Silver Fern Rotorua Suites & Spa

My family tried to stay here for two nights. The moment we got here and started unpacking our bags, we noticed how strong the sulfur smell was inside the rooms. While it seems like the smell of rotten eggs is part of the charm of Rotorua (nothing against that), the smell seemed even stronger inside the rooms. The presence of an air filter would be appreciated. This by far is the dirtiest hotel we’ve stayed in - and we’re quite used to traveling. There was a layer of dust in the bathroom, hair all over the floor and some in the shower, hair in my bed, dirt in my sisters bed, dirt on the chairs, a film of dirt on the tables. When we complained to the receptionist, he said there was no other rooms available for the night. He said all he could do was vacuum and sweep for us. This room needed more than that - it needed a deep clean. The mirrors were filthy and the bathroom mirror seemed to have black spots (black mold?) in the corner from a lack of cleaning. After a bit of back-and-forth, the receptionist managed to get us another, smaller room. We had originally booked a two-bedroom - they wanted to now give us a one bedroom with a lounge bed. This room was just as dirty as the first one - we didn’t even get around to checking the beds but from the unclean carpets that similarly to the first one looked as if they’ve not been vacuumed in weeks and the film of dust/dirt on the tables and chairs, we decided enough was enough. We didn’t even stay one night. We packed up our stuff and left, finding another (much cleaner!) hotel for the night. If you value cleanliness, please don’t choose to stay here. We’re currently in the process of trying to get a refund for the two nights we’ve decided we cannot possibly stay. This place marketed itself as a relaxing, 5-star hotel. This was probably one of the most stressful experiences we’ve had in NZ. I would also like to point out I’m always very hesitant to leave a 1-star review - I know how it can impact a business. This place deserved it, as it really seemed like the absolute bare minimum was done for cleaning. We were extremely disappointed as it seemed so highly reviewed.

We booked a family one bedroom suite with spa pool. Not the best experience. While the receptionist was friendly, the “suite” itself was a disappointment. Flies greeted us the moment we entered the suite and they were circling the queen bed that was in the living room - we took them down with our antiseptic spray. The bathroom facilities were old and shower was largely cold water with occasional spurt of hot - heating was not good. No wonder the receptionist had commented, “You might want to use the in-room spa to keep warm.” Because only the spa (ie the big bathtub) had hot water. The big bathtub itself did not look clean despite me running hot water in it. End up all of us did not dare to use it and opted to go outside to another spa instead. There is only one air conditioning for the entire suite. Which means if you’re staying in the bedroom with single beds, you only have a ceiling fan. No point opening the side door because that leads to the “in-room spa” which is covered and has a smell. Hence only way out is to leave your door open and share the air conditioning with the living room. Finally the beds were all not good condition. Queen bed in living room - both sides you can feel the hard springs popping out. So fortunately only one person slept on it and could sleep in middle. The two single beds in bedroom were overly soft - such that if you’re not careful, either side could give way and you’d slide to the floor. This unfortunately happened for a senior that slept on one of these beds - which caused injury. We just came from a four star hotel in Auckland where we had a pleasant experience. We chose Silver fern as it’s a five star accommodation and had good ratings on booking sites. While I understand rotorua’s accommodation standards may be much lacking in general, I couldn’t help but feel we were at a 3 star hotel. We have stayed at service apartments before but never this standard.