Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier

The hotel was good, with an easy check-in and a nice breakfast, and it also hosts a lot of tour groups. I stayed just one night, March 2nd. My rating is for the Standard room, which was in a separate building and very basic, more like a budget 70's motel. I got a great rate, and it was all that was available then. Just be aware that the Standard room isn’t like the rooms mentioned in many of the other reviews.

The included three-course dinner was a highlight after a long day of travel. The lamb was very tender without a gamey taste, and the salmon was soft and fresh. In the morning, the weather cleared during our short stay and we got some lovely photos of the nearby glacier mountains. We had a clean, comfortable connecting room on the second floor. There’s no lift, but a staff member helped our family carry our heavy bags both at check-in and check-out, which made a big difference. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful. We were on a New Zealand tour, and this was one of the more country-style hotels we stayed in, a pleasant and comfortable stop in Franz Josef.

There’s no air-conditioning or lift, and our deluxe room looked out onto the coach park. Coach groups seem to make up much of the hotel’s business, so the restaurant gets very busy. The food was average, and the staff seemed mostly focused on clearing up. It’s a basic hotel.

The location is good and the rooms were presented fairly well, but service could be better. We called room service at night for a bottle opener and were told it would be brought up. After waiting 30 minutes, nobody came. There’s no view from the room either, just the road.