Misleading Info: No View but a lot of Cushions
I know, I should not complain too much if I can stay for free when I accompany my husband on a business trip... ;-) But I still dare to! :-)
This was one of those stays that annoyed me because the Crowne Plaza does not give you any hint on its homepage that at least 50 per cent of their rooms at the lakefront location in Queenstown have no lakeview at all. So if you ever book there make sure that you get a room with lakeview. Otherwise it is absolutely not worth spending your dollars for rooms with a view of a courtyard and the concrete backside of the hotel's front building with the rooms that have a view.
On the website it reads: "The 139 guest rooms are located over seven graduated floors, the layout allowing each room to maximise the privacy of its individual balcony and enjoy the views of beautiful Lake Wakatipu, the surrounding mountains or the private central courtyard." I think this is hugely misleading although, of course, it reads that you might have just one of the mentioned views. The two letter word "or" makes all the difference.
The rooms, though, are very nice and big, and you will find more attractive cushions on the beds than in any TV programme about home makeovers - although we missed the boomerang cushion that was noted in the description sheet of the cushions ;-) Really! The beds, however, have very soft matrasses, and we both woke up with back pain.
We had flat-screen TV but only one chair and one armchair with footrest in a room with two beds for three people.
The bath tub into which you have to climb to take your shower was extremely slippery, and there was no toilet brush. The bathroom door was shabby because obviously the floor is always flooded from the bath/shower. The reason for this: It has only a curtain. The solution: They have chopped off the bottom of the doors, so you can have a conversation with the person sitting on the toilet even if the door is closed... ;-)
The room rates vary every day, you have to check them out on the internet for the dates you require them. But nothing under NZ$ 200.
Unique Quality: All rooms have balconies (which very obviously all have had to be resealed), so you can enjoy the view of the backside of the front building, or watch the people who have coffee in the courtyard (if there are any...).
Fast internet access costs NZ$ 0,69 per minute - but the daily limit is $39... Really cheap ;-)
In smaller hotels and motels you often get this for free.
Photo 2: Impressive cushion collection on the bed.
Photo 3: A partial lake view from one of the rooms when my husband was on another trip to Queenstown...
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