd breakfast) when on the 1st day it wasn't a problem - so inconsistency with rules and not really appropriate to limit your customers choice (or asking for simple extras) when we'd initially payed for a buffet breakfast when booking the accommodation a while ago. The staff served me breakfast tea in a pot but provided no cup/milk/spoon or sugar - I had to ask twice for this to be provided with long durations each time - we also received an extra take away mocha which was never requested (assumed it must have been meant for another table) but highlighted the muddle up of orders. On the 2nd day our table of 4 only had 2 sets of Knife and Forks so I ended up grabbing from another table as my food was getting cold waiting on the staff to bring some over when this was asked of them. On top of this we were practically the first people to enter for breakfast but had to wait 45mins for the food to be brought out on the 1st day which put us under pressure as we had a trip booked in. On the 2nd day it was about 40min wait and there was only 2 other tables - I'd not want to be dinning when you have a full house as it would be a disaster. The staff while pleasant, seemed to be flustered and we're seen to be racing around all over the place not really knowing who was doing what task and for whom. To be honest both breakfast days (Friday/Saturday) were a stressful experience for us and we've decided to skip Sunday's breakfast (will expect a refund for this day) and go somewhere else as we really don't need the stress. Also locking out the use of the laundry room / service it was quite an inconvenience as we had to find and use a laundry mat which came with it's own hassles. On the first night the movies did not work properly as there was no audio when the movie was played - we were told this sometimes happens and to just choose another movie which was a bit annoying. The next day we advised that the room wifi wasn't working and this was sorted for us and we we're told the movies should be fine now but we tried the same movie (Avengers - End Game) that we wanted to watch and still no audio (Paid twice for this which will need to be refunded). We've always had good experiences in the past so it's disappointing to be having to provide this type of feedback but we think you need to be aware of these things so you can address them.

Great comfy beds, luxurious bed linen. The carpet was so stained it was like living in a student flat

really great executive room, great service, great beds and location and excellent services!

Enjoyable place to stay, great spa pools, rooms, and bar. Easy walk to Eat Street... stayed many times over the years, and always enjoy

Clean tidy room with great views. Breakfast was disappointing with microwaved scrambled eggs and watery coffee. A nice bar with central gas fire, and the spa pools were great and good for easing a tired back after a long drive or round of golf.

Overnight stay to see clients in Rotorua